Derek Geldard wrote:
On Wed, 30 May 2007 18:29:05 GMT, Lobster
wrote:

I ordered a pane of toughened glass about 1.5m tall by 0.5m wide, which
I collected today intending to fit it - it's for a fixed light adjacent
to a front door.

Anyway, I got the old glass out this evening, cleaned everything up,
applied putty to the rebate and picked up the new pane... I was holding
it vertically between fingers and thumbs, just lining it up with the
frame when suddenly - KAPOW!! without any warning or provocation the
whole pane exploded instantaneously in mid air, and landed in a heap of
tiny pieces all over my feet. It must have looked like a Tom and Jerry
cartoon; I was left there holding out my empty hands with a stunned look
on my face.

That's the way they go !

My wife had the exactly the same experience with a glass shelf out of
a 4 years old kitchen cabinet.

Clearly I need to have a discussion with the glass supplier tomorrow
morning. It seems to me that the pane was flawed in some way - was the
toughening process done wrong in some way - plausible? Is this sort of
thing common? I'm just envisaging the reaction of the supplier tomorrow
- if he refuses to play ball and tells me I bashed it or dropped it I
would like some knowledge at my fingertips!

It will have had a flaw in it, whether you notched it in transport or
handling or they did will be a moot point.

Thanks for the replies. Well I suppose since I drove it the short
distance from the supplier to the property, I couldn't stand up in a
court of law and swear that there's no possibility that the pane could
have got notched in transit :-(. Though frankly I really can't see how
it could have. I can certainly say hand on heart that I didn't knock it
any way at the time it fractured though - I was in the middle of a room
and had just picked it up.

Will have to see what the bloke says, I suppose.

David