Technical Custom cut glass, what should I expect for quality?

Unfortunately, only one real way to prove that a piece of glass is TEMPERED.

 

But it has been seemingly successfully sanded by the op. Do we therefore deduce that it's not been tempered, as it sure seems that way?

 

Tempered glass is a spl glass that is formed &/or cut to size, then heated to a specific temp & cooled. Don't think you can un-temper it, although I've never tried. If tempered glass is finished correctly, the edges will be smooth & shiny as the sides. Disrupt the edge by scratching or sanding & sooner or later(sometimes maybe like "right now"), when the surface-tension gets disrupted enough, the glass shatters into little chunks.

Laminated glass will have 2 pieces of glass w/a plastic layer between them. Can cut, sand, etch, etc, w/o destroying the piece(cutting it wrong here doesn't count... ). When broken it will fracture in lines or starburst(s), but stay together, usually only one side breaks, unless impacted very hard. Edges will be smooth, but rarely polished.

If that piece is just single-layer glass, I doubt that's "safety glass", since the edges looked rather rough. & since it's been sanded, better get busy polishing the edges. What you did works very well on laminated glass, for future reference. I've used a DA w/wet(spritz bottle) wet-or-dry sandpaper in varying grits to almost polish the edges, after a long board to get it smooth-n-straight. Kinda messy, but it works & a hell of a lot cheaper than long belts.

Me, I'd go thru the CC co complaint dept., return the glass, get it local. If you really need/want tempered glass. Or do laminated glass yourself. Glass cutting isn't *that* hard. . I've done curved windshields, flat laminated glass, flat std glass, stained glass, etc.
Since you're close, I'd use Lloyd. Probably should use him anyways... .
Also, most places that cut or make auto glass, will use the correct stamp on a corner stating what it is. If no stamp, probably don't want it... Since I haven't dug into "legalities" over/about that, idk. Might want to look it up, iffen you're concerned.
FWIW.
Marcus...

 

They're actually double glazed, as in having an air gap between the layers.. At the edges the layers can be seen, but I'm not sure if this means it's laminated glass, or glass that's been laminated!!

Chris

 

Now that you mention it, I have heard of this on new Mercedes etc.

 

This has turned into a spirited discussion.

There are videos of it being sanded successfully with guys that say you can, and videos of it busting into 1000 pieces. I do believe heat has a lot to do with it in the failures. The glass gets extremely hot, tries to shrink as it cools, and then explodes, due to the stress at the point of heating.

 

The temper of glass can be removed by what is called annealing. This is when the glass is heated to a specific temperature and then cooled slowly. It can then be re-tempered by again heating, and cooling rapidly.
This is not something you can do at home!

With regards to the OP's glass, my guess is thay it is not tempered. Break one and see.......

 

If he can see the plastic layer in the middle, it’s not tempered, just laminated. A clear pic of the edge will show us.

 

........ or worse, just ordinary annealed glass.....

 

"Hold polarised lenses or sunglasses up to the glass. Rotate the lens and look for spots that darken — this indicates the glass is tempered. Polarised light reacts differently when passing through tempered glass due to a strain pattern induced by heat strengthening during manufacture."

Ever notice your car windows "rainbowing" when you are driving with your sunnies on?

 

Nope.
Probably because my sunglasses are not Polarized.

 

You can see it in the sun sometimes as well

 

This sounds interesting. I don't normally wear polarized lenses unless I'm boating as they aren't recommended for use in aircraft (they can cause the electronic flight instruments to disappear if you look at them wrong). But now I want to dig a pair out and see how this looks on tempered glass.

 

I wouldn't want to fool around with the glass. You paid for a part that should fit and look right. Them telling you to sand it smooth is insulting. If it was that easy, then why wasn't it done that way in the first place. What you did seems good but listening to some of the glass guys on here I would be afraid that the glass is not tempered. The picture of how they sent it to you is horrible. I can't see how any reputable company would do that.

