More Breaking Glass

GenJerDan

GenJerDan

Veteran
I need to break a glass jar. (Not on-camera...I just need the pieces)

There's a little voice in the back of my head telling me that if I "draw" lines on the glass with rubber cement, then burn the cement, the glass will break along the lines.

Is the voice lying to me? Is it just a by-product of my mispent youth?

Dan
 
Re: More Breaking Glass

i dunno about that...but...

my mom does alot of stained glass work. and she uses this little blade with a diamond tip to score the glass, then she just takes to pliers and snaps the glass...and it almost always snaps the glass along the lines.

looks like this

02-bw.gif


maybe you could go to a arts and crafts place to pick one up...

also i found this site...

http://www.glassmart.com/cutters_menu.htm
 
Re: More Breaking Glass

This might sound retarded, but, if you just need it broken, in no particular fashion, you could just throw it at a wall, drop it on the ground, or give it to a homeless man (they always find ways to break ****)
 
Re: More Breaking Glass

Ok, I'm guessing you need to break the glass in specific shaped pieces otherwise why the heck would you be asking us how to break glass? :D

Rich has the correct answer. A glass cutter will allow you score the surface and then break it along those lines. You can use the other end of the cutter to tap the scored sections to help seperate (break) the glass. I would highly recommend safety glasses and gloves. Also, it's a bit harder to cut rounded shapes but it's possible.
 
Re: More Breaking Glass

I have NEVER gotten a glass cutter to work on plate glass, let alone rounded glass like a jar. :D It must be me, since other people can do it.

The problem is I need broken jar...but hitting it with a hammer just makes too many little peices. I want chunks.

Had a brilliant idea: fill the jar to the tippy-top with water, screw the lid on and freeze it.

The frozen water unscrewed the lid and expanded straight up. That'd never happen if you wanted it to.

Maybe I'll just rewrite the script.

Dan
 
Re: More Breaking Glass

Hi,

I ‘m in/have a glass business - let me know what exactly you’re looking for - I’ll try and help

- Cheers
 
Re: More Breaking Glass

Thanks for the offer, but I think I "solved" the problem.

I hit the damn thing with the hammer while the water was still frozen in it. Broke just enough to suit my purposes. :D

Dan
 
Re: More Breaking Glass

Bwahahaha... :D

GenJerDan - Sorry, off topic, but I just noticed the details of your avatar and the direction your DVX is pointing. I can't believe I didn't notice that before. Very funny.
 
Re: More Breaking Glass

[quote author=GenJerDan link=board=fx;num=1098568875;start=0#6 date=10/24/04 at 12:37:48]Thanks for the offer, but I think I "solved" the problem.

I hit the damn thing with the hammer while the water was still frozen in it.  Broke just enough to suit my purposes.  :D

Dan[/quote]

Good stuff - Never hurts to experiment (unless it’s the car driving off cliff scene)
 
Re: More Breaking Glass

[quote author=Hans link=board=fx;num=1098568875;start=0#7 date=10/24/04 at 14:49:51]Bwahahaha...   :D
..[/quote]

Thank you. :)

Dan
 
Now that we've been over breaking a glass bottle that doesn't need to be on screen, I need to know how to show two perfume-sized bottles (small) shatter on screen. We'd prefer not to shoot only the bottle body, but have discussed doing a partial shot and nailing them on the neck with a hammer out of frame, if necessary.
I'm willing and relatively able to cast bottles myself, if we need to use easy to break glass/glass sub, but I can't seem to find any kind of chemical reaction or "detonator" to set the reaction myself. Everything I find is for big reactions, whole windows.
Any help is appreciated, and if this isn't appropriate, I can start a new topic. TIA. Leslie
 
We use little pins, like in the end of those escape hammer for cars. I've got a magent set up that fires the pin into the glass. It would take some experimentation for a bottle to get it right, but should work. The last time I used it was for an actor falling into a glass counter. I set one in each corner and fired them simultaneously just before the actor hit the glass. Shattered completly, but I was using saftey glass.
 
I'll have to check that out. Thanks for the quick response. We're shooting in a little over a week, so I'm trying to figure it out fast. :)
 
I don't know how well this will work, but when I was younger, we used to make small "drano bombs" with small glass jars. Take a jar, fill it about half way with the crystal drano, then quickly fill the rest of the jar with water, screw the lid on tight and run away. The drano with water will expand with gas and will cause the jar to explode.

You'd have to do some clever editing to get that to work right. Just another thought, but what if you could pump the bottle with air somehow?
 
CAn you get them reall really really hot just before the shot? I mean like with a propane torch hot.

Then squirt them with a water pistol full of cold water. Just a teeny drop of water would probably shatter them. You should hit them wih the water framed so it doesn't show... (Experiment first, of course. And it will depend on the glass to some extent.)

Ah...and for sure they shouldn't contain real perfume when doing this. A tad flammable. :)
 
GenJerDan said:
CAn you get them reall really really hot just before the shot? I mean like with a propane torch hot.

Then squirt them with a water pistol full of cold water. Just a teeny drop of water would probably shatter them. You should hit them wih the water framed so it doesn't show... (Experiment first, of course. And it will depend on the glass to some extent.)

Ah...and for sure they shouldn't contain real perfume when doing this. A tad flammable. :)
Click to expand...


Damn you, you stole my answer. :)

A propane torch may heat it unevenly, and may leave soot marks of it isn't very clean burning.

What about setting your oven to self clean (around 800 degrees) putting them in while it's warming up and taking them out after it has reached its heat? They would be very evenly heated, with no noticable effect.

What a about a bb gun, or what about hard body dynamics? Shattering stuff and having it be random breakage is one of the easiest dynamics to do.
 
Thanks everyone for the suggestions! I'm still working it out, it looks like we may have budget for breakaway glass bottles, which simplifies it a bit, but we are still figuring it out. My guess is, regardless, it will have to be inexpensive, relatively easy, and safe.

Again, thanks for all your suggestions!!
 
Just wanted to send out another thanks for all the suggestions. We ended up switching from perfume bottles to a vase of dried flowers, and used a set up involving using fishing line to ram the vase into a drill bit taped up to shatter the vase. Didn't work quite as expected, but it still came out good. Thanks again! :)
 
myswtghst said:
Just wanted to send out another thanks for all the suggestions. We ended up switching from perfume bottles to a vase of dried flowers, and used a set up involving using fishing line to ram the vase into a drill bit taped up to shatter the vase. Didn't work quite as expected, but it still came out good. Thanks again! :)
Click to expand...

When do we get to see it?
 
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