Small glass doors

[Tim Streater]

We inherited a glass-fronted bookcase on teh demise of SWMBO's old man; it has a pair of sliding doors. Each door slides in a groove and has a cm wide finger hold ground in it so you can get your nails in and slide the door along. [1]

Years ago a dragon or similar took a bite out of one of the doors and, as it left the piece of glass behind, FiL araldited it back in place. Now we feel like replacing that door, but were told at the glass shop that grinding that type of finger hold into a glass door isn't done anymore. I could see that not being the thing to do with such as laminated glass, but are there some regs about that these days? What might one use instead?

[1] Does that type of finger-hold have a name, does anyone know?

[John Rumm]

You could probably cut it yourself using intaglio style engraving with a copper wheel[1]. Usually done with the wheel mounted on a fixed spindle, and a carborundum grinding paste mixed with a little oil and paraffin. You apply the paste to the wheel with a finger, then offer up the glass. The copper is soft enough to carry the abrasive to the work.

[1] usually some sheet or bar cut up into rounds that can be mounted on a mandrill or arbour - it is easy to then file into the required profile.

[Jeff Layman]

What about using - very carefully - a fine conical stone in a Dremel? The drill could be held parallel to the glass and the "base" of the cone slowly pushed down to cut a finger hold. It would be worth trying with a scrap piece of glass first just to see if it was possible.

[Brian Gaff]

I have doors like that on a sideboard. The drawback is that they rattle as you walk past. Some sticky foam valour stuff fixed it. I don't see why that cannot be done any more as the indentation is frosted from what I can tell. I guess you could replace them all with ones with screw on knobs. Brian

[nothanks]

Make a hardwood edging piece with the desired finger hold or knob, cut a groove in one side to suit the glass thickness, stain/varnish the wood to match the rest of the bookcase and then glue it onto the edge of the glass. You might even keep the old door because the wooden edge could cover the damage.

[Brian]

It could be they don’t / can’t do it.

Equally, it could be it could be difficult in toughed glass.

You could try gluing handles onto the glass, using the glue used for rear view mirrors.

[Jeff Layman]

It can't be toughened glass as the OP referred to something taking a bite out of it. Toughened glass breaks into thousands of small pieces once it suffers any damage.

[Tim Streater]

The original glass was just ordinary glass. When I asked the glass-chap about such a finger hold in toughened/laminated glass he confirmed what I suspected: that for that sort of glass it wouldn't be possible.

[Jeff Layman]

It's most certainly impossible after the glass has been toughened. I think it would also be impossible to toughen ordinary glass with a fingerhold in it, as the stresses involved around the fingerhold would be too great. The glass would self-destruct when it cooled below a certain point.

[Theo]

I suppose it's all safety glass nowadays, so ordinary glass isn't used.

I think you would be able to grind that kind of finger hold into acrylic (perspex) fairly straightforwardly if that's an option? You'd have to do it slowly to avoid melting.

Maybe polycarbonate (which is stronger) too, although not so sure about that.

The main thing about plastic (especially acrylic) is they're more prone to scratching.

Theo

[Tim Lamb]

Presumably you could diamond grind a finger hole in laminated glass? Not quite what was asked but an alternative to gluing tabs on.

A cab glaze company stores glass in one of my barns. Arrives as *Dutch Light* sheet, 730x1422mm!

[Animal]

Obviously it's possible, it's already been done. And since you can buy mirrors with holes there are still companies doing it.

[Tim Streater]

We weren't talking about holes, we were talking about a shallow slot ground into the glass.

[Peter Johnson]

There's a minimum size for doing toughened glass, as I found out when I wanted some sub-A4 pieces a few years ago. The glass merchant suggested using float glass, 5mm thick, which was chamfered, which must have been done by hand because every piece is different, which makes me wonder why a finger grip couldn't be ground into it. I'd suggest to the OP that he tries a different glass merchant and mentions float glass, assuming the slots in his cabinet are 6mm wide.

As an alternative, the glass could be replaced by ply stained or coloured to taste.

[Animal]

equally obviously possible.

[The Natural Philosopher]

What you do us grind the groove in to ordinary float or plate glass and THEN get it toughened. Should be possible to get a galls form to do that for you.

[The Natural Philosopher]

He is talking bollox. My shower enclosures were specially made. Drilled, milled and THEN toughened.

Go to a better glass place. That supplies the trade

[The Natural Philosopher]

I see no reason why it shouldn't be toughened.

[The Natural Philosopher]

+1001