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Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: ian.macky on July 20, 2009, 02:48:31 AM

Title: Overmyer threaded glass drawer knobs
Post by: ian.macky on July 20, 2009, 02:48:31 AM: Greetings, Earthlings. I finally did a small page on my very favorite Overmyer solid glass threaded drawer knobs (http://glassian.org/Overmyer). If you're a glasshead, you will surely appreciate this seldom-seen style as it is 100% glass exposed: no visible metal fastener, no hole through it. I love 'em! Mine all came from eBay, found by scouring the old hardware categories for pictures as they are not known by name-- happily, hardly anyone wants them since they're not the usual thing and don't justs screw on like the rest, so they are cheap. Installing these things is a commitment! Hope you like them!

(http://glassian.org/Overmyer/knob.jpg)
Title: Re: Overmyer threaded glass drawer knobs
Post by: Lustrousstone on July 20, 2009, 06:36:44 AM: He wasn't the first though; Sowerby in the UK was making threaded glass knobs in 1885 (if not before), as shown in its catalogue. These pop up occasionally on UK flea markets
Title: Re: Overmyer threaded glass drawer knobs
Post by: obscurities on July 20, 2009, 01:52:11 PM: Those knobs and handles are very cool looking...... In today's world I am surprised someone has not developed a knob like those with an LED implanted to light up the knobs while in the cabinets..... Now those I would make a commitment to installing.

Thanks, Had never seen those before....

Craig
Title: Re: Overmyer threaded glass drawer knobs
Post by: aa on July 20, 2009, 02:15:13 PM: These are very interesting.
Quote from: ian.macky on July 20, 2009, 02:48:31 AM
no visible metal fastener, no hole through it.

I've never been a fan of the hole through glass method, so mine developed in different direction

http://www.aaronsonnoon.com/work.php?navID=7&subID=5
Title: Re: Overmyer threaded glass drawer knobs
Post by: ian.macky on July 20, 2009, 03:05:54 PM: Quote from: Lustrousstone on July 20, 2009, 06:36:44 AM
He wasn't the first though; Sowerby in the UK was making threaded glass knobs in 1885 (if not before), as shown in its catalogue. These pop up occasionally on UK flea markets

Overmyer's patent was for the metal sleeve method of attachment, not for threaded glass knobs in general. There is an earlier style in so-called "Sandwich Glass" that I see sometimes also (click on thumb for enlargement):

(http://glassian.org/Overmyer/threaded_sandwicht.jpg) (http://glassian.org/Overmyer/threaded_sandwich.jpg)
Title: Re: Overmyer threaded glass drawer knobs
Post by: ian.macky on July 20, 2009, 03:13:21 PM: Quote from: aa on July 20, 2009, 02:15:13 PM
I've never been a fan of the hole through glass method, so mine developed in different direction
http://www.aaronsonnoon.com/work.php?navID=7&subID=5

Beautiful work, very nice; reminds of Martin Megna's a bit (his are generally square though (http://megnaglass.net/squareglassknobs.html)). But I like the all-glass front best, for the cleanest possible installation, just wood and glass. Fortunately not everyone likes the same thing, what a boring world it would be otherwise...
Title: Re: Overmyer threaded glass drawer knobs
Post by: ian.macky on July 20, 2009, 03:19:41 PM: Quote from: obscurities on July 20, 2009, 01:52:11 PM
Those knobs and handles are very cool looking...... In today's world I am surprised someone has not developed a knob like those with an LED implanted to light up the knobs while in the cabinets..... Now those I would make a commitment to installing.

Oh I'm definitely thinking about this! I'm going to be putting them on an old dresser of mine, and might give a try at mounting flat LEDs on the back of the stems that light up when the drawers are closed. Who knows how it will look? Might be gaudy and awfu, might be nicel. Will have to find out. I can light some up temporarily with battery powered LEDs and see how it looks. Someday there will be a pic of this! Hmm, maybe I should trial this with my kitchen cabinets and check it out..... hmmmm! Pic may be sooner rather than later.
Title: Re: Overmyer threaded glass drawer knobs
Post by: glassobsessed on July 20, 2009, 04:36:21 PM: Some LEDs are able to display more than one colour....

