random thoughts – Day 2,396 (Thursday 10/8) – siding and glass challenges

Siding install now underway.

The sun burst through the clouds and the contractor arrived to start attaching the siding to the back of the house. There was a lot of noise from sawing and hammering and within a few hours, he singlehandedly had almost half of the back sided. 

Inside, belly dance music competed with the hammering as I unwrapped sheets of glass to see what might work with the glass pattern drawn this week. It was a clear illustration of the changes in the glass industry. 

My supply of old 12” by 12” sheets have prices tags on them ranging from $3.99 to $6.99. New sheets measure 10.5” by 10.5” (or smaller) and cost from $12 to $25 (or more) per sheet. 

Shattered.

A remnant of an old sheet of clear iridescent glass was chosen to be cut into half-inch strips for one of the three lines making up the border of the piece. Eleven strips were scored and made the satisfying snap with the running pliers as the pieces separated. And then it got dicey. No matter what I tried, the next couple strips wouldn’t break off and then the section of the glass shattered in the running pliers. The pieces were definitely not half-inch wide strips. Oops.

Unless I have some old larger glass that will work for the outer border with 12” sections, the size of the new sheets of glass is going to be a problem. The smaller sheets will force a design change to accommodate the smaller lengths. This will be an argument in favor of working on smaller projects going forward.

I was all set to solder the project I wrapped in copper foil on Monday, and that’s when it was discovered I don’t have any flux. There was instant regret over not buying the bottle that was in my hand in the glass shop on Tuesday. At the time, I thought I had a bottle of the stuff, but I discovered today it is flux cleaner, not flux. Big difference. Instead of soldering, I cut more glass pieces from the scrap bins for another small project.