Gluing to Glass

[Yonak Hawkins]

I'm going to make some glass kitchen upper cabinet doors.
I intend to continue a design element theme that are on other cabinet doors in the house as such : 320859

The maple strips are 3/8" wide and I plan to glue them to the glass door panels. What kind of glue should I use ? I am impressed by construction adhesive as nothing I have ever glued with it, including trim, has failed, but I have never tried it on glass and I'm concerned about squeeze out. I wonder about contact cement.

Another issue is that, when I open the door, the adhered surface would be visible from the back so a clear adhesive, if available, would be preferable. To help mitigate that, I could also glue wood strips on the back to help hide the joint however, with glass, you can often see behind an overlay from an angle.

A clear adhesive would be best but, of course, I want to use what will hold well. I'm not opposed to mechanical fasteners if there is any good way of using them.

Any suggestions or advice ?

Thank you,
- Yonak

[John A langley]

What about the glue that they use on rearview mirror

[David Hawxhurst]

most the glass doors i've seen use some sort of bracket to hold the glass in place and are not glued. but if you really want to use adhesive to hold the glass in clear silicone would probably be your best bet.

also take a look at thistothat.com

[Doug Garson]

How about double sided tape?

[Martin Wasner]

You're talking about just keeping the little mullions from coming loose? I'd just put a dot of silicone on them in a couple of places. There's no load, no stress, so you aren't going to need much adhesion. For holding the glass in the door, I use silicone. It looks terrible, but so do all of the other options. The benefit to siliconing them in is if the glass is ever broken, (unlikely), you can cut the silicone out and replace the glass, and it will not rattle. Poorly built or ancient houses with a sub-standard floor system and every time you walk across the house making things like that rattle drives me nuts.

[Chris Padilla]

most the glass doors i've seen use some sort of bracket to hold the glass in place and are not glued. but if you really want to use adhesive to hold the glass in clear silicone would probably be your best bet.

Agree...just cut the tube very tiny to control squeeze-out. I just reinstalled a pane of glass in a window in my shed. They just used clear silicone to glue the glass to the aluminum frame.

[Lee Schierer]

Use clear silicone sealant. Lay down some painters tape so it touches the strips on each side before you apply the silicone. Put painters tape on the sides of your strips. Put the silicone on and press your pieces in place. Ignore the squeeze out until the silicone isn't tacky. Run a sharp knife along the tape against the glass and you should be able to peel off the squeeze out. Once the silicone sets up (in about 24 hours) peel up the painters tape. A razor blade will clean up any silicone that you missed.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Plus one on the silicone sealant. That's what we use to attach pull handles to glass doors in commercial buildings. A couple strips of double sided tape to hold handle till silicone sets. CA used to hold mirrors on won't work as wood will experience movement with moisture changes. Because all strips need to line up, I would make a template to hold them, apply silicon to back side of strips, then press template to the glass. Go away for 24 hours, and then remove template. Clean up any squeeze out.

[Frank Pratt]

3M VHB tape. It is available in clear & various widths & thicknesses. We've used it to adhere aluminum LED track to the inside of glass display cases & it looks great. Silicone will work, but is a lot more messy.

[Yonak Hawkins]

Use clear silicone sealant. Lay down some painters tape...

Great idea, Lee. I hadn't thought of masking the glass. That could work well.

The only thing is, does silicone totally cure to make a stable and permanent bond or is it always in flux to some extent and may the strips, on a vertical surface, sag over time ? Also, will it clean off glass well with a razor blade or will it leave some greasy residue ? How about cleaning silicone squeeze-out off the sides of the strips ? Thanks.

[Yonak Hawkins]

3M VHB tape.

Frank, this tape sounds like a promising solution. It's possible I'll only need to tack, on portions of the strips, as the ends of the strips may be held by the frame, and the advantage of the tape would be that it wouldn't have the messiness and clean-up of the silicone. ..But would the tape hold adequately being only about, say, 1/4" wide and, even if it's clear, would it be easily be seen from the back side ? Thanks.

[Bruce Page]

"This to That" top recommendation is General Electric Silicone II. This plus Lee's suggestion should work well. VHB tape may work well, we used it a lot where I used to work but I would be a little concerned on how well it would stick long term to porous wood.


http://www.thistothat.com/

[Lee Schierer]

Great idea, Lee. I hadn't thought of masking the glass. That could work well.

