Eyeballing tempered glass?

vwluv10338

Premium Member
Is there any way to tell if glass is tempered by looking at it? After doing some research I realized my 55 broke while drilling because it was tempered all around. My problem is if I buy another 55 how can I tell if the sides are tempered?

Eric
 
no..... call the company that makes the tank and ask them what was tempered.
It should be just the bottom pane... but call to make sure.
 
Somebody posted that tempered is very hard and if you tried to cut with a glass cutter it would not scratch the glass. They said that they marked out where they were going to cut and tried to mark the hole with a glass cutter and it scratched it pretty easy so it was not tempered.
 
I'm not sure that I would do that. I too once tried to cut a piece of glass with a cutter and it just broke into a million pieces.
I would go with getting the manufacturer to drill the hole or maybe buy a tank that may already be drilled.
Good luck Luis
 
Thats what I'm doing with my 215,
Oceanic will drill the holes in the bottom and then temper the glass from what I'm told.
 
Look at it through crossed polarizers - tempered glass usually shows a lot of strain bifringence. Get some polaroid material (cheap plastic clip-on shades will work) and view through the glass with one sheet on each side rotated 90 degrees to each other. For instance, clip on one pair to your glasses, hold the other polarizer in front of your light source and rotate it until you get maximum extinction. Now insert the glass in question between the polaroids. Tempered glass will exhibit distinct patterns of dark and light bands or other shapes. You might even get groovy colors. If you can see through the glass edge-on, then it will show a dramatic pattern of colored bands parallel to the faces. If you see no patterns, and light is evenly extinguished as you look through it, then it is not tempered and is pretty well annealed.

Finally, you can examine the glass closely for any brand name etched into it. Examine the edge for any sign of fire polishing. Examine the surface for little dimples where tongs may have indented the glass. Any of these indicate tempering, and you should not try to cut or grind this glass, or you will have a terrible mess.
 
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