Glass table tops cracking

[YSU65]

Hi all and Happy New Year!

I made some tables for my neighbor that are used in his conference room. Tables are ply, butted together, and they put glass over the tops to prevent damage. When they move the glass around it can touch an adjacent plate and they frequently break. So my question is, does anyone know of something that can be used on the edges to prevent them from touching:? It would have to be about the same thickness of the glass, maybe 1/4" or so. Some type of bumper material? Thanks, Tom

[Tony Jones]

Assuming they used tempered glass for this?

T Jones

[jteneyck]

Something like this?

John

[Leinie]

Form some bumpers out of clear silicone.

[MstrCarpenter]

I'm assuming that the glass is the same, or only slightly than the table. If so than would a bumper strip on the table work? The common, and ugly, rubber/plastic edges found on folding tables taps in a slot made with your router. Not really high quality. Another suggestion is to replace (future) broken glass with smaller pieces; the edges of glass are the most fragile part. The face of 1/4" tempered glass will withstand a pretty hard hit with a hammer, but the slightest tap on the edge will transform it to thousands of little pieces.

[YSU65]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will look further into each one. In their conference room they have two conference tables, roughly 35 x 72 and wanted two more. They normally have the two tables pushed together and with the two additional tables the normal arrangement would be 2 + 2 forming one large surface. As mentioned when the corners bump the failure can be catastrofic. My thinking that something the would keep the edges from hitting, like corner pads or even better, a thin strip of some clear elastic tape that could be attached to the adjacent edges to prevent glass to glass contact.

These folks are accountants and don't think like we do. They try to minimize the problem by diligence while we design things to eliminate them. I think they are on their sheet right now.

Any more suggestions will be welcomed.

Happy new Year and best wishes for successful new projects, finding amazing wood for cheap,and collecting new tools....Tom

[iclark]

You could add a trim strip around the edge that has a height equal to the thickness of the table top plus the thickness of the glass. That would convert the glass into looking like an insert and would protect the edges of the glass (while also preventing it sliding slightly off the wooden top.

For a modern look you could do the edging with an aluminum L that has a sharp inner corner to the L. Miter the underside and ends of the L at the table corners and fill the miter joint with something like JBWeld or Liquid Aluminum.

[DonJuvet]

I may sound snarky... but...

Doc, when I do this "xxxxx", it hurts.
Doc writes a prescription.... Don't do that.


or
Make the glass 1/4" smaller on the length. Keep it away from the butting edge.

or
What type of ply? Rotary cut birdeseye maple burl or Oak.
a good finish should hold up to conference table use.

So, I may not have helped. I'll give me 2 of these


Can we get more info on the table(s) and maybe a pic?