Well, maybe not the ultimate sin, but pretty close as far as I am concerned.
I am building a large and unique garage. Went inside to plug in the power cord I had just put through the window. Bent over, plugged it in, stood up and bashed my head on an antique wall clock.
The clock came off the wall and broke when it hit the floor.
Damage done is broken curved glass, minor case damage, and bent the brass bezel. All can be repaired, but the glass replacement is a worry. Customers are very good about it but I still feel really really baaaaad.
All these years and never injured one thing in a house. The first time it has to be something like this. Damnit.
Now looking around to find a new front, and a decent antique repair person.
Rule No.1 Dont damage the customers stuff.
Rule No.2 Dont pizz the customer off by violating rule No.1
When will the hurting stop………..
Everything, 100% of it, depends on how you look at it.
DW
Replies
A place called Restoration Hardware sells stock curved glass for bookcases and will make whatever you want custom. Not overly expensive. I don't know if you need a template or just a size and radius. Pretty difficult to cut if its not exactly right. I usually get get glass and make the door to fit.
Thank you Bob.
I will check that one out. This clock has a domed face. Possibly harder to make than a curved door, I dont know, glass isnt my "thing".
Thanks again.
Everything, 100% of it, depends on how you look at it.
DW
Ouch! Almost been there - done that. One of my first jobs was to enclose a porch for some friends, including adding a new door from the kitchen to the porch. Shuffled things around in the kitchen to make room to work, and stacked all the china from the curio cabinet on the kitchen table in the middle of the small room. I was on the porch side, and stood up the new pre-hung door into the opening...working alone...when the door tipped into the kitchen. There was nothing I could do...it happened so fast it was in slow motion...and there was nothing to grab to catch the door. Fortunately it tipped far enough to give me a heart attack, then rocked back in my direction. All I could imagine was that door landing right on the pile of china.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
Is it a curved door that broke, or the bezel glass? The domed bezel glass can be bought from Emperor Clock or Clockkit if it's not too far from a stock size. There are people who can make any unusual shape. Make a mold from a refractory cement. Put a piece of flat glass on it and heat it in a kiln until the glass softens and droops into the mold. Not hard if you have the equipment.
It's the domed bezel glass that broke. I found an outfit that sells many different sizes as a stock item. Hopefully they have one the correct size.
If not I was considering exactly what you suggested. I didnt know about the refractory cement however. Thanks for the info.
If I have to do the whole damn thing myself I will, no way I can stomach leaving this unfixed.
Everything, 100% of it, depends on how you look at it.
DW
If all else fails locally... I know B C Brooks can do it for you. He has done some wonderful glass work on a few houses I worked on...
http://www.delabrooke.com/bsg.html
He's a good friend and great guy with talent. --- BRICK
"They say that there is a fine line between genius and insanity. I like to color outside the lines...and then eat the crayons." ~ Me
The ULTIMATE sin would be if you had denied having anything to do with it.
I was working on a place once when near end of day, the lady asked if I would take a look at her sconce for her.
"I seems like it wobbles around more than it used to..."
This was an antique hand made thing, with a little framed glass side door for lighting the candle - that's right, no wiring to upgrade it, just a fancy candle holder on the wall with four sides of antigue sheet glass, all waves and bubbles....
So I said, sure, and just as I was reaching for it, with my hands still four to six inches away from it, the baby nail holding it up in the plaster let go and the thing literally jumped off the wall into my hnads before I ever touched it. You know how if someone with a friendly, trusting face reaches out to a baby, they will stretch out to them and defy gravity?
My heart just about exploded right then and there. The lady and I looked at each other and then looked at the wall, the sconce, the wall again...
Whew!
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I'm with you, it's bad to break a clients possessions, far worse to deny it. I've only had the misfortune to break one thing, a plate that was hid on a shelf on the wrong side of a wall... I felt pretty bad about it, h/o's were completely cool about it I asked where I could find another one to replace it for them and it took some dragging to get it out of them. Fortunately it wasn't a family heirloom or otherwise non-replaceable
on the other hand.
