How do you drill glass?

[DIYGUY]

Wife wants to make a lamp out of a fancy wine bottle. Never had to drill glass before. Anyone care to enlighten me on how to? Thx ...

[Rudolph Wilhelm]

Make a ring of clay on the glass, fill it with water. Then use a glass cutting spear bit chucked in a drill press. You can use a hand held drill, but it might skitter some.

[Rudolph Wilhelm]

Oh, and keep your rpms down to about 100 if you can.

[DIYGUY]

Lowest speed setting on the DP is 300 rpm. Any ideas on how to cut it down further? DP only has one belt and two pulleys.

Any practical way to drill it by hand with a manual drill? I have an eggbeater drill but I suppose the bit will want to wander as you suggest. Suppose I could rig someth> >

[Rudolph Wilhelm]

Nah, just use the lowest speed you have and take your time. I've d>> >>

[Guess who]

[Joe]

From

To drill glass, especially larger holes, it is vital to have a drill press, even a small one, and a method of turning the bit fairly slowly, either a speed control or belts on larger drill presses. Venders of bits will tell you the recommended RPM. Around the site of the hole build a dam of plastic clay, the kind used by kids that comes in colors - red, blue, green. Water will be put in the dam and the hole drilled through the small lake. The bit should be withdrawn every once in a while to cool the leading edge and the bottom of the cut (and reintroduce grit when using metal core bits without diamonds.) The goal is to keep the glass from getting so hot it cracks from thermal stress. If the back of the glass is accessible, the other side of the cut should be covered with clay to keep the lake from draining through. If it is not, then when the water does drain through, the bottle, hollow block or shape should be filled with water. If the piece is small enough, it may be possible to put in a bowl of water that covers it to the top. If the task is to be done often enough, it may be worth building a tank to keep from fiddling with the clay. The glass dust ground out by the drill is not good to breathe. While wet, it does not cause problems. Swirl the water to pick up the sludge and pour it through a scrap rag and throw the rag and glass out rather than letting it dry and pouring the dust around.

From

a hole for a bulkhead fitting in acrylic is pretty straightforward, but drilling glass is a little trickier. It can be done by anyone with patience as long as you follow our easy steps. Drilling tanks is an easy way to make some extra cash by drilling tanks for friends. To save $$$ a club could purchase a hole saw for its members. You will need a diamond tipped hole saw, drill, plumber's caulk or modeling clay, sandpaper and saw lubricant. 1.. Make sure the glass you will be drilling is NOT tempered. Tempered glass will shatter on contact. 2.. Figure out where you need the hole and mark with a magic marker. 3.. Using the plumber's putty or modeling clay, make a small dam about 1" bigger than the hole to be cut, about 1/4" high. 4.. Drill. The easiest way to do this is using a variable speed rechargeable drill. This way, you can start slow and then speed up. Start slowly, allowing the hole saw to scribe the hole that you want without walking all over the glass. Drill slowly like this until the scribe is about 1/16" deep. 5.. Put in a few ounces of the lubricant into the well that you made with the putty. You can now speed up on the drill. DO NOT apply a lot of pressure. Let the saw do the cutting. Rock the drill slightly so the drill does not bind while it cuts. Keep the saw wet. When the saw starts to break through the opposite side, back off the pressure and let the saw cut through. Place a piece of cardboard or a towel under the hole so the cut glass does not drop onto the other side glass. When through drilling, use a small piece of sandpaper to dress the hole to avoid stress cracks. Wash the tank out to remove the lubricant. Remember the saw "dust" you see is actually ground glass. Follow these steps and you will have no problems. You can drill a hole in a 180 gal tank (5/8" glass) in about 5 minutes.

Good luck!

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr.

eBay: eBay Stuff: "DIYGUY" wrote in message news:ZtYHd.7559$ [e-mail]...

[bob]

Bulldog drill bits

[Andy Dingley]

You're better off drilling it fast with a stable drill than drilling it slowly by hand with something that wobbles.

Glass sheet is easy to drill - you should try a practice hole first. Bottles are hard to drill because they're moulded with heat and the unreleased stresses can cause them to shatter. Go carefully when you break through to the far side and expect to lose some bottles.

For "clay" as a well, I suggest glazier's putty. This is made from linseed oil and whiting, so it doesn't mind a little extra oil. Some putties (particularly Blu-Tack) lose all their adhesion if they get oil near them.

[Log]

When I was maintainence (sp?) at a truck stop I was asked to drill through the mirrors to hang dispencers... Ace has the bit you need and my only piece of advice since I did one great and the other cracked is go slow and steady.

Log

[Roger Shoaf]

First thing you need to do is fixture the bottle so it is stable on the drill press. If you want to do this on the cheap, use a piece of copper tubing as your bit and in the putty dam use an abrasive compound like valve grinding compound diluted with a thin oil. To drill you spin the tube and lower it into the work and then jog it up and down. The oil will keep the work cool and the copper will be charged with the abrasive and grind you a nice smooth hole. You might be able to talk an automotive machine shop out of a small bit of the compound so you don't have to buy a whole can.

After you have drilled the hole relieve the sharp edges using wet or dry sand paper. What works here is a wood dowel a little larger than your hole with a bevel on one end. Chuck that in your drill and then cut small squares of the sand paper. Don't push too hard just let the grit work for you.

[Ray]

You guys are taking this too seriously. I've done it by filling the bottle with water and drilling through with a masonry bit in a hand held drill. If the bottle breaks, buy another one and drink up!

I'v also heard using sand works if you don't have GFCI

[firstjois]

You could take a peak at directions on a lamp kit in some craft store.

Josie

[Badger]

Take it to work and use my ultra-sonic mill/drill:

[Steven and Gail Peterson]

Go to any hobby store and ask.

[Upscale]

Wouldn't it be easier just to give the guy a few urls?

if those aren't desirable, then one can purchase glass drills. The blade on them is heart shaped. Lee Valley Tools used to sell them, but not anymore that I could find.

[Knothead]

About 35 years ago I watched some boy scouts making a similar project and they used a "sand ball" bit in a hand drill and got surprisingly good results. The bottles were covered completely with masking tape in case of breakage but out of 15 kids every lamp bottle got perforated without incident. Took about 15 minutes per bottle......

[Upscale]

I wonder if there's a similar type of bit for a Dremel. One of the abrasive cut off wheels should cut glass without incident, but it wouldn't be appropriate for drilling, at least not for a small hole.

[Lawrence Wasserman]

Get a few extra bottles just in case... Do not drill until at least 24 hours have passed since you drank the wine...

Seriously, there is a bit made for this, it is roughly spear-point in shape and I belive made of carbide. It works best in a drill press at slow speed but can be used in a hand held drill. If you can keep the glass wet (with water) while drilling it supposedly helps. I've often seen the advice to make a "dam" around the hole using modeling clay or something like that, and filling it with water, but I've done OK just using a spray bottle and taking my time.

[Michael Burton]

Upscale wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I would have had I known any, on the other hand, what is the fun in buying ready made stuff when you can do it using stuff already at hand?