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#11
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"Adrian Brentnall" wrote in message ... Hi All Fresh from my success with the big (to me!) stained glass window ... - the new project requires me to cut a hole out of a piece of 'art' glass. The hole needs to be circular - and in the region of 1" to 2.5" diameter... I have the Morton hole-cutter attachment - and have become reasonably good at cutting circular pieces of glass with it - but in this case i want to end up with the 'negative' of this . I can make the circular score - no problem. It's geting the piece of scrap glass out of the middle of the hole without losing/cracking the main piece that's causing me problems. Anybody prepared to share their special tips, please ? (And, no, I don't expect it to be as easy as in the movies! g) Thanks in advance Adrian Suffolk UK One possibility would be to use a Taurus bandsaw with a sectional blade. You'd have to drill a small starter hole in your work piece to thread the blade through, and then you could saw the circle. Also, you could drill a hole in the work piece that would be big enough to get a small grinder bit started, and just use your tabletop grinder to grind out the hole from the inside, increasing the bit diameter as you go. If you have sandblasting capabilities, you could just mask off everything BUT the circle you want cut out (on both sides of your work piece) and blast the hole into the glass, |
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#12
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Hi Moonraker
Thanks for the comments. Of the three options I only have a grinder - that might be a plan. I had considered a sort of composite approach - score a circle, then use the grinder to make a starter hole in the centre (on secord thoughts - probably hole first _then_ score circle!). At least that would give the 'scrap' glass somewhere to go - st the moment I do quite well with the scoreing and running - but the darned thing won't come out of the centre. Eventually I give it one tap too many and the piece of glass that I want ends up as three pieces of glass. Very frustrating! I'll have a 'play' with the grinder method. Thanks Adrian Suffolk UK One possibility would be to use a Taurus bandsaw with a sectional blade. You'd have to drill a small starter hole in your work piece to thread the blade through, and then you could saw the circle. Also, you could drill a hole in the work piece that would be big enough to get a small grinder bit started, and just use your tabletop grinder to grind out the hole from the inside, increasing the bit diameter as you go. If you have sandblasting capabilities, you could just mask off everything BUT the circle you want cut out (on both sides of your work piece) and blast the hole into the glass, |
#13
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How well the blunt end of your cutter works for tapping depends on how
small that end is. The screw cap on Toyo cutters is enormously too large to be used for tapping. Some old style glass cutters had a ball on the handle end. Those are fine for running straight lines but considerably too large for curves. The old style metal cutters WITHOUT a ball end are perfect. If you can't get one of those, a Phillips screwdriver (X end) works beautifully. The object is to have a tip small enough to be able to strike ONLY on the line to be scored. As pointed out by Moonraker, you MUST tap on the back of the score. Although some tappers hold the glass upright while tapping, you'll have much better success if instead you lay it down flat while tapping. Tapping will often cause small chips where the glass breaks. To ensure those chips are only on the scrap side, tap just slightly (about 1/16") on that side. (another good reason why a small tapping head is helpful). That way all the chips will be on the side you plan to trash and the other side will have only small overhangs that can easily be taken off with a carborundum stone or on a grinder. If you're having trouble getting the pie pieces to start coming out, it helps to score another concentric circle about half the size of the original one. The smaller the pieces inside the circle, the easier they start popping out. You're right - once the first is out, the rest fall away. As to other possible shapes - just about anything. Another demo I like to do is to debunk the opinion that you can't cut a "V" into a piece of glass. Take your cutter and score in from an edge, stop, turn the cutter and score back out leaving a 90 deg corner. If you're patiently careful, you can tap out that piece. It CAN be done, but it's NOT something that should be done. The remaining piece WILL break out from the "V". It's an effective way to demonstrate why saws shouldn't be used for conventional stained glass. "Any cut that can't be done by hand, shouldn't have been done at all". |
#14
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I would think that scratching would be near impossible for a 1 inch hole if
the glass has any thickness to it. Anything thicker than say 3 mm. If this is the case, you might try Charles suggestion. A 2.5 inch hole might be easier. I say this with a limited experience of scratching, and a lot of experience of working with glass. The others that have responded have much more experience in this arena. Please let us know what works best for you. Randy Hansen SC Glass Tech Scam Diego, Comi-fornia http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/randy2954/my_photos "Adrian Brentnall" wrote in message ... Hi Randy Your safest bet is to core drill the hole. Do not try to scratch it. Thanks for the advice..... ....unfortunately I don't have a core drill. I'm going to need to be able to do this to produce a range of specific sizes - might involve quite a few core drills. Time is the one commodity that I have plenty of - I'll just have to try the other techniques that people have suggested - but thanks for the suggestion anyway.... Regards Adrian Suffolk UK |
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