Contact printing frame glass

pfrand · Mar 23, 2023

I have an old contact printing frame that is missing the piece of glass. Glass size would be 10.5" x 14" Can anyone recommend what width glass I should use? I found an earlier post that recommended 1/4" glass. Does that sound about right?

Thanks,

Peter

fgorga · Mar 23, 2023

I just went and measured the glass in some of my split back frames. These ranging in size from ones that take 5x7 inch paper to ones that take 16x20 inch paper, most take 8x10 inch paper. Many different 'brands' and vintages.

Interestingly, the smallest frames have the thickest glass... 1/8 inch. All of the rest have 3/32 inch glass.

One the very rare occasion that I have to replace a piece of glass, I just go to the hardware store and have them cut a piece of standard window glass

koraks · Mar 23, 2023

fgorga said:
just go to the hardware store and have them cut a piece of standard window glass

And that's really all there is to it.
The cheapest window glass around here is currently 3mm. I'll leave it to you to figure out what that is in imperial, but in the end, it doesn't matter.
In one frame I use 5mm glass because I wanted it to be more sturdy. It mostly made the whole thing a lot heavier.

5artist5 · Mar 23, 2023

I just had a piece of 1/4" glass cut for me for printing without a frame. It seems very thick. I like it though for non frame printing because it's heavy and I don't need to use clips with it.

pfrand · Mar 24, 2023

Thanks a lot for the advice!

Contact printing frame glass

pfrand

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