Drilling holes in glass is a complex, time-consuming and unsafe business. For quality work, you must have the appropriate competencies - knowledge, skills and abilities. This is the reason for the frequent appeal to specialists when there is a need for jewelry work with glass, mirror, etc.
In fact, with enough time and basic initial skills, the glass drilling process can be mastered at home. The main thing is to have the desire, time, patience and have specialized tools.
- The workplace for drilling glass should be comfortable and safe:
- special premises (preferably non-residential);
- a stable and level table (or workbench) with a non-slip surface;
- the presence of free space around the table (or workbench).
- Ensuring the safety of the worker:
- special protective goggles;
- thick fabric gloves.
- Tools and consumables:
- classic drills for metal and ceramics of the required length;
- drill (can be replaced with a screwdriver, but not recommended);
- liquid soap (or equivalent);
- hot water;
- foam sponge;
- turpentine for degreasing or other similar chemicals (alcohol, solvent, acetone, etc.);
- a piece of soft, dry flannel fabric.
Material preparation and testing of glass drilling
1. Cleaning and degreasing glass.
In order to drill glass with high quality, it must be carefully prepared for the upcoming procedure. To this end, with the help of liquid soap, sponges and hot water wash the workpiece, removing dust, dirt from it, greasy spots and other substances. Then, using 96% alcohol, turpentine, lighter gasoline, white spirit, acetone, thinner, etc. degrease the glass surfaces, and then wipe dry with a soft flannel, bringing to a shine.
2. The location of the workpiece.
When drilling, the glass sheet must be placed on a flat and non-slip surface (to avoid displacement under the pressure of the drill). Therefore, you will need to take care of this as well. Do not put under glass soft tissue(especially the fat one). This will lead to deformation of the material when pressed and the unpleasant prospect of glass cracking. Let chipboard, OSB, etc. be on the workbench or table. To avoid slipping of glass on the surface of the table, the edges of the workpiece can be fixed with glazing beads or masking tape.
3. Markup.
Before drilling, the intended hole must be marked with a marker and highlighted working area drilling.
4. Approbation of the drilling technique.
If the worker is not experienced in drilling particularly hard objects, it is good practice to practice on small pieces of glass to avoid the risk of ruining large volumes of material irrevocably.
Glass Drilling Basics
- The process of drilling hard and - at the same time - brittle material, which is glass, will not be fast. It is necessary to prepare for this in advance and not to rush during the procedure.
- When drilling holes, do not expose the tool, drill and the material itself overpressure in an effort to reduce operating time. This can lead to displacement of the cutting edges of the drill, the appearance of chips and microcracks, and even complete cracking of the glass.
- The tool (most often a drill) should be held strictly perpendicular to the surface to be drilled. Otherwise, again, chips and cracks may appear, which will exclude further exploitation of the material.
- The drilling process must be divided into stages, between which there should be a time interval of at least 2-3 minutes. This is done in order to allow the glass to cool. Do not use water to lower the temperature. And the drill, on the contrary, will be correctly immersed in water for cooling (so that there is no overheating and melting).
- You should immediately abandon the one-time drilling of a through hole in the glass. It is necessary to pass with a drill a little more than half of the total thickness of the material and turn it 180 degrees in order to continue the procedure on a head-on course. This will make it possible to make the edges and edges of the hole even and relatively smooth.
- To get rid of chips, scratches, irregularities resulting from drilling, you can use a fine abrasive sandpaper and chamfer, sharpening existing or formed sharp edges.
Drilling glass with a classic drill
When drilling a hole with a conventional - classic - drill, you will need:
- drill (or screwdriver; a drill is preferable);
- classic drills for metal or ceramics;
- turpentine;
- raw rubber, putty, plasticine (any elastic material subject to deformation).
To drill glass with a conventional drill, the following sequence of actions must be strictly observed.
- Check the drill and drill for moments of beating, which must be eliminated so that the glass does not crack.
- Set the minimum possible rotation speed of the drill chuck.
- From an elastic material, form a funnel with a flat bottom (a kind of crucible) and place it at the site of the intended drilling of the hole.
- Pour a small amount of turpentine into the formed funnel to lubricate the surfaces of the drill and glass at the point of contact (friction).
- Start drilling without having to drill and drill high pressure for workpiece.
- After passing the middle of the glass thickness, turn the workpiece over and repeat the above steps on the reverse side.
Drilling holes with a homemade drill
To make the drilling process more efficient and less time consuming, it is recommended to pre-make a homemade drill based on a “diamond” (cutting roller) taken from a standard glass cutter.
To make a homemade glass drill you will need:
- cutting roller ("diamond");
- drill blank (metal rod);
- vise;
- hacksaw or "grinder" with a thin disk for metal;
- calipers.
