Does anyone know a good glass supplier? I have a commission and they want shatter proof glass. At most it’ll be 12” x 12”. I’m hoping to not resort to Amazon if I can avoid it. Thanks!
Blue Moon Glassworks is great, they have “safety glass” which is just double thick. Otherwise, if they’re looking for tempered, Arrow Glass (near Fine Lumber) has been good to work with.
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Best to get this understood first- there’s annealed glass that can break into dangerous shards with a high laceration hazard. That’s basic non-safety glass.
Tempered safety glass is extremely tough, but if you do manage to damage any part of it in any way, the entire piece will completely disintegrate into small, blunt cubic pebbles (almost explosively) which pose little danger to people. It is impossible to cut after it’s tempered without shattering it, because tempering turns the outer surface into a high tension envelope. It doesn’t matter what process you try to cut it with, it’s a balloon waiting to pop. Car side and rear windows are tempered, but never the windshield, because it would completely disintegrate on the first pebble. Surprisingly difficult to break with a hammer, but if you so much as scratch it with a bit of ceramic like a broken spark plug, the whole piece shatters.
Laminated safety glass is two sheets of glass with a very tough layer of clear acetate plastic. It is always used for car windshields. It can be scratched, chipped, marked, cut. It is pretty straightforward to crack and break a car windshield’s glass with a hammer or brick, but exceptionally difficult to tear the flexible acetate middle layer and actually get through. It is possible to cut a sheet of laminated glass. but it requires special techniques.
Binswanger Glass sells both in Austin. Both are deemed “safety” glasses, “shatterproof” is not really the right term for either. “Shatterproof” more often means polycarbonate plastic sheets
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Thank you so much! Educational and super helpful!