Glass Table Tops of America

There are many wonderful glass tabletop options for just about every room in the home. Whether you are dressing up a formal dining room, adding a sophisticated breakfast nook to your kitchen, or giving your end tables a little style, glass tabletops can make a big impact on any living space. Not only is glass a classically beautiful look in just about every room, but it is also an easy-to-clean, functional alternative to traditional wood surfaces. Use these simple cleaning and care tips to keep your glass tabletop looking clear and clean.

Use a quality glass cleaner. Perhaps the best way to clean your glass tabletop is to use a high-quality glass cleaner. These cleaners can be found in the supermarket and come in a variety of formulas. Be sure to look for a streak-free version that will make your table come crystal clean. Simply spray the glass cleaner on the glass and use a soft cleaning rag or paper towel to wipe until the glass is dry. A quick clean every few days should be enough to keep your glass tabletop sparkling.

Protect the surface. Another wonderful way to take care of your glass tabletop is to invest in a glass top protector. Perfect for when the table is being used for projects or when it will be covered with a cloth, a glass tabletop protector can extend the life of your glass top by years. Although a protector can be pricey, it is worth the investment to keep your glass top looking brand new and scratch free.

Don’t abuse your glass top. One of the most important ways to maintain your glass tabletop is to follow the weight limits set for each tabletop. Placing more on the table than is recommended can result in shattering or cracking. Be sure to know the limits of each glass tabletop in your home and be careful never to exceed those limits. Likewise, try not to place items on the edges of the glass top but rather distribute weight evenly.

Avoid scratches. Just as with any wood table surface, glass can be susceptible to scratching. To keep your glass tabletop looking new, avoid placing items on its surface that could cause scratching. Use placemats for dining table surfaces and put a protective barrier between decorations and the glass. If you do happen to scratch your glass top, there are many easy-to-use buffing solutions that will make small scratches disappear. The best way to avoid scratches is to protect your glasstop with a tabletop pad.

A glass tabletop can be a large investment. Taking care of the glass can extend its life and give you years of return on your purchase. Being sensible about how you use your glass tabletop as well as following some simple cleaning tips will help to maintain the shape of your glass tabletop and make your home a more beautiful place.

If you are looking to transform your dining room from a boring, typical space to a gorgeous, attractive oasis, consider going with a glass table top.  For a simple and quick way to give your dining room a facelift, switching to a glass top can add elegance and grace to your room while maintaining the functionality that everyone seeks in a dining room.  Follow these simple tips to get the best glass table top for your needs and take your dining space form bland to brilliant.

·      What shape do you want?  Glass table tops come in a variety of shapes to suit your needs.  You can go with the traditional dining shape, rectangular, and maintain the customary dining table look.  A rectangular table allows your guests to be seated across from one another and makes passing food and conversation easy.  Another benefit of a rectangular table is the ease of seating.  It is easy to place chairs and benches around a rectangular table.  There is little leg bumping or squishing required to seat all guests.  Not only do you get a traditional look from a rectangular table, but you also achieve a classic look of glass, giving any room instant glamour.  Or perhaps a circular table would more suit your needs.  A circular table, although not able to seat as many people as a rectangular table, can give the diners a more relaxed, conversational feel.  Deciding what shape to go with can be a great place to start when choosing your new glass dining table top.

·      What size do you need?  Depending on the amount of guests that you wish to serve, you can decide on the size of table top to order.  For example, a 36-inch round table top will seat four people comfortably, whereas a 48-inch by 96-inch rectangular table top will seat twelve to fourteen people comfortably.  Consider the amount of entertaining you would like to do as well as how many people will regularly dine at your table.  Generally, a rectangular table will seat more people and may be the better choice for you if you plan to have frequent dinner parties or events.  When in doubt, it is always better to go a size bigger than you think you need.  This way, if unexpected guests or visitors show up, there is always ample space for  them.

·      Do you like a decorative touch?  The wonderful thing about a glass table top is the ability to customize it in so many different ways.  Because a glass top is easy to etch and carve, it is often a simple request in order to add a gorgeous touch onto your table top, such as an etched design or a custom edge.  The most popular customization is the addition of a beveled edge.  This is a simple angle carved into the edge of the glass that gives it a beautiful decorative touch.  This is often done one-inch from the true edge of the glass.  Another popular option is the engraving of a design around the edge.  This may be a flower-type design or a simple frosted line.  Whatever you choose, adding an engraved look to your glass table top can give it an added elegance and sophistication.

