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Possible glass option

Started by fjdwheat, Oct 06, 2018, 03:47 am

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fjdwheat

Oct 06, 2018, 03:47 am Last Edit: Oct 06, 2018, 09:52 am by Scarfwearer
Just throwing a suggestion out there that might work.  For glass options I saw the plastic replacement lens on large fluorescent lights, the large 2x4 ones, come in a variety of textures.  One I saw looked like a very good pebbled glass look.  Just an observation.

Volpone

It's called "crackle" pattern.  It's what I used for my windows at first.  (Well it is still the base of my windows, but I've enhanced it since).  The thing I wound up doing for my pebbled glass was take clear acrylic beads and put them in a tinfoil form the size of a window pane and then bake them in the oven until they melted together.  It worked pretty well and the panes are surprisingly strong.  Like everything else, I don't think I ever got around to writing up a decent tutorial on it.  It did seem to work best to bake them, let them cool, and bake them a second time.  Possibly a chemist could tell you why this worked (or it could have just been my imagination too). 
"My dear Litefoot, I've got a lantern and a pair of waders, and possibly the most fearsome piece of hand artillery in all England. What could possibly go wrong?"
-The Doctor.

galacticprobe

Oct 06, 2018, 06:44 am #2 Last Edit: Oct 06, 2018, 06:52 am by galacticprobe
Here are the two fluorescent light diffuser panel styles I found (that weren't the "grid" pattern), and both come in clear and white translucent plastic. These are the "clear" ones:

Crackled-Ice.jpg
This is the "crackled" pattern that Other Steve (Volpone) mentioned. (In the store it's called "Crackled Ice".)

Prismatic.jpg
And here's one called "Prismatic". This is the one that has the "points and dimples" and what you see most in office buildings and even homes. (Some members have used this and taken a sander to the points to soften them some and give more of a "pebbled" look.)

For the "frosted" panes, these light diffusers also come in smooth frosted panels, though I don't know how they stack up to frosted perspex; I just know perspex is thicker than these.

Quote from: fjdwheat on Oct 06, 2018, 03:47 am
One I saw looked like a very good pebbled glass look.

Do you have an image of the ones you saw? Or were they like one of these above?

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"

fjdwheat

Dino, I don't have an image of the one I saw but both of these were there too.  It had a pebbled glass look and it wasn't in a set pattern.  The size of the pebbles was kind of small though compared to glass I have seen others use.  The product was at Fleet Farm.

galacticprobe

Oct 07, 2018, 05:13 am #4 Last Edit: Oct 07, 2018, 05:15 am by galacticprobe
Quote from: fjdwheat on Oct 06, 2018, 02:40 pm
I don't have an image of the one I saw but... It had a pebbled glass look and it wasn't in a set pattern. The size of the pebbles was kind of small though compared to glass I have seen others use.  The product was at Fleet Farm.


Do you think you could snap a photo of that cover with your phone camera the next time you stop in (for a browse)? It sounds like an interesting version of this light cover. I've searched the Fleet Farm web site for every form of "light cover" or "light diffuser" I could think of, and it wasn't coming up with anything. (Although I did see they had 2ft x 4ft LED trougher lights! I'm going to have to look around my area for those because I need to replace my trougher lights, and those are the only ones in my house that aren't LED yet. They're expensive, but thankfully I've only got two. It's amazing what you find when you're looking for something else.)

Anyway, a photo would be a huge help to everyone as it would show us just how much smaller those pebbles are, and how they compare to the other covers posted above.

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"

ciderman

Hey guys. This may be of interest to you. IKEA are selling this plastic roll for lining sliding drawers. I paid £2 for the roll.IMG_20181007_140300.jpgIMG_20181007_140417.jpgIMG_20181007_140426.jpgIMG_20181007_140432.jpg
I will be starting my build soon and thought this a good alternative to frosted glass etc. The roll is 150.4 cm X 50.4 and there's plenty to cover the windows.
Hope this is of interest.

russellsuthern

Looks good.

I used plain old bubble wrap for mine, but that looks neater :)


Regards,

Russell