Steven Briggs wrote:
In message , Ian
Stirling writes
john wrote:
Why is perfectly good glass replaced in this age of recycling?
snip
Plan A is to drop the unit out, drill a couple of holes through the
spacer bars and blow dried compressed air (at very low pressure
obviously!) through the unit, and maybe warm the spacer gently to
attempt to dry out the desiccant. A bit of silicone to bolster the seal

It's very absorbative - to dry it out appreciably, you're going to need to
heat to maybe 80C.
And evenly, or you'll crack it.
if any weaknesses are visible. Bit of a problem though as Axminster no
longer sell the compressed air drying doodad I was going to use.

Take a coil of hosepipe.
Place in a pan of water.
Place the pan in the freezer.
Wait n hours.
Now, if you don't blow air too fast through the hose, it'll come out with
very little moisture in.
I've also wondered why CO2 is not used, as it would seem to have about the
same performance as argon fill, but at a fraction of the price.
I can only assume some issue with Al corrosion in damp atmospheres.

Plan B is source some new spacers strips and rebuild, initially
separating the unit by sawing through the old spacer. I agree cleaning
the old spacer adhesive off maybe difficult.

I've done this (to reuse the glass for something else).
It's a horrible job.
The spacers have some sort of gloopy black mastic on them, which gums up
the saw, so it doesn't really want to know.
Scratching the glass is easy.
....
If I was to try this again.
I would build a little wood block or something to hold a stiff blade, like
a stanley knife, with a little cigarette-lighter "blowtorch" playing on the
blade.
In the hopes that running this repeatedly over the edges would eventually
get the mastic away, and allow the aluminium to be scored through.
Actually, I lie.
On reflection I'd use a much stiffer guide, and a 5mm carbide burr in the
dremel set at ramming speed.