Homemade products for cutting holes in glass differ in design and materials used. We will look at tools in which the main function is performed by a copper assembly. The question may arise: why this material? The reason is simple: copper is soft and ductile, and particles of corundum or abrasive paste easily penetrate into it and, when rotated, remove the glass material where needed.
Of course, the performance of such a homemade tool will be lower than that of a diamond bit. Experience shows that, regardless of the size of the hole, it will take approximately 7 ± 0.5 minutes to cut it in glass 5 mm thick.
What do you need for work?
Tools and materials
This is a list of basic tools and materials for drilling glass:
- drilling machine or electric drill;
- copper strip;
- metal worm clamps;
- used crown;
- abrasive in the form of aluminum oxide;
- valve grinding paste;
- plasticine.
Making a homemade glass cutter
There are plenty of options for devices for drilling glass. For example, the mandrel of a drum grinder, a wooden cylinder with a bolt screwed into it, etc. are suitable. We will consider two versions using a copper strip as the basis of a tool for cutting round holes in glass.
Version No. 1. As a forming unit, we take a 30 mm ring crown and wrap it with a copper strip measuring 50 × 300 × 0.15 mm in several layers and secure it in the middle with a worm-type hose clamp.
Before finally tightening the clamp, the copper winding must be moved down so that the teeth of the crown do not touch the glass when rotating during drilling and do not damage it.
You can slightly modify the previous version if you first remove the teeth of the crown on an emery wheel and wrap it with one layer of copper sheet 1 mm thick.
Version No. 2. In order not to bother with the copper strip, you can use a ready-made copper cylindrical product, for example, a cap with a diameter of 20 mm.
To secure the holder in the bottom, drill a hole in the center, insert an M6 bolt of the required length from the inside and tighten it from the outside with a nut, placing an engraving washer under it.
The process of drilling holes in glass
Working with glass requires care and attention due to its combination of hardness and fragility. The tools we create do not cut glass, but only activate a medium designed to remove glass particles.
Abrasive particles in the form of aluminum oxide or valve lapping paste are diluted with water, which simultaneously removes small debris and glass chips and also cools it along with the tool.
In this regard, the difficulty arises associated with retaining the abrasive composition, diluted with water, in the drilling zone. To do this, it is necessary to make a ring dam-fence made of plasticine around it on the glass.
What to use: aluminum oxide (cheap, but works worse) or valve grinding compound (expensive, but cuts effectively), everyone decides for himself, based on the above and other circumstances.
Results
Drilling glass with both tools went well. There were fears that the thin copper winding would not withstand the load and would lose its integrity. Inspection of the homemade product after finishing the work actually showed the presence of some crumpling and deformation, but this did not prevent us from achieving a positive result.
Our tools will probably be suitable for drilling and shaped glass if a way can be found to keep the abrasive/coolant mixture in the drilling area. Instead of water, to make the process more “soft,” you can use kerosene or turpentine.
The use of a drilling machine is preferable to an electric drill, since there are problems with keeping it in a strictly vertical position. Any deviation to the side will result in glass breakage.
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Original article in English
