Stained Glass Transom - Advice?

I'm thinking about enclosing my front porch, part of which will include
removable glass panels that can be taken out in the warmer weather and put back
to fight the cold. I have decided on using decorative wood trim with reclaimed
glass cut from old windows and some stained glass accents. If you go with a
wood and glass design, you can bolster the strength of the panels.

Using this design, you could have the wood custom-milled to specifications, cut
your glass to shape, and pack it like a "kit". You could always pre-assemble
everything prior to being at the customer's site to ensure the quality of
construction...then take it apart and rebuild it on your client's site. As a
kit, it is simple and easy...like working a puzzle.

K-

Scribble wrote:

Greetings, All -

I've just taken a commission on a stained glass transom, about 12' by 2',
and I'm wondering if any of you have any thoughts on its "installability" if
I build it all in one piece. Transportation is no big deal - I can build a
custom "carrier" for the glass rack on my truck. The client's home is only
about a mile and a half from my studio.

The piece will be mounted inside a piece of tempered glass that's
permanently installed over their 6'-8" sliding glass doors. I'll be adding
new trim strips to hold it in place.

With a few helpers and a few ladders, how do you all like my odds of being
able to lift the piece into place without breaking it? I hate to ruin a
good flowing design with the lines that would be required to divide the
panel into two or three separate pieces...but I'd also hate to have to haul
a broken panel back to the studio. It'll be copper foil in 1/2" zinc. I'll
bring it into the house on the truck rack carrier.

Am I crazy? Is this something that's just not do-able? Or is it an idea
that's workable with eough care?

TIA-

~s

I'd break the panel into more manageable sections. 12' long seems a bit
excessive to me to work with and install without damage. Also, good
reinforcement is the key to this project.

Scribble wrote:

Thanks for all your ideas -

To address a few:

Moon, I use 8' work tables in the studio, but one is on locking wheels, so I
can move it against the others when I need extra length or width. Losing
stuff isn't really an issue at my age - even if I used a 2' table, most days
I still can't find my buttocks with both hands and a copy of Gray's Anatomy.

I wonder if some sort of toolbelt would help. Maybe something like Batman's
utility belt, with an imprint of Saint Fletcher (patron saint of
glassworkers) on the buckle.

Just a thought.

Anyhow, Charles and Moon's plywood "stretcher" is along the idea I was
considering, building something like the TJI things they're using instead
of 2x10s under the flooring in some new stick-house construction. They have
2x2 "rails" at the top and bottom of a 1/2" plywood core. Real secure (even
in Florida's hurricane season). The panel could sit on the bottom rail, and
the holes you mentioned would help us get the panel off the carrier when it
was near position.

Michelle, yours' is probably the most sensible advice. If I used lead
instead of foil, I could build the beast as a triptich (haven't used that
term since we studied the "Garden of Earthy Delights") leaving raw glass on
each end of the middle piece, butt everything tight on install, and use a
few small blobs of black calk to simulate the missing solder joints. The
pattern is especially good for this, as well as for combining 1/8, 1/4, and
3/8 inch lead. I'm not wild about the idea of leading this one, but that
sure would help me sidestep Java's Cardiac Arrest prediction, which is
probably totally correct. I could use that brass-core 1/4" lead,
eliminating the (also probably sensible) requirement for rebar.

sigh

~s

~s