After the homemade drill is ready, it is necessary to repeat exactly the procedure for drilling a hole with a classic drill (see above).
Burning holes in glass
A hole in glass can be not only drilled, but also burned out. This procedure requires more preparation, and therefore time.
To burn a hole in the glass you will need:
- a small piece of tin or lead;
- a crucible for melting metal (or a container that replaces it);
- open heat source (for metal melting);
- raw sand without clay (river or quarry).
The burning procedure is not particularly complicated, based on physical and chemical processes.
- It is necessary to melt the metal (lead or tin) in the crucible.
- Form a "slide" of sand at the site of the intended hole.
- Make a funnel-shaped recess, the bottom of which will be placed in the place of the hole.
- Pour molten metal into the recess.
- After 10 minutes, when the metal will cool and solidify, remove the sand, metal and the frozen part of the glass that has been removed from the hole formed.
This method has two significant drawbacks: 1) the procedure is costly in terms of time and resources involved; 2) it is difficult to predict in advance the size of the resulting hole in the glass.
The "plus" of this technique is the absence of the need for further processing of glass, the edges of the hole of which will not have chamfers and cutting edges. The edges of the hole formed by overheating the glass will be smooth and even.
What is the best way to drill holes in glass?
Most The right way drilling holes in glass is the purchase and use of an expensive set of specialized glass drills. However, if you are not professionally engaged in drilling holes in glass (you provide such services and work with glass every day), then you should not spend fabulous sums on a purchase. They don't justify themselves.
The best way is to drill with a classic drill in compliance with the basic rules, techniques and work technology described above.
One of the fragile materials is glass, which must be handled with great care. To carefully drill a hole in the glass without cracking it, you should follow the recommendations, carefully select the tools for the job.
Special crowns and drills
First of all, you need to purchase special devices. For this you will need:
- Drill with pointed end.
- Drill bits.
Pointed drill mainly used in cases where you need to make a small hole. Spear-shaped can be conventional or diamond-coated, which provides smoother drilling. But it is difficult to work with such a product, so it is preferable to use the second option.
For making holes large diameter apply diamond drill bits. The use of abrasive spraying is allowed, but with such a product, drilling is of insufficient quality. Therefore, it is recommended to use products with diamond coating, because with such crowns there is less chance that the glass will crack.
Depending on which hole you need to get, you can use drills of different diameters.
Necessary tools and equipment
In addition to the drill, you will need equipment for work:
- Drill.
- Scotch.
- Stencil (thick cardboard or a sheet of plywood will do).
- Water.
- Gloves.
- Protective glasses.
Drill should be speed adjustable. It can be replaced with a screwdriver, which is more gentle. Can be used both manually and electrically. The main thing is that there should be a minimum runout of the drill. It is recommended to use a drill with a speed in the range of 250 - 1000 rpm.
Stencil required for accurate drilling. To do this, a hole of the required diameter is pre-drilled in it, and then it is applied to the glass.
Scotch additionally protects against small glass fragments. Water needed to cool the surface to be drilled. For personal skin protection, you must have gloves, and glasses, which will protect the skin and eyes from splinters.
Glass preparation
Before starting work, it is necessary to determine the surface on which the glass will be drilled. It is best to use a table that is stable on the floor. It is desirable to cover it thick cloth or cardboard, so as not to damage its surface during work. This will also prevent the glass from cracking.
It is impossible to drill glass on weight, so a flat surface is used, to which the material will fit snugly.
After that:
- Glass is degreased with alcohol.
- Wipe clean with a soft dry cloth.
- It is laid on the prepared surface.
- Adhesive tape is glued to the intended attachment point.
- A stencil with a drilled hole is applied.
Using a stencil, you can more accurately make the required hole. It is necessary to ensure that the distance from the edge of the glass is at least 25 mm, otherwise the product may crack.
There is a second method without using a stencil. To do this, take the usual plasticine and glued to the glass around the drilling hole. Plasticine will act as the sides. Water is poured inside, which will cool the glass.
Step-by-step instruction
After the markup is done, the main part of the work is done. For this, a drill is prepared, which is tightly inserted into the drill. You need to check that it is well fixed. Then the drill is turned on and at low speed is brought to the marked drilling site. The drill must be held strictly perpendicular to the glass.
When the recess turned out to be about 3 mm, you need to stop and drop a little water into it. To remove heat from the glass, which is released during drilling, turpentine or kerosene is also used.
Water is needed to cool the glass surface.
Then continue drilling also at minimum speed. The tool must not be pressed during operation, because the glass is very fragile, and the drill can break if these recommendations are not followed.
Drilling rules
To prevent glass from cracking during drilling, you must follow a few rules:
- Turn on the drill with a minimum rotation speed.
- Hold the instrument at a right angle to the glass.
- Do not press on the drill.
- Drill slowly in several passes.
