Commedy of errors

I went to the hardware store and got some window glazing compound. I dont know if I like it better or worse than the caulk-style glazing. What I had considered in my mind a 2 hour project has taken all day and I’m not yet done. Trissa will be dissappointed, I think.

And, I broke one of the panes of glass (one of the big panes - a big pain) - and I’ll have to back to the hardware store to get a new one.

The problem with all of this glazing is that the consistency doesn’t seem right. It’s gooey. And it doesn’t adhere well to the glass. This makes it difficult to work with because it sticks to my putty knife and not the window, making a big mess. I think two things are perhaps wrong: 1) Maybe my glass isn’t clean enough. I didn’t really wash it, and perhaps it has some cutting oil or something on it still. I did wipe the edges with a paper towel before I put each pane in, but perhaps this wasn’t good enough. 2) Maybe the temperature isn’t ideal. The instructions say not to apply below 40 degrees Farenheight. It’s not that cold, but it is is cool in my shop - I’d say about 60 today.

Blah. Does anyone have any advice?

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(added later)

Okay, so I went to the hardware store and bought the replacement pane for the one I broke. And I got another tube of glazing caulk. This time (and this was the last pane) I used the caulk and my glazing putty-knife, which has a special angled bade on it that’s supposed to help tool the bead of putty into the right shape. It took me a while today to figure out how to hold the tool properly to have it smooth out the putty; as I mentioned earlier the main problem was that the putty would come away from the glass and the sash as I pulled the knife along it. Well, with this pane I used the knife with the glazing caulk, which is stickier. It worked about 100% better. It still leaves a bunch of gunk on the window, but another thing I figured out earlier about the caulk is that because it’s latex, once it dries you can cut it with a razor blade. The window I did this morning was all caulk, and I was able to clean it up pretty nice using a razor blade - nice crisp glazing lines.

All said and done, I think my next window will likely be with the caulk. This is a turn-around for me, since this morning I hated it. But I didn’t have the putty knife this morning (I bought it this afternoon with the glazing putty) and it works much better than a regular flat putty knife.

I’ll post pictures tomorrow once all the glazing is dry and I’ve had a chance to clean it up.