New ¼” Laminated Solex Glass – Beveled Edges?

[sgharford]

I have six window frames out of main salon on my 43DC and at glass shop for new ¼” laminated Solex (green tint) glass. I saw a post from Lumina recently about using same glass and having problems with sharp corners of triangle piece all the way forward cracking over time due to angle. I also remember reading some time ago about a response from rsmith always having his replacement glass beveled on the edges to reduce stress.

Since I’m going from memory, does this sound right? I need to call glass shop this morning as he is cutting glass today.

[rsmith]

The glass guys say pollishing the edges relives the stress on the glass. When I had the windows tinted for the first time back in the 80's every window cracked within 6 months due to the concentrated heat.

[sgharford]

Thanks for reply Roger. I just called and they are sanding all the edges (like the orginals) so I assume that will distribute/relieve enough of the stress.

[Timeout]

Replaced mine without removing frames with new glass, fuzz, vinyl slides, etc. (ground edges on all glass). No problems in 5 years.

[Bill Root]

Replaced mine without removing frames with new glass, fuzz, vinyl slides, etc. (ground edges on all glass). No problems in 5 years.

I replaced all the glass on Tucandu (1973 43' DCMY) with solex. I had the edges sanded and the corners slightly rounded. We then took her on the Great Loop; 6,000 miles including quite a few rough weather days. Not one piece cracked. I think you will be fine.

[lumina]

Hi All,

Here's what we experienced with the 1/4" laminated, tinted, Solex PPG glass.

The "film" you see on the outside is silicon that hadn't been cleaned away at the time the picture was taken. Installation was done per accepted Hatteras/HOF procedure.

All four corner windows in the salon cracked to varying degrees in the tight triangular area within a year of instalation.

I did’t know about beveling the edges, maybe that would have helped?

[sgharford]

Gene - I appreciate you posting about it recently. Last week I was doing a search on "solex" to confirm that was in fact what my original green tinted glass was when I came across your fairly recent post regarding cracks and it got me thinking. About 48 hours later I remembered reading Roger's post from like 9 months ago regarding polished edges. That's why I try to read every thread on here as they come - there is a gem of information in nearly every thread. I then remembered from drafting classes some 20 years ago you always wanted to add a bevel to corners of machined objects to relieve the point stress sharp angles cause. I believe the more brittle the surface, the more you have to worry about sharp corners. It took the weekend for it all to gel when it came together this morning. Better late then never.