how do I cut a mirror to size?

[Ah10201]

i have this huge square wall mirror I bought a while back. Now I no longer need such a big piece and I want to cut it into a smaller piece. Any recommendations on the best cut to size the mirror?

thanks..

[xrongor]

do you mean how do you cut a mirror? if the edges are going under a frame, just use a glass cutter and a straight edge. if you need a 'show' edge or dont feel comfortable with snapping a big mirror after scratching it with a glass cutter, i would take it down to someone with the tools to do that properly, like a glass place.

its not really clear what you are asking...?

randy

recommendations

[Lee K]

recommendations

In my area (central CT), the local glass place (Middletown Plate Glass) will cut mirrors to size for free. Wouldn't hurt to call and ask your local glass/mirror dealers.

[George]

First, is it glass? Recent aren't always.

Second, is it _tempered_ glass? Large glass mirrors should be.

If second, professionals only.

recommendations

[Bob G.]

.

The local glass shop in town will not cut them for free (and I sure as hell do not blame them for that since I do not work for free either)...BUT they charge so little 90 percent of "my" costs is for gas for the truck ... Very cheap !

Bob Griffiths

[Mike G]

Open the phone book, look under glass, pick someone listed that is near by, bring it to them, tell them how you want it cut, go home, when they/you call.or they otherwise indicate the job is done go pick up the "new" mirrors.

[Richard Cline]

It is very entertaining to cut tempered glass. I had a large (2' X 4') piece of glass and was ignorant of the fact that it was tempered. When I attempted to cut the glass I immediately reduced it to pieces about

1/2" or smaller. It took the next three hours to clean out the shop. I still occasionally find small pieces of glass.

Dick

[bridger]

I had a neighbor who tried to cut a piece of tempered that was about

1" thick. he scored the line (said it "felt funny") and clamped it to the table with a dowell under the score and put considerable weight on the overhang. nothing. so he flipped it and scored the other side. just as the cutter finished the line the piece shattered explosively. loud noise, little cubes of glass thrown everywhere...

[Keith Carlson]

So how do you tell if the glass is tempered? Before it's reduced to 1/2" pieces.

[bridger]

if it's intended to be mounted in pretty much anything it's supposed to have an identifying stamp on it. otherwise it's pretty much indistinguishable from plain glass with relieved edges. that's one thing- the edges of tempered glass are AFAIK always ground- the stuff becomes very susceptible to failure from minor edge defects once it's tempered... but there's plenty of untempered glass with ground edges too.