# Float Glass



## white_sw (29 Sep 2009)

Can anyone tell me where I can get float glass ? I have tried 3 glazers in Bristol now. One of them explained to me
that float glass is used in very old buildings and has a rippled effect on it. The other 2 told me that it is standard
window glass which is 4mm thick. I thought this glass was rolled, not floated ? I really want it thicker (maybe 8-10mm)
and rounded over on the edges. They can get it thicker (6mm or 10mm) but at a cost of around £100 per square
meter. :shock: But are unable to round it over on the edges.

I want a piece about 750mm x 300mm so I can set it onto a thick MRMDF base and then framed. Hang it on the wall
out of the way when not in use.

Any advice please ?

Cheers,
Sam


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## OPJ (29 Sep 2009)

While not to the size that you require, I know you can buy 10mm thick sheets from Workshop Heaven.


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## chill (29 Sep 2009)

I think you have been given some poor info by your glaziers.
Float glass is readily available at all glass merchants in a variety 
of thicknesses, it is a process developed by Pilkingtons in the 1950`s
where molten glass is floated on a bed of molten tin,and then fed through 
rollers giving a very flat sheet of glass in various thicknesses.A good merchant should also be able to grind and or polish the edges for you. Avoid tempered, heat treated, heat soaked,toughened etc as these processes introduce uneven surfaces. I was quoted £35 for a similar
size piece a couple of years ago

HTH Chris


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## Ironballs (29 Sep 2009)

As Chris and Olly say, and stay well away from that chap who calls himself a glazier and says float glass is old and has a rippled effect, wrong on both counts!


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## woodbloke (29 Sep 2009)

Float glass is easy to obtain at a decent glaziers...don't get it toughened though (as others have said) as this causes distortions - Rob


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## white_sw (29 Sep 2009)

I'll have a phone round a few more from the yellow pages and see what they say....

Cheers,
Sam


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## xy mosian (29 Sep 2009)

I walked into the biggest double glazing manufacturer around here and asked if they had any off-cuts. Once I explained what is was for a lovely piece turned up on the desk.  

xy


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## Ironballs (29 Sep 2009)

What was it for?


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## Philton (29 Sep 2009)

Hi,

I use the Cardiff branch of Roman Glass who I always find knowledgable, they have several branches in Bristol.
http://www.romanglass.co.uk


Phil


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## xy mosian (29 Sep 2009)

Ironballs, sorry 200mm x 900mm, ish, x 10mm for plane sole flattening. The edges were nowt to write home about but an old carborundum stone soon sorted that. I should say that this particular place also did new glass for shop frontages.

Sometimes being cheeky pays off, especially if you choose a time when they are not full of customers.

xy


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## mickthetree (29 Sep 2009)

Hey Sam

I got a piece 700mm x 400mm x 10mm and it was £15 with the edges beveled from my small local high street glazier.

Hope that helps as a guide.


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## white_sw (29 Sep 2009)

Just spoken to Roman glass and they tell me that Float Glass is regular window glass. Quoted me about £30 for a piece 750mm x 300mm x 10mm.

Spoken to Price Glass. They tell me it is a special glass that has to be ordered. Used for shop display windows. They have quoted £23.53 which sounds a better price to me.

Is regular window glass refered to as float glass ??

Cheers,
Sam


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## dickm (29 Sep 2009)

I'd be surprised if *any* glass that you buy from a glazier wasn't float! I think the process is almost universal for glass making now.
My daughter works for Pilkingtons, and took me round one of their US plants a few years ago. Quite impressive seeing sheets of glass about 20m wide being cut "off the roll" so to speak. And I think they said it costs about $1m per day if they have to shut down the process and everything cools!


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## chill (29 Sep 2009)

> Is regular window glass refered to as float glass ??



yes


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## BradNaylor (29 Sep 2009)

chill":1imcj7ag said:


> > Is regular window glass refered to as float glass ??
> 
> 
> 
> yes



Pretty well all glass available these days is made using the 'float' process, developed by Pilkingtons in the 1950's, as others have pointed out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Float_glass

Any glazier will be able to sell you an offcut in a range of thicknesses - 4mm, 6mm, 8mm, 10mm and more. To get it with polished edges however, you will need to go to a glass _processer_; there is usually at least one of these in most large towns. Small glaziers generally do not have the facility to polish the edges of glass - it requires a special machine.

I would recommend having the edges polished for your purposes. Apart from looking a lot nicer it eliminates the chances of nicking a finger on a sharp edge.

Cheers
Brad


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## Anonymous (29 Sep 2009)

If you're after the float glass for the scary sharp method then I've got a few pieces that I've been meaning to offer on here. Don't have measurements with me at the moment. They seemed a pretty good shape to me when I was considering doing it.

Let me know if you're interested.

