Remember when we used to cut big tempered glass with just a straightedge and a hand cutter?

I was on a job in Phoenix about 10 years ago, putting in a huge storefront window... the tempered piece was a few inches too wide. The boss said to just cut it down, but my old hand cutter kept chipping the edge every single time. I was about to order a whole new pane, which would have cost over $300 and taken a week. Then this old timer on the crew, Frank, told me to soak a towel in cold water and lay it along my score line before I snapped it. I thought he was nuts, but I tried it... and the glass broke clean as a whistle. The water just took the heat and stress out of the edge, I guess. I haven't had to do it in years since we all use CNC now, but it saved my butt that day. Anyone else have an old-school trick like that they still remember?

3 comments

3 Comments

jenkins.richard1mo ago

Wow, that's a wild trick...

jennifercooper15d ago

Ugh, new tech fixes way more than it breaks though.

-1

morgan.adam1mo ago

That water trick is genius for managing the stress. Makes you wonder @jenkins.richard how many other old fixes we've lost to new tech.