- After each entry, moisten the recess with water.
Drilling in several passes is necessary not only to avoid overheating of the glass, but also overheating of the tool. The drill also heats up, so it must be constantly moistened with water.
When the hole is made, you can remove the small roughness that has formed around it with fine-grained sandpaper.
If the drill is held lightly, cracking can be prevented. In addition, the drill must not be swayed from side to side. It must be held strictly at a right angle.
On the video you can see the method of drilling thick glass. For this, a method is used in which a hole is made on both sides.
How to make a hole with a larger diameter than the size of the drill
If you need to make a hole with a diameter slightly larger than the diameter of the existing drill, than the size of the drill, then you can use a glass cutter. To do this, a hole is drilled according to the above scheme. After that:
- A nail is inserted into the hole.
- A small rope is attached to the nail.
- The end of the rope is tied to the glass cutter.
- A circle is made.
The nail must be selected clearly according to the diameter of the hole, so that it does not hang out, but stands firmly. The length of the rope, which is attached at one end to the nail and the other to the glass cutter, must be calculated so that it is equal to the radius of the desired hole.
After drawing a circle with a glass cutter, you need to make gentle tapping movements. Due to this, the circle will come out of the hole. Then the rough edges at the cut point are processed with sandpaper.
What to do if there is no necessary drill
Quite often, a suitable drill is not at hand. Therefore, you can use their replacement:
- Make a hardened drill.
- take advantage copper wire.
Do it yourself hardened drill possible by simple technology: taken conventional drill, clamped with pliers and hold the end of the product over the gas burner. When the point turns white, it must be instantly dipped in sealing wax. After a couple of minutes, the drill is taken out, cleaned of sealing wax particles.
To properly drill glass with a hardened drill, you can use the above diagram. The only difference is the need for constant wetting of the drill so that it does not overheat.
Copper wire It is used in the event that there is no drill at hand. To do this, the wire is clamped in a drill. Then a special solution is prepared from sandpaper powder (it is better to take coarse-grained), camphor, and also turpentine in a ratio of 0.5: 1: 2. When everything is ready, the mixture is poured onto the glass at the drilling site, and then a hole is made.
How to make a hole without drilling
If you don’t have the right drill and drill at hand, then there is another way to make a hole in the material. You can use the old method. You must have with you:
- Sand.
- Tin (or lead).
- Any thin and long object (you can take wooden stick pointed end).
Work begins with the degreasing of glass, on which a small slide is poured wet sand. A small funnel is made in it with a sharp object. The recess is made to the surface of the glass. The center of the funnel should match the diameter of the future hole. Then a mixture of tin or lead (called solder) is melted and poured into the funnel.
For the preparation of solder, a metal vessel and a gas burner are used.
After a few minutes, the sand is removed. A frozen metal is taken out, at the end of which there will be a frozen glass. It should easily peel off the surface. The result is a perfectly smooth through hole in glass.
When drilling glass, the main thing is to adhere to the technology of work and select the right material. To make a high-quality hole in the material without damaging it, it is desirable:
- It is better to use a diamond-coated drill.
- Choose your drill diameter carefully.
- Choose the right work surface: it must be stable.
- To prevent the glass from slipping, the table is covered with cloth, cardboard or plywood.
- Do not drill into tempered glass, which may break into small pieces.
- Do not put pressure on the drill during operation.
- All actions should be carried out slowly, constantly wetting the hole with water. This will help to avoid overheating of the material and prevent the formation of cracks.
- Work should be carried out in protective gloves and goggles so that fragments do not get on the skin in the eyes.
- Before starting work, it is better to practice making holes on an unnecessary piece of glass.
When drilling a hole, you do not need to try to do all the work in 1 time. This is a rather laborious process and takes a lot of time.
It often seems that such a fragile material as glass can only be processed experienced master. But if a beginner treats the work with understanding, will do it slowly, calmly, leisurely, then you can ideally drill a hole in the glass.
There is an ancient, but somehow forgotten now method for making holes in glass. The space on the glass, where there should be a hole, is properly cleaned of dirt and grease with gasoline, acetone or alcohol. Next, wet fine sand is poured onto the washed place and a funnel is made in the sand to the glass with a sharpened stick of the required diameter. Molten solder (lead or tin is acceptable) is poured into the form prepared in this way in the sand. After 1-2 minutes, the sand should be thrown off and the solder cone removed. There is an even through hole in the glass.
Making holes in glass
There is an ancient, but somehow forgotten now method of making holes in glass. The space on the glass, where there should be a hole, is properly cleaned of dirt and grease with gasoline, acetone or alcohol. Next, wet fine sand is poured onto the washed place and a funnel is made in the sand to the glass with a sharpened stick of the required diameter. Molten solder (lead or tin is acceptable) is poured into the form prepared in this way in the sand. After 1-2 minutes, the sand should be thrown off and the solder cone removed. There is an even through hole in the glass.