Just another thought....again if you're after sharpening have you seen the granite chopping boards you can get in the supermarkets these days? Tenner a piece from memory. Again they look like a pretty good size for sharpening.

Dave


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## Dave S (29 Sep 2009)

I've mentioned this before but, I went into a place near us which does stone worktops, glass display cases for shops etc. I asked if they had any offcuts and they offered me a choice of pieces. Didn't cost me anything.

cheers
Dave


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## SeanG (29 Sep 2009)

Sam, JB Glazing on Filton Avenue will have it, when I went in there were a few 4 or 4 mm pieces on the offcut pile, if you want a specific thickness or size you may have to wait for the right piece to be left over though. good luck


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## white_sw (30 Sep 2009)

DustyDave, yes, it is being used for the scary sharp system, along with lapping of plane soles. That's why I am looking for a piece of 750mm length so I can lap the longest of planes. I also want it for the process of flattening machined parts for my engineering projects.

SeanG, I'll give JB Glazing a call later today and see what they say. Is that the place opposite the Fellowship pub ? I'm trying to remember back to my collage days when I used to live on Filton Avenue.

Thanks everyone for the advice.

Cheers,
Sam


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## chill (30 Sep 2009)

Hi Sam, if they don`t offer a polishing service use a piece of carborundum
stone to take off the sharp edges.

HTH Chris


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## white_sw (30 Sep 2009)

JB Glass have got my business. Very knowledgble. Asked me what I wanted it for. Explained sharpening and before I could finish, they were spouting off the scary sharp system to me.... So I'm very confident I am going to get exactly what I want and all for 25 quid.

Sam


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## SeanG (1 Oct 2009)

Sam, They are opposite The Fellie, and have a little car park round the back you can use. I don't know if it's still going on, but there were roadworks by The George recently that made that end of Filton Avenue one way - you could not get onto it from the ring road traffic lights.

How did the planer blades go at Crescent Universal? I was going to nip up there on Saturday with a pair for sharpening and balancing.


Good luck with the sharpening

Sean


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## white_sw (1 Oct 2009)

The prices and service I thought was good at Crescent Universal. However, I didn't have anything to compair them against.
Took me ages to find them. Don't think they are open at the Weekend. It's not like they are a shop, just a engineering unit on 
the trading estate. I've got a couple of saw blades I need to take in. I'll cycle there this time as they are right on the cycle path
through Fishponds.

Here is a link to Google Maps for their unit. They are the green arrow.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&sourc ... 4&t=h&z=19

Cheers,
Sam


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## jlawrence (1 Oct 2009)

slightly the wrong side of Bristol for me, but worth knowing about if I'm in that area.
I need to pop into a few of the cabinet makers around here and find out where they get their blades resharpened.


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## heimlaga (1 Oct 2009)

A brief and maybe faulty history of window glass:

-In the old days window glass was blown. A bubble was blown by mouth and stretched lenghtwise and cut open and flattened on a straw mat. The product is easily recognized by it's uneven thickness and wavy and uneven appearance. On the cheap quality favoured by farmers in my area one can see prints left by the straw mat. It often har plenty of stresses in it and consequently cracks easily. The cheaper quality often was a bit greenish in colour.

-Then came rolled glass. It can be recognized by slight corrugations all over the surface. They all run in the same direction all over the sheet. They can be seen from an angle but are invisible when looking straight through. Often there are minor bubbles especially in post-war products when all machinery had deteriorated during the war.

-Then came float glass. All modern window glass is floatglass....to my knowledge.


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## OPJ (1 Oct 2009)

jlawrence":39rfu54n said:


> slightly the wrong side of Bristol for me, but worth knowing about if I'm in that area.
> I need to pop into a few of the cabinet makers around here and find out where they get their blades resharpened.



Jon, for what it's worth, I used to work for a firm in Backwell who had their blades and tooling sharpened by EPS (Edwards Precision Saw) in Taunton. It was more convenient (and cost-effective) for them to have the EPS guy pay a visit once a week to pick up one set of blunt blades and replace with the ones which had been freshly sharpened since his last visit. You may find that some of the larger firms in your area (Badmans are the only one I can think of right now :roll do something similar. 

I'm not aware of many lone cabinet makers down your way either. You may have better luck going a little deeper in to Somerset, where I've come across several names in the past.


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## jlawrence (2 Oct 2009)

There's a couple of workshops in the same industrial estate as the 'wood recycling" place. I'll pop in and ask them next time I'm there.
Taunton's not a problem as I tend to pop down there at least once a month to visit the cricket.


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## white_sw (6 Oct 2009)

Thanks everyone for the advice. JB Glazing came up trumps with the glass I wanted and they polished the edges too.
Looks like a glass shelf now, to good to use. :lol: If anyone else needs glass, I can highly recommend their service and
knowledge. Plus they were the cheapest too. Everywhere else wanted the price I paid without the polished edges.

Cheers,
Sam


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