Glass Work Surface

[FrankEV]

I guess this is as good a place as anywhere to share some Information related to Intarsia assembly.  I assume this is not a new help trick to others, but I had not heard it mentioned until my son, who is an avid model car maker, and who uses CA glue a lot, suggested it. 

For Intarsia makers who choose to assemble projects by edge gluing using CA glue before attaching a backer, it is common to encounter the issue of accidentally gluing the assembly to the workbench.  Putting pieces together quickly and accurately, while making sure the back side is flat, is very tricky.  In doing so, I often put too much CA on the piece to be attached and it runs down the joint allowing the assembly to attach itself to the bench as I attempt to make the backside flat.  I have heard use wax paper, but that stuck just as badly and just made a bigger mess. 

The solution to this problem is Glass.  I obtained a piece of 12” wide by 18” long by 3/8” thick tempered glass, that has polished edges, from a Habitat ReStore for very little cost.  This kind of glass is the kind used for display shelving or often used for glass tabletops.    

I’m able to lay the glass on top of a copy of the pattern and do my edge gluing on the very flat glass.  The pattern under the glass helps me line pieces up properly.  If the assembly sticks to the glass, a sharp tap with a mallet will pop-it-off easily.  CA glue squeeze-out that gets onto the glass, and it will, is easily removed with a razor blade scraper returning the nice flat glass surface.

I hope this tip is of value to some.

[Scrappile]

I have a bog piece of tempered glass from a shower door, but I imagine they would charge me more to cut it than I could find a piece of glass shelf like you mention.  Thank for the tip.

[Wichman]

9 minutes ago, Scrappile said:

I have a bog piece of tempered glass from a shower door, but I imagine they would charge me more to cut it than I could find a piece of glass shelf like you mention.  Thank for the tip.

Tempered glass ( it will have information imprinted in a corner ), cannot be cut, if cutting is attempted it will shatter.

[Bill WIlson]

I've done something similar with wood glue on a piece of acrylic or vinyl laminated particle board.  The wood glue won't stick well to either of those.  I suspect that CA glue would be a different story though.