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Glazing putty in an ancient material that has probably been
surpassed by many modern materials. None of the window
manufacturers mention anything special about glazing putty,
probably because almost all new windows are double-pane and
require better methods of fitting into the sash. Nobody seems
to say anything about glazing putty anymore.
I've repaired some windows on
my garage by removing the old putty and caulking the area with
siliconized acrylic latex caulk (such as Alex Plus). This is
paintable, which is a good idea because the caulk will absorb
stains if not painted.
I did that repair 3 years ago
and it's still holding up fine. I like Alex Plus because it
stays flexible and it bonds well to glass and wood. It seems
to work best if the wood is primed first, but it sticks to
clean bare wood just fine. My concern is thermal expansion and
contraction. It's possible that Alex Plus isn't flexible
enough, I suppose, but that defies logic because glazing putty
is pretty darned rigid.
My suggestion is to try a few
windows with Alex Plus and see if it works for a while. You
couldn't GIVE me that glazing putty stuff.
I was about to suggest a tool
called a Prazi Putty Chaser that attaches to a drill and has a
cutting bit to grind away old glazing putty. I've seen it sold
in Amazon's Toolcrib
catalog (stock number PR9000), but when I looked it up online,
the product reviews were quite negative. Check it out for
yourself. Every review said "don't buy this tool".
One guy suggested using a heat gun. Another person suggested
using a flush-cutting router bit with a top-mounted bearing,
and a piece of wood tacked to the sash for the bearing to ride
against. I've just used a putty knife, an old chisel, and/or
one of those snap-off blade knives (are they called "boxcutters"?).
But I've never seen any
pre-formed strips of glazing putty.
Bruce W. Maki, Editor.
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