Removing A Stain On Glass Coffee Table: Suggestions ?

vinegar

And fine steel wool.

i would start with a paper towel, soaked with vinegar, and just sit it in the stain................... soften the whole mess up!

"Robert11" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

If it is just a mineral deposit, then any acid will remove them (CLR, even vinegar). However, the water that goes through soil is usually acidic enough to etch the glass itself -- you will probably need to replace the glass.

Try some Bar Keeper's friend.

RB

Robert11 wrote:

The glass may have been etched by the water itself or from whatever it leached from the soil. If so, and the etching is minimal, polishing might remove the marks.

Auto supply stores sell such polishing compounds for use on windshields. In this area the commercial window cleaners use them as well on windows etched by the reclaimed water used in the lawn sprinkler systems.

Marty

This is complete BS. Glass is impervious to *every* acid that's found in a typical household, and *most* acids that are found in chemistry labs.

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

you could try some bon ami to clean the Glass and see if that takes care if it

Wayne

Just saw an program on the tube about car shows, so take this with all the ideas being suspect.....sponsors, ya know. They used a Meguiars (sp) chrome polish to take out scratches on acrylic headlight covers, then went back with a glass cleaner. Seemed to work on camera, but it usually looks great when wet, and different when dry. Although after using the glass cleaner I would say that it was dry at that point.

Dave

snipped-for-privacy@milmac.com (Doug Miller) wrote in news:1uVHb.19439$P% snipped-for-privacy@newssvr28.news.prodigy.com:

What a nice, sweeping statement, but one that just isn't true. There are many chemicals in the average home that will etch glass, including hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide. Not all glass is identical, and some glass formulations are more resistant to chemical etching than others

-- a glass tabletop isn't made from the same glass as a chemical beaker.

Water that has passed through soil *can* etch glass. The usual culprit isn't an acid, but a base -- sodium hydroxide (lye). Even a weak solution can noticeably etch a glass tabletop if given enough time.

Doug,

Most folks have been taught that only hydrofluoric acid will etch glass. While this may be true for pure silicon dioxide you need to realize that there are many impurities in commonly used glass, frequently metals, that are easily affected by other more common acids or bases that are found in cleaning compounds and foods. Look at what repeated washing of some glass dishes in a dishwasher can do to that glass.

RB

Doug Miller wrote:

Glass is impervious to acids, yes, but not to alkaline substances. Minerals in the water may very well have etched the glass, and acid won't help the situation, though it may not hurt. You could try vinegar or toilet bowl cleaner, but you may have a permanent mark.

HCl *won't* etch glass -- try it some time -- and NaOH isn't an acid, last I checked.

Please read what I wrote again. I didn't say anything about bases, did I?

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

That etching is caused by bases, not by acids. Read what I wrote.

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

Doug,

What he said was that HCl and NaOH are chemicals found in the average home. A true statement.

Further, while HCl won't attack SiO2 it is capable of dissolving or reacting with impurities found in some glasses and thereby staining the material.

RB

Doug Miller wrote:

snipped-for-privacy@milmac.com (Doug Miller) wrote in news:LugIb.19648$P% snipped-for-privacy@newssvr28.news.prodigy.com:

That's still not true:

In the many laboratories I've worked in or been associated with we always used glass bottles and Pyrex glassware for concentrated (36%) and dilute HCl. Never a sign of etching that I can recall.

Also, reagent grade HCL was supplied in glass bottles. It's unlikely that they would have done that if it was reacting with the glass.

"Martin" wrote in news:VVjIb.901$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net:

It depends on the type of glass -- laboratory grade containers are formulated specifically to have low reactance to acids. There are many formulations of glass that should never be exposed to acid; I doubt that coffe table glass was specially mixed to be acid reistant.