Gluing glass to wood

[Howard Pollack]

I'm building a table in which I will need to make a rigid joint between glass and wood. Can folks recommend glue that will join the two rigidly? Thanks. -Howard

[Dick Strauss]

Why do you want to hold it rigidly? Wood moves and glass doesn't which causes problems when you glue the two together rigidly!

[Erik Loza]

Why do you want to hold it rigidly? Wood moves and glass doesn't which causes problems when you glue the two together rigidly!


My thought as well ^^^

Don't they use glazing putty in wood windows for exactly that reason? Howard, can you describe the project? Maybe there is an alternate solution.

Erik

[Bill Adamsen]

Silicone adhesives (can) hold tenaciously to glass ... and provide the flexibility you'd likely need in that joint (as noted, wood moves). Note: silicone is anathema to most woodworkers on account of issues with refinishing.

[Howard Acheson]

As already asked, what is the exact thing you are going to do. The bottom line is that you must account for the wood movement. With more info we can give you a better response.

[Peter Quinn]

Wood moves in response to changes in moisture, glass moves in response to changes in temperature.....they don't move equally. Making a rigid joint between glass and wood is the recipe for cracked glass. Silicone or mirror mastic are your friends here. They also make tape for this called VHB , "very high bond", 3m makes a good one, it's used in structural glass panels, very large heavy panels, so that might hold it too. Is the glass transparent? Looking through glass at adhesive is almost never appealing.

[Howard Pollack]

Thanks to all for your comments. This will be a glass top coffee table with the legs simply glued to the glass. I planned to saturate the top (end grain) of the legs with clear penetrating epoxy and then use some sort of glue to attach them to the table top. Any suggestions will be appreciated. This way the legs have not have any stretchers between them. The legs will be about 1.25 inches square. Again, thanks. -Howard

[mreza Salav]

From what you describe you don't have to worry about wood movement. Silicon would work fine. The trick is to apply it neatly though...

[Robert Willing]

Not sure if this will work, but I/they call makers use "GOOP Plumbers glue" to glue the sound board (which is glass) and the slate and/or glass striking surface to the wood body. The glued joint is held in position for 24 hours before being used. Give it a try just a thought. Read the instruction provided on the package.

[Rick Johnston]

Look into e-6000 silicone.

[Jamie Buxton]

Thanks to all for your comments. This will be a glass top coffee table with the legs simply glued to the glass. I planned to saturate the top (end grain) of the legs with clear penetrating epoxy and then use some sort of glue to attach them to the table top. Any suggestions will be appreciated. This way the legs have not have any stretchers between them. The legs will be about 1.25 inches square. Again, thanks. -Howard

Boy, that will be a high-stress glue bond. If anybody pushes the table sideways, there is a big lever arm trying to break the bond or the materials it bonds. Epoxy is stronger than silicone caulk. I'd use epoxy.

[Erik Loza]

Boy, that will be a high-stress glue bond. If anybody pushes the table sideways, there is a big lever arm trying to break the bond or the materials it bonds. Epoxy is stronger than silicone caulk. I'd use epoxy.

I agree with the possibility of stress but silicone would adhere much better to glass than epoxy would and also, act as a cushion and absorb some of that stress. What if the OP screwed a small metal plate into the top of each leg, then siliconed to that?

Erik

[John TenEyck]

IMO silicone is far to flexible to work for this application. When I built these curved glass cabinet doors I wanted to support the glass panels by gluing them into dados in a very sparse "frame". I did a lot of testing on which glue would 1) bond to the glass and 2) not creep under constant stress. What I found was a polyurethane construction adhesive to be best for my needs, and I think that or epoxy would be the best choice for this application, too. As you can see, the glass panels in my doors are held only by the one stile on the hinge side and one rail; the bottom panel in particular would fall out or bind against the floor of the cabinet if the glue failed or allowed the glass to creep. The cabinet is over 10 years old now and the doors are as perfect as when first built.

324344

John

[Erik Loza]

Silicone is plenty strong; they build enormous glass aquariums that weight 1,000's of lbs. when full and are only held together with it but silicone is a sealant, not an adhesive, so the substrate is critical. I personally don't think it would bond well to wood. Metal and glass, yet, but not wood.

Erik

[Peter Quinn]

In light of those conditions something like this http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/search.do?freeText=Thixo&resultPref=all&page=GRID&history= might work well. Not sure the color through the glass.