 

If they were OK with the quality they sent you, go ahead and post their company name. They should be proud of their work and we certainly want to know who ships that kind of work. It does look better than the glass currently in my 51. Of course anything with out the bullet holes and clear packing tape has to look better.

 

Now that must be laminated or ordinary annealed glass. You can't put bullet holes in tempered glass.........

 

Both back windows are indeed laminated. Fortunately nobody was back there at the time. It was in one side and out the other.

 

Hey, 28; I kinda figured that large specialized glass-forming/making mfrg shops could de-temper glass, but I was thinking home shops, just didn't mention it. Guess you'd need a rather large kiln, timer & accurate thermometer. & some material for testing... . Would be fun to try though...
Marcus...

& I also kinda like laminated glass for flat-side-glass, instead of tempered. It may not crumble when hit, but it also doesn't allow things to come through, either. Well, not often... & I can cut it as needed. .

& then there's always someone who could do this in a very large homemade kiln for back-glass chopping for customs. Apparently, "it's the Answer... ". Hey!, maybe a new sideline gig for Lloyd... .

 

The last picture shows that this is not laminate. The glass looks horrible. And yes I would love to know who sold you this. I take pride in my skills, but I'm always beat down by the "ol Joe's super glass company" bullshit. Most shop for cheapest price, not best value. Post their name to save other guys the hassle please

 

^^^^^^^What Lloyd said

 

Be sure to seal the edges of the glass so as to keep out moister and prevent delamination.
Properly cut glass should already come sealed. by the maker.

 

The shop agreed to refund the OP his money and he refused it. What more are they supposed to do? They made a mistake, admitted it wasn't good enough and offered a refund sounds like a pretty stand up company to me.

 

OK. Still wanna know who it is. That's not your business is it? Better yet, I'll continue to do it myself. I do good work.

 

I think the real safety concern should be whether the glass supplied is actually tempered or not.
If it "sanded" as easily as the OP described, I have my doubts........

 

Splinter-City, man... Cut you like Mack-the-Knife.
I'm not getting why no shop-naming, either. Not all of us want that quality...
Marcus...

 

“Sorry we f’ed that up. What you need to do to correct our shoddy work is start over and do it yourself.”

It should have never required a second phone call to get a refund offered. The fact that it went out the door like that sinks their credibility; I wouldn’t be confident that the glass is actually tempered properly or at all.

 

i got new glass cut local for my chev 38 pu all flat glass.laminated windscreen and rear window .door glass is toughened.all cut on cnc glass cutting machine.i cut accurate templates from 1/4 " mdf with a jigsaw with new blade. sanded all edges.glass came back with perfect bullnose edges i was and am very happy with the job.glass was sent out to be toughened .total price 150 euro 14 or 15 years back. jim carter truck supplied paper templates i glued to the mdf

 

Well,

It's not quite like that...........I didn't refuse it. But, there has been very little communication with the company, short one liners in emails are the best responses I got. They didn't offer to pay for shipping or send a return label. Return shipping was going to be $60.00.

I don't know if you have ever tried to file a claim against a shipper, but it is a hassle. I figured the odds of it getting broken in shipping were pretty high, and at that point, he probably wouldn't refund my money, or would make a fight over it. So I decided to cut bait. Live and learn.

These came from VINTAGE GLASS.

 

Thank you for posting the company. I understand exactly how it is when you need to return something. A supplier sent the wrong part on an order I made. I emailed the salesman and explained the situation and asked for a Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) to send their part back and asked them to ship the right part. Wound up calling the company and speaking to someone else, they said they would ship the right part and to just ship the other part back. The correct part showed up without the RMA label to return their part. I still have their part until I receive the shipping label for it. I’m not paying for their mistake and I don’t blame you for fixing the problem yourself rather than take the chance on shipping it back and forth and them expecting you to pay shipping each way.

 

The glass shop can regrind the bumps out, take it back and request it.