There are many things to consider as you shop for your new glass table top.  One of the major benefits of a glass dining table is that it is easy to clean.  No more table cloths to protect precious wood.  No more ugly pads to protect your table.  No more smelly oils and cream to make your table shine.  A glass top is best cleaned with a simple glass cleaner or even just a warm sponge.  The hassle of cleaning is much less with a glass table top, making your dining and entertaining experience that much easier.  As you shop for a glass dining table top, keep in mind the shape, size and customizations you are looking for.  This will make shopping a breeze and will bring you one step closer to the dining table of your dreams.

Most glass is a mixture of a large amount of silica that comes from fine white sand or pulverized sandstone, combined with smaller amounts of an alkali like soda (sodium bicarbonate) or potash to lower its melting point, and lime (from limestone) to help stabilize the mixture and ultimately make the glass stronger and water-resistant. These elements are naturally occurring throughout North America.

The silica, soda and lime are fused together at extremely high temperatures. By adding other substances during the process, the properties of the glass can be altered, including its color, how reflective it is, how brilliant or sparkling it looks, how well it acts as an insulator and more. Bits of old or broken glass from previous manufacturing, called ‘cullet’ is usually recycled into the mix. However, it is not just these additives alone that affect the final piece of glass, but also the way in which it is heated, cooled and formed.

First, the silica/soda/lime mixture is heated in melting furnaces to approximately 2,500° Fahrenheit, sometimes for as long as 24 hours. The molten glass is then cooled several hundred degrees, to a temperature at
which it can be worked. At this stage the glass is an orange-red color and looks like a thick liquid. The glass has to be worked quickly to form it into the desired shape, because as the glass cools it becomes hard. The glass can now be blown, pressed, drawn or rolled. Finally, when the glass is formed into the desired shape, it is placed in a ‘lehr’ oven to be ‘annealed.’ This special process eliminates areas of stress in the glass to strengthen it, by cooling it down at controlled temperatures.

To blow glass, a blob of molten glass is placed at the end of a long, hollow iron blowpipe. Air is blown in and causes the glass to form into a pear-shaped bulb, which is then rolled on an oiled slab, shaped with tools and sometimes re-blown into a mold. To keep the glass from hardening during this process, it is periodically re-heated in small ovens. If the glass is to be engraved, copper wheels are used, and if it is to be etched, hydrofluoric acid does the job.

For glass bottles, a molten glass bubble is employed. It is placed in a mold, and the air pressure in the bubble forces the glass against the side of the
mold. Once the glass cools and hardens, the mold is opened and a newly-made glass bottle removed.

Pressed glass, which offers better control of the glass’s density than blowing, was the first glass to be manufactured on a large scale with the invention of a glass-pressing machine in the U.S. in the 1920s. This worked by taking the molten glass from the furnace and dividing it up into small sections. These would be placed in molds made of iron or brass. A plunger would press the glass down into the mold, and after a few seconds it was ready.

Because the cold metal of the mold would produce wrinkles in the hot glass, intricate patterns were used to disguise the flaws. It wasn’t until twenty years later that a technique was developed to heat the molds to very high temperatures before dropping in the molten glass, which eliminated the wrinkles. The decorative patterns accordingly became simpler.

Drawn glass is the process used to manufacture tube and rod-shaped glass, as well as some sheet glass. To make tubes, the molten glass gets drawn over a hollow cylinder or cone that has air blowing through it, to keep it from collapsing until the glass hardens around it. The tube can be drawn out horizontally, vertically, or at an angle. Conversely, to make glass rods, the air inside the cylinder or cone is eliminated.

Rolled glass is used for some flat glass, and means that the sheet of glass rolls along the assembly line as it is manufactured. Because of the type of metal used in the rollers, they aren’t damaged by the heat of the molten glass. However, the glass can wind up with a rough surface. When this process was first developed, molten glass was poured onto large tables and then rolled flat onto plates. After it cooled, the glass was ground and polished.

Then a series of innovations began at the turn of the last century and continued through the first world war, improving the quality and economy of both drawn, sheet glass and rolled glass.

Float glass is the most widely used type of flat glass today. It was first developed after the second world war by a British company but not introduced to the market until they felt it was perfected, in 1959. Its manufacture is unique because the molten glass is formed by floating it on a bed of molten tin kept at high temperature. The glass spreads out and flattens, and is then drawn out into a continuous glass ribbon. The surface of the glass winds up being extremely smooth, with a brilliant finish like sheet glass, plus the optical quality of plate glass.

Cutting and drilling glass is a fine art. If the glass needs to be cut it must first be scored with a glass-cutter wheel. Pressure is then applied across the score to force a break. Another way to cut glass is thermally. This can be done with a focused flame heating a narrow strip of the glass. A water jet is then directed on the heated strip to break the glass. Or, a ring of focused flames are used to heat a particular area of the glass until it becomes soft enough to pull apart. Glass can be drilled, with either a steel drill, a tungsten-carbide drill, or for the best control, quality and speed of production, a diamond core drill.