[Ole Anderson]

Look for crystal clear silicone caulk/adhesive. I have gotten it at the borg in caulking gun size, but don't get the "clear" GE silicone, it is anything but clear. It will bond to both glass and your epoxied end grain legs. But just relying on that for structural strength could be dicy.

[David C. Roseman]

All thoughtful advice here, but I'd worry that silicone adhesive would be a bit too flexible for this application. The legs will act as long lever arms, so the torque applied to the joints will be significant if someone bumps the legs. If it were my project, I'd go with a high-end polyurethane glue, e.g. Gorilla glue's regular formula, which dries light brown, or its quick-set formula, which dries white. Pick the color you'd like to see through the glass, unless you're going to glue medallions to the top to cover the joint. Be aware that the polyurethane glues expand as they dry, so apply advisedly, and be sure to clamp in some fashion. You can remove squeeze-out with razor blade. The Gorilla glue will bond very well to both the sealed end grain and the glass. Don't even have to seal the end grain, unless you particularly want to.

[Kent Parker]

Having an understanding of your design might help with additional suggestions. I think most of us are thinking your glass top is sitting right on the tops (end grain) of the legs. If so, perhaps the top doesn't need top be "secured" via an adhesive to the leg tops. Maybe a means to prevent it from sliding off the tops of the legs could be considered and put into the design element. Glass polishes quite well and narrow pieces could be "glued" onto the underside of the glass top ..say inside of the wood legs, which would prevent any lateral movement. Polishing the edges of the narrow pieces would minimize visability. If the stretchers extended above the tops of the legs, the glass could be easily drilled with diamond bits (if you have patience) and small pins placed into the wood stretchers would extend upwards into the glass. Could be a design element.

Any of the sealants suggested above will show through the glass, muffling the grain of the tops of the posts and be noticable. If your wood is dark or stained that may not be a visual distraction.


Cheers,

Kent

[Brian Henderson]

Silicone is plenty strong; they build enormous glass aquariums that weight 1,000's of lbs. when full and are only held together with it but silicone is a sealant, not an adhesive, so the substrate is critical. I personally don't think it would bond well to wood. Metal and glass, yet, but not wood.

Erik

But that's why, when you're talking about big modern tanks that have to withstand a lot of pressure, they don't make them out of glass, they make them out of acrylic with specialty epoxy. Glass in modern aquariums is becoming more rare these days, the ones that still do tend to be small because glass is cheap.

[John T Barker]

I made a coffee table once with a glass top and the customer and I felt the top should just sit and not be fixed. She never called to complain.
Epoxy should hold if gluing is necessary. You could also drill through the glass and secure into the leg with steel pins.

[Ole Anderson]

Such a small leg glued to the tabletop will introduce some huge stresses as already mentioned. You might consider adding to the design such that the top of the leg is much bigger, offering a much larger glue area and reducing stresses immensely. Not having stretchers really reduces the strength and stability of the table. Stretchers can be just under the glass, they don't need to be near the floor.

[Howard Pollack]

Thanks everyone, I clearly need to go back to the drawing board. -Howard

[Chris Padilla]

There must be some kind of hardware you can use to connect legs to glass but it might involve drilling some holes in the glass. Either that or build a frame to house the glass and mount the legs to it.

[Howard Pollack]

There is such hardware- I tried a mock-up and found that it was not adequately secure. I may try it again with reinforcements that restrict any movement- it seems like that might work if well enough engineered.
-Howard

[Gene Takae]

Howard,
Could you have a glass shop fabricate glass "dovetails" that you would glue to the underside of the top and then cut the mating dovetail on the top of the legs so that they can be slid on? I'm not proficient in sketchup so can't make a drawing for you. Essentially you would be making sliding dovetails to attach the legs.

[Ole Anderson]

Frankly IMO, the only way 1.25" square legs without any additional support will be strong enough for anything other than a decorative piece would be to have them welded which eliminates wood and glass in the equation.

[Jerry Miner]

I think 1.25" square legs with no apron would work for a table that's about 2" high, but for something taller, you need to re-think the structure.

[Kelly Craig]

I wouldn't go there, but, for reference, hide glue works on glass and, of course wood. Those in the glass etch industry use hide glue to create the chip effect you see on some etched glass. They lay the glass flat, brush on the glue, then heat it, such as by putting another sheet of glass over it and laying it in the sunshine. Hide glue shrinks, as it dries, but it also molecularly bonds with the glass. Since it won't let go of the glass, it flakes off tiny pieces in the process of drying.

Just sayin.