Repairing a Piece of Plate Glass

I have NO IDEA if this was a good idea.  About 2 years ago the piece of thick, plate glass that has always covered the painted bureau in our bedroom broke when something heavy fell on it.  Since then the 2 pieces have been sitting on the girl cave floor.  I keep plants on the painted bureau, and so the glass being broken meant water could potentially stain the bureau.  Without glass, I’ve been using 3 layers of towels on the bureau instead.

Today after work I decided to try fixing the glass.  I’ve been vacillating between trying to fix it myself [using my stained glass skillz] or buying a new piece for months, so it was nice to finally make a decision.  I lay the pieces on my bench:

Some of the edges were rough so I used my glass grinder to smooth them out:

        

Then I applied a layer of copper foil tape to each edge – it took 2 strips to cover the edge which is much thicker than stained glass:

        

Once laid out it was a perfect fit:

The top had a pretty big ding in it so I carefully foiled that as well, following the contour of the defect:

Then I applied a liberal amount of flux and used my soldering iron to seal the pieces together:

        

I usually bring my glass pieces down to the kitchen sink to wash the flux off, but the big piece is fragile and sort of bends a tiny bit when I lift it.  I don’t think it would take much to break it back in half…  So I invoked use #83 for Puppy Pads and washed my glass on the floor of the girl cave on 2 of Birdie’s puppy pads [Birdie poos in her boxes but usually pees on the floor in front of them, so puppy pads and rubber mats have made cleanup soooooooooo much easier]:

Then carefully carried the glass into the bedroom and placed it back on the painted bureau:

        

Time will tell if my soldering job holds up!  I believe lead would have been the choice for joining this type of glass, but I haven’t taken Abbie up on her offer to show me how to use it yet!

PS – I never get tired of seeing the Ipswich River waterfall outside our windows.