If you have kids or have kids in the neighborhood, sooner or later you will have a broken window as a homeowner. If you're Irish and drink you will have a lot of broken glass (only kidding). Cutting glass for a pane replacement is an art. I once replaced a pane of glass and it was a major project for a numbnuts.

I needed a small pane of glass replaced on my side door. I also had a busted vinlyl window upstairs through both panes that I had taped and lived with for about 15 years. No good.

I go to Home Depot the other day, buy some glass, and try to cut the glass for the side door (about 15" by 10"). I score it well and then it snaps wrong.

Some pros came in today and fixed my glass problems for $110.00 cash (no tax). Twenty-five minutes. Two men. I watched one man work the 60-year-old tacks out of the side door, admire that old worker's craftsmanship, and replace the glass like he was handling a newborn. The man upstairs took out the double-paned vinyl window, took it out to his truck, and laid in new glass with the vacuum seal like he was handling One-Eyed Kathy for the hundreth time.

I'm OK with electrical work and carpentry and painting and sheetrock as a homeowner but some things are best left to the pros that make a living out of their trade. Some guys just do it better than you can. My wife has been telling me that for more than 30 years at night time.

Repacing glass is an art that I have never learned and I tip my cap to those people that can do it.

I broke both for everyones info! LOL One of them I was trying to get into house after being shot at and the other I threw a cup that bounced off a couch and thru the window while mad at pop. DOOOOH!!!

Hey Larry, how long have I been posting on all these horse boards? Its been years right? Are you going to tell me you never knew I owned a glass shop? I've worked in glass since 1971 and opened my own business in 1983! So you go out and hire glaziers you don't even know! If nothing else I could have saved you a hundred dollars or more. All you had to do was ask. I could have walked you thru it or sent you a piece of safty glass for your door. Call me a Van Scammer. Call me a NY Boat owner, but don't ignore my 38 years in the glass business. Like me not knowning you were a Marine.

.......................................john

Jesus H. Christ, John, I would have had you here in a heartbeat out of Brooklyn, NY but Brooklyn, CT is a long throw.

When I cannot do a repair or make things better on the homestead with my skills I go local. You would have been here in a hurry and lost a fortune on gas alone. One grey-haired guy knew about the tiny nails that held in the pane of glass on the side door (62-years old is the door) and tapped it all out without bothering the three other panes of glass. It was like the smooth fellow that took One-Eyed Kathy away from me in 1969.

O'K, logistically it could have been a problem, but I could have at least mailed out the glass packed into a foam and cardboard box for you. I would have sanded(seamed) the sharp edges and it would have been pre-cut to your exact opening size. Next time take a picture of the broken glass and email me before spending your wife's house repair money! This advice also applies to all members of our horseboard here.

Those measurements to 15 and 3 quarters can keep you awake at night when the real deal is 15 and 7 eighths.

Guys that work glass have my admiration.

Anybody that works a deal with their hands is worth a salute. As a little boy I used to bop next door to Erwin's house, a Korean vet. His Pop was a widower and lived there too. The old man had a '47 yellow Plymouth convertible. He would hang out in his son's garage and make things out of wood. Lamps, balustrades for the porch, a step for the stairs, a coffee table for the old lady down the street. No power tools, no nothing beyond hand tools. Hand sand until it was right.

The old man Mr. Erwin used to say to me, "Larry, you just get a feeling for wood. You just feel it through the job and you'll know if it's going OK. Your hands are key. Your hands can make make something happen if your brain is attached to them."

Nineteenth century men weren't a bad bunch to know.

One time I was jerking a bat and ball in Reisert's lot on the corner of Booth Street and Nassau Parkway in Hempstead, NY. One ball I spanked went into Shea's window at 36 Booth Street. I was terrified. I was 10.

Mrs. Shea got me and told me to not worry. The window would be repaired, my old man would not be told, and her three sons would not beat the hell out of me.

That was spanking the trifecta back then!

Jack,
Do you repair glasses too? I got punched in the eye with my glasses on back in the 70's. Still have the old frame I could send you the frame

One time as an 11-year-old I got belted with an uppercut that sent my glasses up and away into the lower fuselage of a low-flying aircraft trying to get into Mitchel Field.

Hey' OG, I'm not licensed to repair or replace your prescriptions, but I have several eye doctor customer friends that are. If you have any loose dentures we can get them repaired also. The part of Connecticut where I live is refered to as "The Quiet Corner"(northeast corner). We like to help one another out.