You could build a little ring of LEDs and have them light up in sequence. ;D

John.
Title: Re: Overmyer threaded glass drawer knobs
Post by: dirk. on July 20, 2009, 04:42:00 PM: if you´ve got uranium green ones and intend to use them you could use blue LEDs...
they emit some UV.
Title: Re: Overmyer threaded glass drawer knobs
Post by: ian.macky on July 20, 2009, 05:22:09 PM: Quote from: glassobsessed on July 20, 2009, 04:36:21 PM
Some LEDs are able to display more than one colour....

You could build a little ring of LEDs and have them light up in sequence. ;D

There's only room for a single LED I think. Don't want to make this too complicated, I'm a KISS kinda guy....

But those multi-colored LEDs behind the clear globes, hmm....
Title: Re: Overmyer threaded glass drawer knobs
Post by: ian.macky on July 20, 2009, 05:25:32 PM: Quote from: dirk. on July 20, 2009, 04:42:00 PM
if you´ve got uranium green ones and intend to use them you could use blue LEDs...
they emit some UV.

Oh ho, there's an idea-- they make UV LEDs did you know? I often see them in pen form, used for detecting fake currency and such (also good for spotting resin repairs of glass, like they do in the insulator collecting world). I will break out my UV lamp and see if these are uranium green or just nice green......
Title: Re: Overmyer threaded glass drawer knobs
Post by: obscurities on July 20, 2009, 06:17:54 PM: They make them battery operated for a keychain also...

All you need is some thin wire, a contact design to complete a circuit when the door is closed and a single LED driver you can mount on top of or in one of the cabinets and you are good to go. The driver you need would depend on the number of the LED's you want to run, but they are such low power consumption that you would have to have a huge set of cabinets and pulls to need a very large one. And just think, I am sure the whole thing would be considered to be "green" with the minimal amount of power the lighting would consume.....

Craig
Title: Re: Overmyer threaded glass drawer knobs
Post by: ian.macky on July 20, 2009, 07:03:47 PM: Quote from: obscurities on July 20, 2009, 06:17:54 PM
All you need is some thin wire, a contact design to complete a circuit when the door is closed and a single LED driver you can mount on top of or in one of the cabinets and you are good to go. The driver you need would depend on the number of the LED's you want to run, but they are such low power consumption that you would have to have a huge set of cabinets and pulls to need a very large one. And just think, I am sure the whole thing would be considered to be "green" with the minimal amount of power the lighting would consume.....

Typical LED forward voltage is about 2V (more for blue & white); all you need to worry about is current limiting, so if you just series enough LEDs to match the supply voltage then that's it, no driver, no extra resistors, no nothing.

My dresser has 4 knobs per drawer (which used to be two pulls per drawer), so I could make up a little brute force 8V power supply and run 4 2V LEDs per drawer with no extra circuitry; I'd just need to supply enough current to drive all drawers at once, which still doesn't add up to much-- definitely "green" accent lighting. Bet nobody else has lit knobs on their dresser...

Some little variable wall warts produce 9V, that would be 2.25V per LED which is probably fine; might not need to make my own power supply at all. This is definitely doable. It'd be nicer with a photocell to only light them up at night tho.
Title: Re: Overmyer threaded glass drawer knobs
Post by: dirk. on July 20, 2009, 07:09:17 PM: :clap head:
Ian, i surely knew there are UV-LEDs, but somehow always forget about them.
i had a blue one (a give-away from a mineral water box) and got so used to it...
however - it broke some weeks ago, so i´ll get me a portable UV for my flea
market forays now.
Title: Re: Overmyer threaded glass drawer knobs
Post by: obscurities on July 20, 2009, 07:16:27 PM: I want to see pictures...... Craig