Any way to recycle/reuse tempered glass bits?

[belfert]

I will have probably 200 lbs of tempered glass bits by the time I am done breaking the glass out of all my windows so I can recycle the frames.  (The windows aren't much good since they are all fogged and probably only fit a Dina.)

Any suggestions on anybody that might have a use for these glass bits?  There is a mix of clear and dark glass.  I doubt it can be recycled, but maybe it can.  I would like to keep it out of the landfill if possible.

Brian Elfert

[H3Jim]

Check with the ladies.  It makes a wonderfully attractive filler for glass vases and dried flowers etc. looks way cool.  Use it at the next rally for the table center pieces that people can take home.

[belfert]

Check with the ladies.  It makes a wonderfully attractive filler for glass vases and dried flowers etc. looks way cool.  Use it at the next rally for the table center pieces that people can take home.

Excellent idea on flower vases.  Dried flowers are often put in vases with a filler of small glass disks.  My glass bits could be used instead.  I'll see if my mother's craft group would be interested.

Brian Elfert

[brojcol]

Why not use them in the bus.  You can build a frame, pour them in, then cover the top with an epoxy resin.  Would make a good countertop, or table top.  I've seen it done with broken coke bottles.  Makes a nice coffee table. 

Jimmy

[phil4501]

I have seen it used in gas fireplaces. You cover the natural gas pipe with the broken glass, the gas filters though and makes a fancy little fire. I prefer wood and no gas but hey, what do I know?

If you wish to recycle it will need to be seperated by color and they don't make it easy. My suggestion is to not break the glass out but ro remove it if practicable. I am not familiar with setra's so you know best. It takes longer to clean up that stuff than you can imagine.

[H3Jim]

I can verify that it takes a long time to clean it up.  2 1/2 years ago I had a window repaced due to fogging.  I still find little bits of the glass both in the bus and on the pavement where I park it.  they did the replacement at the shop, so how it gets to my parking area is a mystery.  I think I've vacuumed the bus 50 times, but some still shows up somehow.

[belfert]

I broke the window glass on my driveway.  The glass pretty much stays confined to right around the window frame.  I just sweep it up and shovel it into a wheelbarrow where it sits.  I would never do this if it was not tempered glass.

I have no idea how to remove the glass part from the window frame.

Brian Elfert

[phil4501]

 I will see if I can find a setra to look at in my area or maybe someone has a closeup pic. If they are bonded in you will still have to cut them out of the frame . It is usually much easier to do thiis with the glass in tact.

[belfert]

I will see if I can find a setra to look at in my area or maybe someone has a closeup pic. If they are bonded in you will still have to cut them out of the frame . It is usually much easier to do thiis with the glass in tact.

I have only broken two or three windows so far, but the other 10 will wait until after my vacation.  I happen to have a Dina, not a Setra.

The glass units are sitting in a rubber strip and are not bonded.  I just don't have any idea how to remove them.

Brian Elfert

[Ncbob]

The one area that no one has mentioned...the Landfill?  The glass won't create any methane, greenhouse gasses or anything detrimental to the planet!  It might cost a few buck to dispose of it..but are we getting so enviromentally friendly  (or politically correct) that we've forgotten that the hole they've created needs to be filled?

FWIW

NCbob

[Clarke Echols]

Glass is predominantly silicon dioxide.  Another common word is "sand". :-)

Glass is tempered by annealing it.  That is done by raising it to a plastic temperature then cooling it very slowly over a period of 12 hours or longer so that it relieves all of the internal stresses.  That's what makes it so strong -- there are few high-stress points inside the glass panel so you don't get the stress concentrations that exceed the strength of the glass in high-internal-stress locations.  It's when you get past the strength limits in those locations that things break.

You could call a local glass artist to see if they want to use it, but there is so much glass out there that it's just as well to put it in the land fill, or you could us a mortar and pestle to grind it into fine powder and scatter it in your yard...

Hot glass artists usually work with certain COE (coefficient of expansion) values, so they're reluctant to put your old glass in their furnaces to use with other glass.  In short, pitch it and have it done with.

Clarke

[Busted Knuckle]

Brian, since you already have 2 frames that the glass is out of I'd check them over closely they are probably just held together by some small screws. Once you find out how the frames seperate you can take the rest of them apart and remove the windows without breaking them ! I know you have a Dina, but on my setra the frames split on both sides about the middle and the bottom slides off the window then you can slide the window out of the top frame, and then remove the top frame from the bus all nice and neat! Just my 2 cents worth!  BK
  We gonna have a heck of a great time @ Knuckle's TN Halloween Bus Bash !!! 

[phil4501]

Glass is tempered by annealing it. 


Clarke

Glass is either tempered or annealed, it can not be both, but by definition, is one or the other. When I order glass, I specify if I want tempered or annealed.Tempered is heated and then cooled quickly, annealed glass has not been heat treated bukt is cooled slowly when manufactured.