Sealing display cases

Sarah Lewery <sarah.lewery [at] chu__cam__ac__uk> writes

>Does anybody have any good ideas about ways to seal gaps between
>plates of glass making up a display case?

Some of our older cases used four plates of glass to form the sides,
held together by a top that contained florescent tubes (gag!).  The
original design used "Y"-profile clear gaskets inserted into the
3-4mm gap, but it didn't take long for the gasket to get loose and
the public to discover it made a neat pull toy.  Suffice it to say
that our cases now have better designs, but we employed a
ridiculously simple trick to get by in the interim:  we removed all
the gaskets and covered the gaps with pieces of 1" wide 3M #850
acrylic tape. If the glass is clean and the tape is burnished in
place the result is practically invisible and can last for months.
Be advised that while this approach may keep out insects, dust, and
the odd sunflower seed, we aren't talking microclimate here.

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:76
                  Distributed: Friday, March 26, 1999
                       Message Id: cdl-12-76-005
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