All Knowledge is Contained in LiveJournal

[bohemiancoast]

OK, on the assumption that AKiCiLJ, I have two questions.

Firstly, one of the windows in our shed is broken. These are pieces of glass, essentially glued in place. It seems like a bit of a faff to get a glazier out, but is that the appropriate way to get something like this fixed? Or is there a standard size for shed-window glass, and a standard glue, and so on? Tips welcome.

Secondly, does anyone have a good method for labelling cables? Labels from our labeller fall off, pretty reliably. I have only a couple of hundred distinct cables, and it would be really handy to have labels on them.

Comments

[brisingamen.livejournal.com]

OK, bearing in mind I've never done this but I've seen it done about five hundred million times ... you need linseed putty, which even the Homebases of this world should be able to sell you, and you need a pane of glass from a glass merchant (there must be one somewhere near you). For this you need to clear out the broken glass and measure the size of the aperture (i.e. the space the glass is actually going to sit in, which is will be bigge than the outside aperture ... think of a picture frame). Buy piece of glass, which nice glass merchant will cut to size.

You need to bed the glass on linseed putty, so you need to line the inside of the aperture with a layer of putty. You'll need to 'work' it to soften it, then roll it into sausages and line out the aperture. Use more rather than little, as you can get rid of it later. Press glass into aperture. Putty will spurt out but don't worry.

Now, this is the bit that's tricky to describe but actually easy to do. Basically, you need to take lumps of softened putty and press them into place round the edge of the window to hold the glass in place. You do this with your thumb and kind of smooth the whole thing as you go along. Or use a putty knife (yes, such things exist, and are jolly useful for tidying up and smoothing down the surface at the end). Look at an existing window to see what the end result should look like, but basically you're forcing the putty in there to produce a watertight seal.

Leave to set, do not let small children stick their fingers in, but give them putty to play with. Putty is much better if it has been 'worked' a bit before being used, like plasticine. In fact, treat it as smelly plasticine for grown-ups.

But I can't help with the cable labelling ... we have problems here too.

[timill]

And see pickledginger below on using glaziers points to hold the glass in mechanically. I usually just use the smallest nails I have, with virtually no head on them, which work fine when driven in only halfway.

It's better to have the glass slightly smaller than the opening rather than slightly larger...