The objectives of this project have been: (1) Investigate the possibility of chemical etching of GSGG crystal slabs to obtain increased strength. (2) Design and construct a simplified mold assembly for casting cladding glass to the edges of crystal slabs of different dimensions. (3) Conduct casting experiments to evaluate the redesigned mold assembly and to determine stresses as function of thermal expansion coefficient of cladding glass. (4) Clad larger sizes of GGG slabs as they become available. These tasks have been achieved. Chemical etching of GSGG slabs does not appear possible with any other acid than H/sub 3/PO/sub 4/ at temperatures above 300/sup 0/C. A mold assembly has been constructed which allowed casting cladding glass around the edges of the largest GGG slabs available (10 x 20 x 160 mm) without causing breakage through the annealing step.