Cleaning lady my Mom used broke some crystal candle holder, I noticed one was missing off the dining room table, didn't expect foul play, just asked mom where it went, turns out the cleaning lady broke it and didn't own up to it, instead she decided to hide it in a drawer in the buffet chest.
Wouldn't have been a big deal had she just owned up to it, Instead her boss fired her
#### happens, it's all in how you handle it
When I was a sub for a buddy in NC..we had a basement bathroom to install for some real PITA HO's. They were to have moved a lot of stuff out and never did etc.
Me, an ele. sub and the contractors partner were the main team. After we had finished they call up my buddy and say " one of your guys STOLE a brass chandilier we had in the basement" !!
Now I was living in a old farm house in the boonies..Like I need a chandilier ,the ele. was also a very good friend..extremly honest..and the partner was just like us..we were and are still a basically good bunch of guys..
Well they called the contractor at a bad time ..see he was a heavy, heavy drinker..and he lets loose on them ..( I was there) "Listen to me you piece of sh1t..my guys are the most honest trust worthy guys you have ever met, and you accusing them of this is accusing me of not knowing who I hire..so F--k head..when you find that lost chandilier, you are gonna feel real bad, for even dreaming this concotion up..and you WILL apologize to them personally ya sh1t"...it was actually kinda funny..ya had to know these buttwipes..
well they called back 4 days later..they found it. They called all of us at home..and blubbered their sorriness..
Now I know the buddie's reaction was way outta line, almost criminal itself..but man it was funny..
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
Well, Today I had a talk with Mr. Owner.
He is going to send the clock back to the UK for repair. Had the mechanism restored by the same fella once. The glass will be done by him as well. To be replaced with a 150 year old glass to match the clock. A new one wont cut it so old it has to be.
So to Brick and Bob thanks for the links to glass outfits, but I wont be going down that road. I offered to pay whatever is required. Mr Owner however knows I am not exactly tripping over bundles of cash I am sick of looking at, so we will likely be doing a trade. Me make/build something for them.
I no complain. As I told him, tell me what you want me to do to make this right, and i will do it. still feeling bad.
Yesterday he was laughing when he told me I was in a lot of poo..........least he has a sense of humour. They fortunately are the nicest folks you would want to meet.
Piffin, you are correct. NOT owning up be way worse. I couldnt do that for anything. It would just eat me alive, way better to put yer hand up, take whatever is coming and move on.
If anyone has mores stories of similar events I would love to hear them. Might make me feel a little better.........I suppose there is nothing like making a fella feel better than reading about someone elses misfortune. :-)
Stealing from a customer...............how could anyone be so dumb as to even think such a thing?
Everything, 100% of it, depends on how you look at it.
DW
Stealing....
Thjere are oodles of filks here with summer residences thatget left empty. Overall, there isn't much crime because somebody always knows something....
But there are those who will "borrow" something from tjhe owners thinking, "Oh they have so much they'll never miss it..."
But too many of the owners are high class enough to not sauy much, but the word goes around who is trustworthy and who is not, and you know who ets the better jobs.
And then there's another kind of theft too. One patticular fellow is a sort of overseer and manager for a few celebrity types in getting things done in thier homes. one year, celeb X was to be here for 12/22 - 12/25 while celeb Y was to be here from 12/25 - 12/30 for the holidays your know. This guy was getting big bucks to deorate both houses. The twenty foot tall tree from Celeb Xs house made a quick trip to celeb Ys house with all the trimmings still on it, and several other household decorations belonging to one ended up at the other's place, mystically it seemed. LOL
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Hay, anything to help a fellow human being feel better: I got a job to take down an old, rotting and carpenter ant infested kid's playhouse--you know, a fort on stilts, with a slide and a swing set attached. So rather than pull the thing apart with a wrecking bar, I chainsawed it. The swind set was like two "A's" with a beam across that stuck out about a foot at each end. So I cut the beam near the far end and watch the "A" fall over into the grass, right on top of a special composter the guy had burried in the yard (for his dog waste). The protruding end lands smack in the center of the plastic cover, breaking it. If I had spent ten minutes lining it up, I couldn't have hit it squarer! Fortunately he wasn't using the composter anymore and said it didn't matter. He did hire me for more work, so I guess it really didn't matter.