I'm trying to come up with practical ways of mounting sheets of
laminated glass in steel panels. These are mostly in the 80cm by 60cm
sort of area but aren't exactly square and have curved corners, 5cm to
10cm radius.
The ideal 'easy' way to mount them would be 'h' section (yes, lower
case h) with the glass fitted into the bottom of the h and the top of
the h having holes at intervals to screw to the metalwork.
The difficult bit is making curved h section material. The best idea
I have come up with so far is to get full H section PVC, remove one of
the 'legs' and then bodge the curved corners by various means. However
this would be laborious, time consuming and probably not very beautiful.
I've also tried heating the PVC but the corners are too sharp for this
to be really successful.
My current solution consists of two strips of PVC cut from large
sheets of 2mm or 3mm PVC with screws pulling the two strips together
but it doesn't look particularly good and isn't easy to make watertight.
Are there any metalworkers who could do this in aluminium? Two pieces
to slide onto the glass from opposite sides.
Replacement glass with square corners isn't particularly expensive so
one could come up with a solution where the glass overlaps the
existing hole. The moment you add holes in the glass and/or curved
corners though it gets very expensive.
I'm trying to come up with practical ways of mounting sheets of
laminated glass in steel panels. These are mostly in the 80cm by 60cm
sort of area but aren't exactly square and have curved corners, 5cm to
10cm radius.
The ideal 'easy' way to mount them would be 'h' section (yes, lower
case h) with the glass fitted into the bottom of the h and the top of
the h having holes at intervals to screw to the metalwork.
The difficult bit is making curved h section material. The best idea
I have come up with so far is to get full H section PVC, remove one of
the 'legs' and then bodge the curved corners by various means. However
this would be laborious, time consuming and probably not very beautiful.
I've also tried heating the PVC but the corners are too sharp for this
to be really successful.
My current solution consists of two strips of PVC cut from large
sheets of 2mm or 3mm PVC with screws pulling the two strips together
but it doesn't look particularly good and isn't easy to make watertight.
Are there any metalworkers who could do this in aluminium? Two pieces
to slide onto the glass from opposite sides.
Replacement glass with square corners isn't particularly expensive so
one could come up with a solution where the glass overlaps the
existing hole. The moment you add holes in the glass and/or curved
corners though it gets very expensive.
I'm trying to come up with practical ways of mounting sheets of
laminated glass in steel panels. These are mostly in the 80cm by 60cm
sort of area but aren't exactly square and have curved corners, 5cm to
10cm radius.
I'm trying to come up with practical ways of mounting sheets of
laminated glass in steel panels. These are mostly in the 80cm by 60cm
sort of area but aren't exactly square and have curved corners, 5cm to
10cm radius.
The ideal 'easy' way to mount them would be 'h' section (yes, lower
case h) with the glass fitted into the bottom of the h and the top of
the h having holes at intervals to screw to the metalwork.
The difficult bit is making curved h section material. The best idea
I have come up with so far is to get full H section PVC, remove one of
the 'legs' and then bodge the curved corners by various means. However
this would be laborious, time consuming and probably not very beautiful.
I've also tried heating the PVC but the corners are too sharp for this
to be really successful.
My current solution consists of two strips of PVC cut from large
sheets of 2mm or 3mm PVC with screws pulling the two strips together
but it doesn't look particularly good and isn't easy to make watertight.
Are there any metalworkers who could do this in aluminium? Two pieces
to slide onto the glass from opposite sides.
Replacement glass with square corners isn't particularly expensive so
one could come up with a solution where the glass overlaps the
existing hole. The moment you add holes in the glass and/or curved
corners though it gets very expensive.
Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
I'm trying to come up with practical ways of mounting sheets of
laminated glass in steel panels. These are mostly in the 80cm by 60cm
sort of area but aren't exactly square and have curved corners, 5cm to
10cm radius.
The ideal 'easy' way to mount them would be 'h' section (yes, lower
case h) with the glass fitted into the bottom of the h and the top of
the h having holes at intervals to screw to the metalwork.
The difficult bit is making curved h section material. The best idea
I have come up with so far is to get full H section PVC, remove one of
the 'legs' and then bodge the curved corners by various means. However
this would be laborious, time consuming and probably not very beautiful.
I've also tried heating the PVC but the corners are too sharp for this
to be really successful.
My current solution consists of two strips of PVC cut from large
sheets of 2mm or 3mm PVC with screws pulling the two strips together
but it doesn't look particularly good and isn't easy to make watertight.
