Inserting Armour-glass

Built and written by Håvard "katmai" Hanssen
Published 27 November 2000

I kinda don't like plexi... I don't know, its just a feeling I've got. So, when i decided to cut my case to shreds, I went down to the local glasshop, asking for a piece of advice. I explained my situation, and she told me that plexi does fade after a while, it also scratches a lot easier than real glass, but that real glass is way easier to break. I asked her what to do, and she took out this so-cool black hardened glass. She told me that a 5mm thick piece at the size I was looking for, (46x30cm) could suport a grown mans weight! It's supposed to resist a real hit with a hammer too, but I really don't want to try...
Anyway, good raw materials and the right equipment are vital for a good result, so I ordered the glass, and went down to fetch it the next day, cut, polished & ready... All for the price of a couple of cokes.

For the side-glass I've measured the size of an AOpen sidedoor, and included 1cm margin on every side for fastening. Side: 46 x 30cm. Top: 17 x 30cm.
There was one problem though. How was I supposed to fasten the glass? The situation called for some more pieces of advice, and I went down to the shop again.

There are many ways, I learned... the usual is to drill holes and use bolts, but armour glass is hard as hell, and I had a funny feeling about the result. What I did was I to try the silicon (sort of elastic glue for metal and glass) which she recomended, as it would absorbe shocks and hits applied.
Messing around in the basement, pissing my dad off, I found some leftovers from the creation of our new bathroom, where you use tons of it.

But before gluing, I had to cut the hole... and, no... I did NOT use a stupid dremel! I prefer heavy machinery. After all, there was modding-capable tools long before the dremel came our way. Such as this one:

YES! Our 2300 watt (more than your PSU! Draw 10 Amps @ 230 volts..) lethal disc-cutter, equipped with a diamond-reinforced carbonfibre blade... That's gotta hurt!

All though equipped with vast amounts of metal-cutting power, it proved inaccurate and too damn fast to hold. My testcutting on some spare metal all went straight to hell, so I tossed the plate over to our damn neighbour (and they later threw it back).

Making the victim sit still during the process is very important. Drawing pencil-lines as a guide-track is also quite smart for the best result.

A jigsaw! Yes! The perfect not-dremel-alternaive. I had lots of blades to choose from, I took the finest, made for fine cuts in steel. Most of me disliking the dremel is due to the fact that my father won't buy me one, and I use all my money on harddrives right now so... no dremel!

Going for the low-budget alternative on this one.. :( Major advantage is that you are in full and complete control. Major disadvantage: You get awfully tired! A cold coke recomended at least every 10th minute.

Hmm... I was supposed to give you some nice pictures of me doing the rest of the job, but som jerk messed around with my pictures. Anyway, after cutting the hole, you make sure the edge is real smooth, and you apply a 1mm thick, 1cm wide track of glue around the frame, and align the glass perfectly on it before wiping of extra glue with a wet towel piece of paper. Let dry twice the time on the tube, and the result could look something like this:

When finished wipe off dust, and mount it on your case. Congratulations!

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