How to make a hole in the glass?

If you need to drill glass, it is easiest to entrust this business to a specialist. But firstly, such services are not cheap, and secondly, there are people who like to make their own. Let's try to figure out how to make a hole in the glass without damaging it. Let us consider what tools can be used in this case, how quickly and clearly the upcoming work can be completed.

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Preparatory work

Before drilling glass at home, you must carefully prepare it:

• Using ethyl alcohol or turpentine, wipe the surface. This is necessary in order to degrease it.
• When working, it is unacceptable for the sheet to slip, so this moment must also be foreseen.
• Choose a base so that the sheet is completely on it.
• Before starting work, mark the place where you will be drilling. Use a building tape or marker for this.
• If drilling glass with your own hands is a new job for you, then first practice on small pieces to avoid damage to the main sheet.
• The drilling process is quite slow. No need to put pressure on glass to make work faster.
• Position the drill at right angles to the plane. Do not try to make a hole right away. Let the glass cool down periodically.
• After the perforation is almost done, turn the sheet over and finish the job on the other side. This will allow you to get the perforation of the correct shape, and at the same time to avoid chips and cracking.
• If small roughness or roughness has formed on the surface, glass processing with fine sandpaper will help get rid of them.

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How to drill glass at home with a conventional drill?

To successfully cope with this task, you will need:

1. Set of drills used for metal or ceramics.
2. Screwdriver or low-speed drill.
3. Plasticine.
4. Turpentine.
5. Alcohol.

Operating procedure:

• Place the glass sheet on a flat surface.

Important! Make sure that the edges do not hang.

• Set the screwdriver or drill to the lowest rotation speed.

Important! The drilling speed ranges between 250 and 1000 revolutions per minute.

• Clamp the desired drill in the chuck.
• Using an alcohol solution, degrease the surface, and then make a plasticine depression in place of the future hole.
• Pour a little turpentine into it and start working with a drill.
• Do not push the tool too much, as cracks may form.

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Sand use

This is an old enough way. It was used when there were no screwdrivers and drills. To drill glass with your own hands using this unusual method, you will need:

1. Petrol.
2. Sand.
3. Tin (it can be replaced with lead).
4. Gas-burner.
5. Mug made of metal.
6. Sealing wax.

The algorithm of actions is as follows:

• Degrease the surface with gasoline.
• In the place where you have to make a hole, pour a little moistened sand.
• Using a sharp object, make a hole in the sand whose diameter is equal to the size of the future perforation in the glass sheet.
• Melt the tin or lead in a metal mug using a gas burner.

Important! If there is no burner, then it is possible to heat the metal in a mug and on a gas stove.

• Pour molten lead into the prepared hole.
• When the metal hardens, remove the sand and remove the frozen glass. The resulting hole will be in perfect shape and will not need to be processed.

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How to drill a hole in the glass at home with a homemade drill?

To make a homemade drill, you will need a diamond roller from a glass cutter and a metal rod:

1. Saw a groove in the shaft to insert a roller into it. It must be fixed so that it is stationary in relation to the metal rod.
2. Fix the drill made in this way in a screwdriver or drill and start drilling. This is tantamount to doing a perforation with a diamond-coated drill.

Important! If for some reason you cannot buy a factory-made drill, then you can make it yourself.

There is another way to independently prepare the drill for work, to drill glass at home:

1. Hold a regular drill in pliers and hold it for a few minutes above the flame of a gas burner.
2. After the tool becomes white-hot, cool it with sealing wax.
3. After the drill cools, remove the remainder of the wax.
4. With this simple manipulation, you get a durable tool with which you can make holes in a tempered glass sheet.

Helpful hints:

• To avoid cracking the material, apply a little turpentine or honey on the surface at the drilling site.
• Do not press the screwdriver or drill during operation, do not swing the tool from side to side.
• Take breaks lasting 5-10 seconds. During breaks, lower the drill into a vessel of cold water to cool.
• If you choose between a drill and a screwdriver, give preference to the latter, since the drilling mode in this case will be more sparing.
• For surface treatment, you can use both a solution of ethyl alcohol and acetone.
• Do not forget about safety measures - you need to work with safety glasses and gloves.
• The minimum distance from the drilling point to the edge of the sheet: 15 mm - for brittle grades, 25 mm - for ordinary glasses.
• It is advisable to place a glass sheet on a wooden surface.

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Glass cutter application

Using this tool, you can create holes of large diameter or complex shape. The algorithm of actions is as follows:

1. Apply contours with a marker or felt-tip pen for further processing.
2. Press the tool smoothly and evenly; sharp movements cannot be made.
3. To remove the cut off part, gently tap on the surface with the handle of the tool.
4. Use special forceps to remove glass residues.

Important! Before you start working with glass, check the condition of the tool. It is necessary that the roller is in the center of the glass cutter, rotates freely and evenly.

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Punching in unusual ways:

1. To drill tempered glass, prepare a special coolant. It must be cooked in this order. Dissolve alum in acetic acid. You can prepare the liquid in another way: mix camphor with turpentine in equal proportions. Process the glass with a solution and start drilling a hole.
2. If you don’t have a drill, you can use a copper wire clamped in a drill. In this case, the following composition should be applied at the drilling site: camphor (1 part), turpentine (2 parts) and a little abrasive powder, peeled off from coarse-grained sandpaper.
3. Instead of a drill, you can use a piece of metal pipe. Make a ring of plasticine (diameter 5 cm, height 1 cm). Pour in it a mixture of sandpaper, turpentine and camphor powder. After that, start drilling.

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Stock footage

We hope that the tips in this article will be useful to you.Have a good work!