Fixing thin glas to a wooden display box – how?

I am making a simple medal case for someone. It is a basic wooden box with a lid that will rest on top just held in place with some silicon bumps or maybe a friction fit lip on the lid to press onto the box. The person does not want hinges for reasons I won’t go into.

Here is what I have come up with. THere will be a tilted velvet shelf in the bottom of the box to rest the medals on.

The question I have is how to fix the glass to the lid securely. It is glass from a picture frame so about 2mm thick and weighs very little. My first thought was to router a seat fo it in the lid edge but that still leaves me with the question of how to stick the glass to the wood.

Any suggestions for a simple, clean and subtle solution to this are more than welcome as I am struggling for ideas beyond superglue.

Sikaflex / Tigerseal? The type of stuff used to secure windscreens in cars. Total OTT but should work.

Or hot glue if you’re no longger doing the dent thing!

Superglue is often not the best choice & I wouldn’t use it here – too thin. My go-to glue is original Gorilla Glue (the brown stuff) as it expands a bit as it sets. Will look a bit ugly under the glass but you could always paint a little border on the the underside of the glass where you’ve glued?

Router a seat out then retain the glass with some thin wooden strips glued to the main carcass ; assuming there’s enough meat in the lid to do this?

Router out a seat on the inside and use some wood strip / moulding glued in place?

Beaten to it ^

I don’t much like superglue but mos others aren’t as transparent and discreet. I guess careful hot glue would work at a stretch.

There is lots of sentiment and emotion associated with this so I don’t want it to look crap.

I would go for a clear silicone because if you balls it up, it’s easy to remove/redo whereas Gorilla glue is literally $hit-to-a-blanket and would be a pain to remove.

Hoff – that is sort f where my thoughts are taking me. If I get a piece of darker wood the same size and thickness as the current lid I could router half the glass depth out of each and glue them together with the glass sandwiched. That would also add a nice dark feature line between the box and the lid.

Now which wood and where from (Southampton based) unless someone comes up with a better suggestion.

Gorilla glue is literally $hit-to-a-blanket and would be a pain to remove.

that is true (and is the main reason I use it!) but it does take a little while to set so can be repositioned before it cures, so as long as you make sure you’ve got it in the right place before then you’re ok 😂

Yep Nick, BiL a bespoke framer, always rambling on about it and sending me pics (couple of banksy’s last week a Picasso week before, Also does the huge Miners banners – tbf he loves his work and it looks stunning).
He would make/router a deep frame with a lip to hold the glass then make a surround to hold the glass against the frame/mount. Medals displayed on the mount.  Conservation glass for UV protection, especially if medals have ribbons. He is obsessive about level of detail.
He did something similar to mount a 17th century mechanical computer (only one still in existence?) for some guy who was very successful in the gaming industry. Added interior lighting as well.

Thin strips of 3m foam. 2mm float that size won’t weigh much.

Ideally I’d avoid gluing glass to wood. In some circumstances (probably not these) it can interfere with free movement but the other thing is that if the glass ever breaks, it’s horrible to try and remove.

As above, if you are doing it properly(and it sounds like you need to be), you want a nice, clean rebate that’s deep enough to take the glass and a nicely mitred bead fitted to secure it.

You can get little metal tabs you can prefit to the routed wood (make sure it’s a couple of mm wider), and then fold the tabs older – we have this arrangement on some glass cabinets. Usually sealed in with a bit of hot melt or clear silicon in a couple of areas, used sparingly.

Yeah.. clear sillicone sealent, like bathroom type stuff was my first thought.

Can you cut this glass down yourself ? Or did you buy it without knowing how it would be fixed and thought what the hell.

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You need to run a rebate around the inside of the box lid. So get out the router, take the lid section off, place it onto the bench and with a bearing guided rebate cutter go around the inside.

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The corners will be rounded, so take a sharp chisel and make them square.

You can then have the glass cut to size to fit into this recess. Its fixed in place with thin strips panel pinned or better still screwed into the edge.

Clear silicone would probably be ok.

Plenty of 2k acrylics would work but would be pricey.

Easiest option might be to consider a 3M tape? Vhm stuff?

As you’ve made the door/lid already :roll: this vid, 5 mins in will best explain the process to you

Steer well clear of Silicone . It will ruin the whole box . Any stray bits , even if wiped off, will prevent your final finish from adhering to the wood. In short , it will look crap!

Rout a rebate under the lid and use glazing bars to hold the glass in place, with very fine application of acrilic putty to stop the glass rattling.

I have decided to go with another thin lid piece like the oak one I have but in a dark wood. Both ‘lids’ will have a shallow rebate that combined will hold the glass. This will avoid the need for glue. I was thinking of gluing mainly because there isn’t enough depth on the lid as it is to inset the glass and I hadn’t thought of sandwiching it between two pieces when I first posted this.

I cut the glass and sanded the edges myself from a broken piece out of one of my framed paintings that knocked off the wall. It is the only bit big enough for what I wanted. I wasn’t really expecting it to work as I have never cut glass before but it is fine so I might as well use it.

I will post the end result on the What was the last thing you made thread if you are interested in seeing how it turns out. It takes a lot more time and thought to make things that have to be ‘nice’ rather than just making things for fun.

Agree with not using silicon or glue. Go with the routed rebated then use panel pins to hold the glass in place, just as you would with a piece of wood. If panel pins look to weedy, go for oval nails.

What could possibly go wrong?

Is it possible to do something like this WCA?

Make a rebate for the glass thickness into some small section, and make that fit internally inside the box rim.

Glue that to your top frame and then the glass is captive and also your lid has a positive ‘capture’ inside the box.

Highly detailed cross-sectional drawing below 

A little tip for making mouldings yourself. It can be sketchy trying to cut a moulding or rebate into a tiny section of timber, so keep your board wide at first and cut your rebate into it.

THEN cut off the section you want.

Clean the edge up and repeat.

Thank you Mr Kayak – that diagram is exactly what I could have done with when I started as it shows the ideal design. I will be working on and adjusted version f that based on what I have done so far.

Thanks for the tip on the routing of little bits. It is so obvious that it doesn’t need saying – once it has been said.

Aye, so much of life is like that 😂

Will there be blood?

Will there be blood? Already has been. I was so carefully focussed on holding the glass in place and lining up the steel rule as a guide for the cutter that I didn’t spot that I was resting my arm/elbow on the blade of the craft knife until I lifted my are and the knife lifted slightly off the bench before dropping and making me lose the damnded line again.

End Result
The main box is oak with a curved bevel sapele layer on the base of the lid to allow it to be easily lifted.The lid is lightly help in place by three magnets as the instructions were quite clear about not screwing it down, no fixed door or hinges etc. The black velvet lines shelf is sloping at about 25 degrees towards your line of vision to better view the medals.

For the glass I ended up fitting a strip of thin wood (an old wooden Venetian blind flaty) to the lid around the outside of the glass. This was the same thickness as the glass. I then cut some Sapele trim to glue to that and act as a sandwich against the oak to hold the glass in. Unfortunately the Sapele trim is slightly narrower than the oak but this is only seen when you turn the lid upside down. I have decided that this is not an issue but, if fact, a feature to allow a wider field of view of the medals within the box when it is in place.

Nice 👍🏻

A friend of mine is starting a glass coffin business. Wheather it’ll succeed or not remains to be seen.

Nice 👍….and no blood stains 😁