fleshgear Posted March 29, 2010 Report Share Posted March 29, 2010 i have a 180 gallon tank with cracked glass, and i am trying to take it apart. it had an overflow. i was able to get that apart. but now i am trying separate the rest of the glass, and i cant do it. i have taken many tanks apart but i have never seen one with so tight clearances. i cant get my knife blade in between the glass. i tried guitar wire and that worked great until the glass got too tight. i tried using a feeler gauge to cut the silicone but that doesn't work so good. it is hard to hang onto. what else can i use? the clearances are .008 ish. the guitar string was .011 i was thinking about trying one of those super thin razor blades that come with those white aquarium scrapers and use pliers to hang on to it. but i think they would be too hard to hang onto. and might just break. has any one else had this problem? any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted March 29, 2010 Report Share Posted March 29, 2010 When I've had tanks that are too tight to get the knife all the way down, I cut down as far as I can on both ends of the pain. Then, I pull the pain back as I cut the rest of the way down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleshgear Posted March 29, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2010 i cant get the knife in at all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Chicklets Posted March 29, 2010 Report Share Posted March 29, 2010 In the past I have used wedges to pull open the joint as i am cutting it. If you can get the guitar string in a few inchs you should be able to start a thin wedge above it. the second option is to take a glass cutter and score the broken panel in several places and use a hammer to create controlled cracks so you can actualy start pulling the glass outward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleshgear Posted March 29, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2010 I thought about breaking the cracked piece as well. I thought about using a wedge but it would flex the front and back piece. Those are the pieces I need to keep. Also there is a glass brace in the middle about 16 inches wide. Which I can only get a few inches seperated as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayba Posted March 30, 2010 Report Share Posted March 30, 2010 Acetone does break down silicone it may help if you can get it to soak in for long enough, it may also work as a lube for your razor blades and wire. I have used razor blades as a wedge, just keep pounding them on top of each other, once you get 2 or 3 in try to get one beside it and keep on going. Use the ones that have the unsharpened edge that fits into a scraper handle. It takes forever and is rather dangerous, so wear the proper PPE and acectone should help too. Good luck, and remember not to get too rammy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishkabod Posted March 30, 2010 Report Share Posted March 30, 2010 From what i understand it's the piece between the front and back that is cracked??? If so When i took mine apart i used an OLD paring(sp?) knife and a razor blade that comes with the handel thing. I would take the Knife and pus it in at the top and force it down as far as i could and then I'd back off and start to dig out the silicone out with the razor. Most of the time i had no troubles just running the razor blade down. If you do it this way you'll find that the razor will get stuck and at that point you can just push the knife down some more and then continue on. the pariing knife and blade are skinny enough that stress on the glass should be mch much less than what the water would put on it so i doubt it'll be a big issue. Good Luck L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyCichlid Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 Just a thought, never actually done it, but could you use a heat gun to give the silicone a little more elasticity so that you could make use of the knife the whole way or maybe it would soften the silicone enough to almost peel apart? just popped into my head as I took a decal off my truck with the heat gun the other day? Might be worth a try? Good luck either way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neesmo Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 Just a thought, never actually done it, but could you use a heat gun to give the silicone a little more elasticity so that you could make use of the knife the whole way or maybe it would soften the silicone enough to almost peel apart? just popped into my head as I took a decal off my truck with the heat gun the other day? Might be worth a try? Good luck either way. I work with silicone everyday in large quantities at work and i dont reccomend that with a tank IMO. I took apart my 140 because of the same issue and had the same problems with tightly installled glass panes.. I just had to keep working it until i could hold onto the top of the pane and wiggle it back and forth until the silicone broke hold where i couldnt get my blade into at the bottom half.. good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyCichlid Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 Just a thought, never actually done it, but could you use a heat gun to give the silicone a little more elasticity so that you could make use of the knife the whole way or maybe it would soften the silicone enough to almost peel apart? just popped into my head as I took a decal off my truck with the heat gun the other day? Might be worth a try? Good luck either way. I work with silicone everyday in large quantities at work and i dont reccomend that with a tank IMO. I took apart my 140 because of the same issue and had the same problems with tightly installled glass panes.. I just had to keep working it until i could hold onto the top of the pane and wiggle it back and forth until the silicone broke hold where i couldnt get my blade into at the bottom half.. good luck Not trying to say that i`m 100% right on this but just curious as to what the negative effects would be? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neesmo Posted March 8, 2011 Report Share Posted March 8, 2011 i dont think it would benefit in any real way. i was in the exact same situation and i got the technique down really quickly once i got it figured out. no heat is going to help much with silicone set years in the past Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyCichlid Posted March 8, 2011 Report Share Posted March 8, 2011 Hmm I see, I thought it might make for a decent last resort as I believe the thermal breakdown point for most aquarium grade silicones is 200 degrees or so. Does there resistance to thermal break down increase with time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neesmo Posted March 9, 2011 Report Share Posted March 9, 2011 Posted 28 March 2010 i think that it likely doesnt matter anymore.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrazyCichlid Posted March 9, 2011 Report Share Posted March 9, 2011 very true Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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