This has got me beaten !!! Can you help ?

I'd throw it out, and get a new one, or.......... find a piece of colored glass and glue it on top which will hide the ugly discoloration, or...... sand blast the top to make it opaque.

yup, that is Laminated glass, assembled in an Autoclave, you aren't going to get it apart, period. In one piece, that is, it will break and is designed to do so. The pressure you would need to break it apart will put such a tension on the glas that when it gives way, I would not want to be standing particularly near any flying particles, they will hurt.

If the cloudiness bothers you , replace it properly or decorate the surface with some sort of treatment, sandblast, etc. By getting cloudy inside the layers, the adhesive layer is weak anyway. If it is something that needs to support weight, replace it.

If you have the method available, it should be possible to slowly heat the unit until the plastic lets go or burns out and the disks separate. The glass is not going to sag until well above 900F and you are not going to lose tempering, if any exists, until hours above 750F. I had an assembly which had been glued with E6000, a modern silicone glue. When I heated the assembly in a kiln to 600F it stayed together, so I reheated it to 800F and was able to take the pieces of glass apart. I would want a carefully controlled kiln or annealer with an open space at least 20 x 30" probably from a warm glass worker. I would mount the assembly at an angle, using a kiln shelf, brick, sand, etc., so that if the plastic released, the upper disk would slide (or could be slid) sideways. Slow raising of the temperature (50 degrees an hour?). When 600F is reached, the top disk could be encouraged to move to one side (with support in place to keep it from dropping. If it doesn't want to move, I would try again at 650, 700, 750, and 800. Depending on the plastic material, which may turn goopy or burn, but should not survive, sliding the disk should permit getting at it for scraping. Be sure to lower the temperature reasonably slowly, probably turning off the kiln and keeping it closed should be enough. Certainly don't take the disks out at 700-800F

Do you mean a well as in a shaft that goes down into the ground? If that be the case, federal law requires all well like that that are no longer in use to be filled with concrete or have a steel cap welded onto the opening. 20" is plenty big for a child to fall into it.

Do you have a citation for that? I found an Arizona law that requires that, but couldn't find anything federal. Which certainly doesn't mean it doesn't exist--just that I couldn't come up with a search string for it.

Mike Beede

And when you find it, let us know how that applies in Great Britain too, OK?

It appears that like the Electrical Code being maintained by the fire insurance people but enforced by local law, there is a Uniform Plumbing Code, but enforcement is state and local

"Designated as an American National Standard, the 2003 Uniform Plumbing Code was developed using ANSI's consensus development procedures, which brings together volunteers representing a variety of viewpoints and interests to achieve consensus on plumbing issues. In addition, significant changes were made to the 2003 edition. Venting tables have been moved from the appendix into Chapter 5. Chapter 5 contains requirements for the installation, combustion air, and venting of water heaters. Sizing tables for corrugated stainless steel tubing (CSST) have been added to Chapter 12. If you're in the business of plumbing, this book is your bible."

"Mike Firth" wrote in news:P8zVh.11351$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr27.news.prodigy.net:

Mike, Wont the outgassing from the silicone possibly ruin the firebrick ?