[Strawbale] Natural, inexpensive kitchen cabinets

[Chris Green]

skylin wrote:
> How about inserting a slab of recycled tempered glass into a concrete counter top. Could possibly be inserted as the concrete was setting? 
Yeah, if you do it carefully, you can insert the glass into the wet 
concrete.
However...
This is just a guess, but I think you'll find that the concrete 
underneath the glass will come out looking a bit dull if you did this, 
since you won't be able to polish it.

The surfaces of tempered glass are under compression. That means the 
outside surface is squeezing the glass on the inside. If the glass hits 
a sharp stone, or is scratched by a sharp object like a knife, it could 
shatter into a lot of tiny pieces, like the glass in car windows, patio 
doors, etc. This is a safety feature meant to prevent the formation of 
sharp, pointy pieces of glass if breakage happens.
There is a potential for breaking the glass while inserting it into the 
concrete. If it did shatter, you might have a dickens of a time picking 
out all the pieces before the 'crete cures.

All things considered, it is probably better just to place the glass on 
top of the counter and away from anywhere where it is likely to have hot 
pots put down on it.. Then you don't have to worry about differential 
expansion rates, etc.
>  Don't know if there is any shrinkage in the concrete.  Set at the right height by pushing the correct length of dowel or some such into the concrete under the glass. Result is a large, built in, hygenic cutting board area.
>   
I think non-tempered glass would be preferable for cutting boards. See 
explanation about tempered glass above.

It might interest you to learn that wooden cutting boards have been 
proven to be much more hygenic than nylon ones. You can bet that 
surprised the scientists who looked into this a few years ago.
Wood is better, in my books.

Cheers,

Chris Green.