Source of Glass Plates

For those of you who coat your own emulsion (or do wet plate, etc.). Where do you source your glass from?

I use a vendor on AliBaba that provides custom cut ~1mm thick float glass. For orders around ~100-200 plates plus freight, it works out to ~$1 per 4x5 or $3 per 8x10. Of course, higher volume would be cheaper since shipping from China is most of the cost.

Surplus Shed also sells 12x12" 1mm plates for cheap, but I could never get them to cut smoothly despite many attempts (including with a CNC laser!). Of course, you can also buy 16x20" panes of ~2.4mm window glass from the hardware store and cut by hand with a wheel cutter, but I much prefer the thinner plates and I 3D-print most of my holders / coating frames / etc., so tolerances are tight enough that hand-cut glass was very frustrating to work with.

I use 2mm picture framing glass. I started by scavenging old picture frames but then bought ten sheets of 4x5 foot from a supplier in Glasgow. I'm OK to use 2mm because I use book form plate holders or microtechnica 4x5 holders. 2mm plates won't slide into a holder.

2mm does mean the plates are tough and so I keep reusing them. I don't use chrome alum so it is quite easy to clean up a plate with hot soapy water and use it again. I only keep images that I think have worked.

Every now and then I think I should make a movie of my whole process but the only bit I have ever actually filmed is the plate preparation. I put a very long/rough cut of this on YouTube for someone here


This is literally our kitchen table. Note the ketchup bottle. My wife is probably putting ground glass in my food already anyway

Looking at ProfessorC1983's comments I wonder if I should just order from China.

p.s. Cutting glass is actually quite easy if you obey three rules. 1) Always cut a sheet in half - or at least cut a large % of it off. 2) One definite stroke with the cutter followed by gentle bend on straight edge. 3) Don't worry about wastage too much. Start by cutting large plates (whole plate) and if you mess them up cut the remains into half plates or 4x5. If you end up with a bit smaller than you can used just chuck it out and move on.

For 8x10 (or 18x24cm) I use glass scavenged from faulty canon printers (scanners) - it is 3mm but I can fit that easily to the holders I have.
for smaller (4x5 or 9x12cm) I just got 2mm glass from glass maker found online.

If you cut glass get sharpening stone and grind edges. Saves you a lot of money on plasters...

Cheapest option would be contacting glass / framing stores in your area. After calling around I was able to purchase a box of 90 8x10 panes of plain glass for 55$ which brings my per 4x5 plate cost down to roughly 0.15 cents. The big issue with this glass is that it's fairly thick (2mm) and requires a holder that can accommodate the size. My old wooden Graflex plate holders fit them just fine but I've had issues with my 6x4.5, RB67, and Linhof plate holders so you need to be careful to measure and see if they'll fit. It also makes the plates/holders heavier than thinner glass. Cutting is simple with a straight edge and glass rotary cutter and can be made basically fool proof if you build a jig.