The only thing is, does silicone totally cure to make a stable and permanent bond or is it always in flux to some extent and may the strips, on a vertical surface, sag over time ? Also, will it clean off glass well with a razor blade or will it leave some greasy residue ? How about cleaning silicone squeeze-out off the sides of the strips ? Thanks.

Silicone cures completely into silicone rubber. It is commonly used to make all glass aquariums. I have never seen it creep or sag once it cures.

The tape will minimize the exposure of the glass to the silicone. If you remove the squeeze out before it fully cures, it should peal right off the tap and the glass.

Silicone sealant isn't like silicone grease. Any residue left by the razor blade will come off the glass.

If you recall, I suggested tape on the sides of the strips as well.

Be sure, as others have noted to clamp or weigh down your strips until the silicone cures. Try the process with some scrap glass and wood strip to perfect your technique.

We look forward to seeing the finished doors on the Projects Forum.

[Brian Henderson]

I'd go with clear silicone, applied very carefully. It can be removed later if, for instance, the glass gets cracked so you don't have to recreate your mullions. If you don't want it to look ugly from the inside, create another set of identical mullions and apply them from the inside as well.

[Frank Pratt]

Frank, this tape sounds like a promising solution. It's possible I'll only need to tack, on portions of the strips, as the ends of the strips may be held by the frame, and the advantage of the tape would be that it wouldn't have the messiness and clean-up of the silicone. ..But would the tape hold adequately being only about, say, 1/4" wide and, even if it's clear, would it be easily be seen from the back side ? Thanks.

We use 1/2" tape on a 3/4" wide aluminum extrusion on the underside of the glass case top. you don't see the tape unless your really looking. In your case it wouldn't be an issue at all. You will want to read up on the 3M literature to make sure it will bond with wood, although I can't see a problem with that.

The stuff is kind of strange; on light contact it doesn't seem that sticky, but when pressed firmly in place it really grabs. The first cases we did were 5 or 6 years ago & none have let go.

[John McClanahan]

Be sure to get the silicone adhesive, like what is used for aquariums, not the silicone caulk found in the paint department.


John

[Bruce Page]

Be sure to get the silicone adhesive, like what is used for aquariums, not the silicone caulk found in the paint department.


John


Good point. They are not the same thing.

[Yonak Hawkins]

Thanks, everyone. I've got some experimentation and some practicing to do.

John, thanks for the tip about the adhesive versus the caulk. I didn't realize there is a difference.

[Frederick Skelly]

" VHB tape may work well, we used it a lot where I used to work but I would be a little concerned on how well it would stick long term to porous wood.

I wonder if applying varnish, lacquer, shellac, etc to the wood before applying the tape would improve the bond?

[Ole Anderson]

I used the crystal clear silicone, not the milky bathroom stuff, when putting "falling water" patterned glass in my built-in kitchen china cabinet. Just lay down a tiny continuous bead on the entire perimeter on the backside of a small rabbit and lay the glass in place. I guarantee it will never rattle or fall out. Use a calking gun though, much easier to lay down a consistent bead. Sorry I don't remember the brand of silicone but it was likely purchased at HD in the paint department. While iIt has excellent adhesive properties, I wouldn't use it for building an aquarium, but then that is not what you are building either.

[Curt Harms]

"This to That" top recommendation is General Electric Silicone II. This plus Lee's suggestion should work well. VHB tape may work well, we used it a lot where I used to work but I would be a little concerned on how well it would stick long term to porous wood.


http://www.thistothat.com/


Finish the wood strips first so they're not porous? That's what I did with some stick-on LED tape lights and so far so good.

[Peter Quinn]

I'd use clear silicone or a VHB tape. The tape sticks fine to raw wood but I'd seal the wood first generally as part of the door finishing process. We use a similar tape to stick applied grills to exterior doors. I had to remove a fully cured grill once ( the tape builds strength over time like silicone)., it does not give up easy....VHB stands for very high bond and they are not kidding. This tape is uv resistant, water proof, heat proof, really tough stuff and way easier to deal with than silicone IME, but either is a pretty good option for wood to glass. I would caution that with the tape you must locate your parts correctly the first time, silicone is easier if yiu need to wiggle them into location. Once tape hits glass it's stuck!

[Bradley Gray]

I have had good luck with this 3/16 wide tape that is sold to attach laminated rice paper to shoji frames:

http://www.eshoji.com/p/double-sided-tape-for-shoji-laminated.html