Are there any metalworkers who could do this in aluminium? Two pieces
to slide onto the glass from opposite sides.
Replacement glass with square corners isn't particularly expensive so
one could come up with a solution where the glass overlaps the
existing hole. The moment you add holes in the glass and/or curved
corners though it gets very expensive.
I suspect Ali is going to be the most appropriate being the most ductile of the metals. You are going to have to knock up a bending machine ideally something like a pipe bender but you might be able to make something
simpler with a bending arm with two rollers set apart slightly wider than
the the thickness of the metal to be bent with the dimension from the edge
of the inner roller to the pivot point approx. The radius you require. The inner roller would have to be able to fit inside the channel of the “h” section. If you cannot get suitable bearings for the rollers or do not have
a lathe to machine suitable rollers then perhaps stacked washers might do. This will have to be mounted on some base plate with a stop for the “h” section to bear against.
Any Ali extrusion you get will be pretty well stressed so will need to be annealed before bending. The annealing temperature is quite low. Rub a bar
of soap on the area to bend and heat up with a torch till the soap goes
brown do not quench but allow it to cool naturally. Ali will work harden quite quickly so you may have to anneal each bend a few times also there
will be some pull through during the bending so a bit of experimenting on spare material will establish how much annealing is needed and what to
allow for pull through.
I cannot say for certain it would work but faced with your your situation
the above would be my approach to the problem.
On 13/07/2025 07:53, Chris Green wrote:
I'm trying to come up with practical ways of mounting sheets of
laminated glass in steel panels. These are mostly in the 80cm by 60cm
sort of area but aren't exactly square and have curved corners, 5cm to
10cm radius.
The ideal 'easy' way to mount them would be 'h' section (yes, lower
case h) with the glass fitted into the bottom of the h and the top of
the h having holes at intervals to screw to the metalwork.
The difficult bit is making curved h section material. The best idea
I have come up with so far is to get full H section PVC, remove one of
the 'legs' and then bodge the curved corners by various means. However
this would be laborious, time consuming and probably not very beautiful.
I've also tried heating the PVC but the corners are too sharp for this
to be really successful.
My current solution consists of two strips of PVC cut from large
sheets of 2mm or 3mm PVC with screws pulling the two strips together
but it doesn't look particularly good and isn't easy to make watertight.
Are there any metalworkers who could do this in aluminium? Two pieces
to slide onto the glass from opposite sides.
Replacement glass with square corners isn't particularly expensive so
one could come up with a solution where the glass overlaps the
existing hole. The moment you add holes in the glass and/or curved
corners though it gets very expensive.
Would rubber work, eg...
https://www.par-direct.co.uk/products/SEXH
...and many others. Might not be man enough. Another way might be aluminium, slotted and shaped with a hacksaw and file, bent, then the
gaps filled with Aluminium solder and dressed.
To my surprise, I've found aluminium solder quite easy to use using a
small blowtorch.
Simon Simple <SS@nonononono.co.uk> wrote:
...and many others. Might not be man enough. Another way might beAnother approach with aluminium. I think I'll do some searching for aluminium extrusions to see what I can find.
aluminium, slotted and shaped with a hacksaw and file, bent, then the
gaps filled with Aluminium solder and dressed.
To my surprise, I've found aluminium solder quite easy to use using a
small blowtorch.
I'm trying to come up with practical ways of mounting sheets of
laminated glass in steel panels. These are mostly in the 80cm by 60cm
sort of area but aren't exactly square and have curved corners, 5cm to
10cm radius.
The ideal 'easy' way to mount them would be 'h' section (yes, lower
case h) with the glass fitted into the bottom of the h and the top of
the h having holes at intervals to screw to the metalwork.
The difficult bit is making curved h section material. The best idea
I have come up with so far is to get full H section PVC, remove one of
the 'legs' and then bodge the curved corners by various means. However
this would be laborious, time consuming and probably not very beautiful.
I've also tried heating the PVC but the corners are too sharp for this
to be really successful.
My current solution consists of two strips of PVC cut from large
sheets of 2mm or 3mm PVC with screws pulling the two strips together
but it doesn't look particularly good and isn't easy to make watertight.
Are there any metalworkers who could do this in aluminium? Two pieces
to slide onto the glass from opposite sides.
Replacement glass with square corners isn't particularly expensive so
one could come up with a solution where the glass overlaps the
existing hole. The moment you add holes in the glass and/or curved
corners though it gets very expensive.
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