[TheForge] Glass and Steel

[T]

Back in 1947 my father built a dining room table out of rebar with a 
glass top.  It's about 4 feet by 7 feet with one cross bar connecting 
the two long sides.  Originally it used a 1/4 inch top (for about 20 
years). It was plate glass.  The problem was that the table needed 
more weight to keep from vibrating easily, so they switched to 1/2 
inch plate glass.  I still have it with the 1/2 glass. So it's 
survived 4 children and about 8,000 miles of moving.

The table top is large enough that it doesn't need anything to keep 
it held by the edges. It just rests on the top of the rebar. By the 
way, so far nobody has recognized that it is rebar until they are 
told.  Most people think it is a French import. My father built it in 
his off-hours in a tractor repair shop at a sugar mill in Hawaii.  No 
forge, just a torch.  He said the hardest thing was making the 
chairs.  It was impossible to get them absolutely identical, so the 
chair frames and the upholstered seats are marked to make sure the 
right seats get back into the right frames.

Terry

At 08:27 AM 1/30/2008, you wrote:
>Does anyone have experience with glass table tops?  I have available 
>to me a virtually unlimited supply of 1/4  glass up to almost 48 x 
>96, both tempered and plate.  I am looking for technical information 
>on using such glass for table tops.   Quarter inch seems thin to me, 
>but a couple of things have encouraged me.  First, when I was a kid, 
>we had a porch dining table of (machine) forged iron with a glass 
>1/4" top that was supported only at its edge.  This was about 36 
>x72.  Second, a friend of mine has a dozen or so 48x 96 panels 3/16 
>thick that he removed from a skylight application, the strength of 
>which he demonstrated to me by walking across a single sheet 
>supported only at its long edges.  Of course, the thing is tempered, 
>so you tap it with a hammer and it explodes into a pile of marbles, 
>but the initial strength is impressive.  I have found some 1/4 inch 
>thick table tops online up to 48" diameter rounds, but not with 
>enough techinical information to give me confidence to build a table 
>for sale from such material.  Anyone out there into incorporating 
>glass in furniture?
>
>Peter Hirst
>Keziah's Forge
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