Glass is categorized by its composition. The most common – ninety percent of manufactured glass – is so-called soda glass, the combination of silica, soda and lime. Although it’s the cheapest to make, it is also the least resistant to high temperature, or sudden changes in temperature, or chemicals.

Lead glass will usually have at least twenty percent lead oxide content. It looks brilliant in the light, especially when cut and faceted, and is more expensive that soda glass. But similar to soda glass, lead glass will also not do well with high temperature or sudden changes in temperature.

For better resistance to temperature changes and chemicals, the more expensive borosilicate glass is used. It has a minimum of 5% boric oxide, and is used to make light bulbs, sealed-beam headlights, bakeware and labware. And even more durable than borosilicate glass is aluminosilicate glass.

Fiberglass and foam glass are mostly used for insulation purposes. To make fiberglass, the molten glass is formed into continuous, hair-like glass filaments. Foam glass is made by trapping gas bubbles in the glass, creating an almost spongy consistency.

Colored glass is made by adding chemicals into the mix, with particular chemicals creating specific colors. For example, the amber or brown glass you see used in beer bottles gets its color from iron sulphide. Iron-chromite creates shades of green, while cobalt makes beautiful shades of blue.

A mirror is any smooth surface that reflects back an image of an object. This happens when the light rays – called photons – coming from that object (for example, your face) hit the smooth surface of the mirror and bounce back at the same angle at which they hit the object. When the photons hit a rough surface they scatter and so can’t cause a reflection.

But not every smooth surface creates a reflection. That’s because some of these surfaces absorb the photons hitting them so they’re unable to bounce back. What’s more, when we do stand in front of a reflecting surface like a mirror, not all the photons that bounce off us will hit the mirror, because our bodies are rough objects themselves. But enough do bounce back that an image is formed, at exactly the same angle at which the photons hit the mirror. And keep in mind, the mirror image is actually backwards, as you can easily see if you stand in front of it holding a newspaper or magazine.

Mirrors are usually made of clear plate glass that has one side coated with a metal film to create the reflecting surface, called ‘silvering’. Where the surface and the glass meet is called the ‘mirror line.’ The most common type
of mirror is the plane mirror, which has a flat surface. The rays of light that hit it are reflected back virtually unchanged, so the position of the image in the mirror is the same distance as the real object in front of it, and its size is the same size. You experience this every time you stand in front of the mirror in the bathroom – the closer you stand to the mirror, the closer your image appears in it.

Convex and concave mirrors – also known as ‘spherical mirrors’ – alter the look of the original object and the distance it appears to be in the mirror. A concave mirror (think of it as being ‘caved in’) has the mid-point of the reflecting surface farther away from the object in front of it than the edges. So the image that forms in a concave mirror depends on where it is in relation to the center of the mirror. It may be larger, smaller, or the same size. It may be upside down or right side up, and will be distorted from the real object.

Conversely, a convex mirror has the mid-point of the reflecting surface closer to the object than the edges, so the image that forms is consistently
smaller than the real object in front of it, and standing upright. It will also be distorted. For example, drivers will stick a small convex mirror on their car or truck’s rear-view mirror to get a ‘bigger picture’ of what’s behind them than a regular, plane-type mirror shows.

Two-way mirrors are a special kind of mirror, usually used for observation and security purposes. They are sometimes also called one-way mirrors or see-through mirrors. You’ve probably seen them in action on tv shows or in movies where an interrogation is taking place. The perp is questioned in a room that has a mirror, while detectives observe him from behind the mirror in an adjoining room. So how come the criminal sees only his reflection but the cops see clear through the glass?

The answer is actually pretty simple. The two-way mirror in fact has only a very thin layer of reflective material applied to the glass. In fact, it’s so thin it’s referred to as being ‘half-silvered,’ as opposed to ‘silvered’ which is how you’d describe a regular mirror. So only half of the light that hits the mirror gets reflected, while the other half passes through it.

But with only half the reflecting power, you’d think the criminal would be able to see the detectives. The reason why he can’t is the way the two rooms are lit. If you watch the interrogation scene, you’ll notice the room with the criminal is brightly lit, so there is enough light to hit the mirror and reflect back his image. However, the room with the detectives is dark, so there’s not enough light to pass through that side of the glass back into the interrogation room.

Here’s another way to think of it: if the perp were to suddenly jump up and switch off the lights in the interrogation room, or if one of the cops accidentally turned on the lights in the observation room, the two-way mirror would act like a window, with everyone being able to see each other perfectly clearly.