Adama absolutly, that is the thing that has drawn me to it, first learning to make stained glass windows the old way from 3rd generation Irish "glass smith ? ?". Draw the patteren in duplicate cut one print apart lay the second down on plywood. Take the pieces of the cut up pattern use them to hold down on the selected piece of glass then cut the glass around the paper while holding it down to the glass, break it out down the score lines, with hands or nippers the older guy who taught me wouldn't even let me grind a piece that was little off I had to fit the original way. Then lay it on the plywood place lead came around it, nail to hold in place, rinse and repeat till window is done, finally solder all came junctions on one side flip and do it again. Quick and dirty discription, but yhea it is hard many ways and very weak in others. Just as a example you can't cut a piece that is less wide than the glass is thick. Then got involved with the tempering biz through my father who was the guy who oversaw the construction, installation, setup, and training of folks who purchased the oven.
But I would love to know just for academic reasons the hush hush way I'm dying here, I've been involved with glass in one aspect or another since I was 14. I know there are probably proprietary reasons you cannot say but you could always kill me after telling me LOL. I'm not activley involved with the business anymore anyway so what harm ? Maybe I could a trade you one of trade secrets I know about tempering
. Thanks for the reply I will be racking my brain about what you did for next few months, you have piqued my interest I might even have to ask around to find a buddy with a water jet I could experiment with. I guess it is true my late father who was a tempering guru, always said the family has glass dust in the blood........he was right.
Maybe it is just a matter of time till I cash in machining and scrape together the $750k -$1.2 mil and buy my own tempering oven !!!