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Glass Panel Kitchen Cabinet Doors

Glass Panel Kitchen Cabinet Doors (post #169697)

dcaswell on Tue, 01/31/2012 - 13:59

New To Woodworking

We are in the process of remodeling our kitchen where we are using the existing stained oak cabinets and painting them. The problem we have run into is with the cabinet doors that have glass panes.

We would like to remove the glass so that we can clean/sand/prime/paint the doors. Unfortunately, the glass was glued into the frames.

Does anyone have any suggestions of how to remove the glued glass panels? We tried a blow dryer thinking the heat might make the glue give a little, but no luck!

Any help is much appreciated!!

As Mother said, it depends (post #169697, reply #1 of 6)

by RalphBarker in reply to dcaswell [original] on Wed, 02/01/2012 - 06:42

Much depends on how the doors are constructed. Photos of the front and back sides of one of the doors would help.

Leave-em (post #169697, reply #2 of 6)

by bones in reply to dcaswell [original] on Wed, 02/01/2012 - 08:10

Glued? I'd leave em, get some good tape and tape all the panels and leave extra at the ege of the panels up on the wood and trim flush with a razor blade. Do what you have to do and remove the tape and it's done. Make a small sanding block for that very edge that would touch the glass. You may fuzz the tape but not much. I use frog tape It seems to hold better at the edges than the blue stuff. Worth the money. If you lay it down partially overlapping each row, you can grab it at a corner and pull the whole thing off in one motion. I used this method all the time and no issues.

...For that old machine lovers: http://vintagemachinery.org/home.aspx

Leave them in! (post #169697, reply #3 of 6)

by Mike_D in reply to dcaswell [original] on Wed, 02/01/2012 - 19:41

The glued in glass pane is a structural member.

Go to FWW's short video tips "There's a better way" and look up the latest one on using frog tape and latex caulk to make a bomb proof paint seal at the tape edge. Do that and refinish with no risk of getting finish on the glass.

Mike

Leave them in! (post #169697, reply #4 of 6)

by Mike_D in reply to dcaswell [original] on Wed, 02/01/2012 - 19:42

The glued in glass pane is a structural member.

Mike

Thanks for the replies so far... (post #169697, reply #5 of 6)

by dcaswell in reply to dcaswell [original] on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 09:03

I snapped some pictures this morning of the back...which is really where the problem lies. Since the glass was just glued in, there are no wood support pieces to 'frame-out' the backs of the glass. Thus if we were to tape off and paint as some have suggested, that will work for the fronts, but on the backs, some of the stained wood will still show through from behind the glass. Any other suggestions? Are we out of luck?

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fill em (post #169697, reply #6 of 6)

by bones in reply to dcaswell [original] on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 11:49

Make some strips of qtr round that will fill a majority of the space except the rounded corners. Put a touch of glue in and make as tight as possible and pin em in. Then (don't laugh) get some bondo fill in the gap(in then rounded corner area) and blend to match as it hardens it wont take but a few minutes. You can mold it with an exacto knife for a short period and sand flush. You can then paint. Furniture restorers use bondo all the time to fill areas in painted pieces. Once set it's permanent and takes paint like a dream. Don't sweat the backs too much if its not perfect.

you could make a mock up with the same radies and practice to get your tecniqe down.

...For that old machine lovers: http://vintagemachinery.org/home.aspx