Drilling a hole in glass
A hole in the glass can be drilled using a carbide drill. The secret of the success of this operation is in the liquid that wets the glass. It is prepared from aluminum alum dissolved in acetic acid, or from a mixture (one to one) of camphor or turpentine. A plasticine roller is built around the drilling space. Liquid is poured inside the resulting bath. Glass during the processing period must lie on a soft matter.
Another way to make a hole in glass
Another method is how to make a hole in the glass.For work, a drill made of hard metal plasticine is useful for the production of a small bath, a combination of equal parts of camphor and turpentine, as well as a piece of dense rubber.
Learn more about how to drill a hole in glass
About how to drill a hole in glass in 10-15 moments. For this, you will need to sharpen a thin needle file like a chisel and attach it to the chuck of a hand drill. Do not forget to let the needle file cool down only at the time of drilling, even to sharpen it occasionally.
Drilling a large hole in glass
The drill is made from a piece of aluminum, duralumin or copper tube 40-60 mm long. From the 1st end, a wood cork is hammered into it to a depth of 20-25 millimeters, and at the other end, teeth are cut with a trihedral file. Screwed into a cork small screw 4-5 mm thick so that its smooth part protrudes by 10-15 mm. The head is cut off. A paper washer with a hole equal to the diameter to be drilled is glued to the glass on both sides. Glass is placed on a piece of rubber. A little abrasive powder is poured into the drilling space. Then the end of the screw protruding from the cork is inserted into a hand drill, the teeth are lubricated with turpentine and then they start drilling. When the tube goes deep into the glass by at least 1/3 of its thickness, the glass is turned over and drilling is completed from the second side.
Cutting round glasses
We offer the possibility of cutting round glass. A roller from the glass cutter is attached to one sponge of the caliper. Another sponge rests on the glass through a rubber washer. The roller is rolled a couple of times in a circle, after which 3-4 tangents are made with a standard glass cutter, which facilitates chipping the glass along the boundaries of the cuts. Sharpened edges are cleaned with a file or emery under running water.
Unconventional glass drilling methods
1. A thin steel drill, heated to white, is hardened in mercury or a piece of sealing wax and honed. Then a saturated solution of camphor is prepared in turpentine, a drill is moistened with it, mounted on a brace, and glass is quickly drilled, which is then wetted at the point of convergence with the named solution. This method can drill through glass 1 cm thick in less than one minute.2. In order to drill a hole in glass, we recommend taking a triangular file, lowering it into turpentine and carefully drilling a hole.
3. You can also drill through glass lathe copper rod, lubricating it with oil and sprinkling with emery. Special attention should be turned to the hole when the drilling process comes to an end and only the last thin layer remains, as this can easily crack the glass
hole in glass video
This article will be of interest to those who want to learn how to drill a hole in glass with their own hands. After all, it is not so easy to drill because of its fragility. For this work, we need certain knowledge and tools. In our article, we will reveal to you the little tricks associated with this process.
Simple rules for drilling
I want to remind you right away that you use personal protective equipment for any work at home. In our case the best remedy There will be safety glasses, as when working with glass, small particles can get into your eyes.
- Before you start working with glass, you need to consider very important point, how far from the edge will the hole be. So, keep at least 13 mm from the edge if the glass is thin and about 25 mm if it is thick. Ignoring this rule, except cracked glass You won't get anything.
- To drill a hole in the glass, you need a special drill that has hardened tips.
- You can drill hand drill, as well as electric, but at low speeds (less than 350 revolutions per second).
Do all the work of drilling a hole in the glass with your own hands as follows:
- Place the glass on a level and stable table. Be sure to check that there is no debris on the surface of the table, because the glass may crack.
- Mark the places of future holes with a marker.
- Take window putty and mold a ring out of it, which you lay around our mark and press it firmly against the glass.
- Pour some turpentine inside the ring. If there is no turpentine, you can pour ordinary vinegar.
- At low speeds, start drilling, but do not press hard on the drill.
- Having drilled to about half the thickness of the glass, stop and carefully turn it over to the other side. Again, lay the putty ring, but from the opposite side, pour in turpentine or vinegar and drill a through hole.
- The edges of the hole made must be cleaned with fine-grained sandpaper, which is best wrapped around a flexible, such as rubber, tube.
What to do if the required drill was not found?
We will help you with this too. Just follow the methods we offer.
1. You can drill a hole with a diameter of up to 4 mm with an ordinary drill, but after hardening it. In order to harden the drill, we need pliers and a gas burner. Holding the drill with pliers, glow the drill white with gas burner and as soon as it becomes white color, place the tip of the drill in sealing wax so that it cools down. Wait until the sealing wax cools down and stops melting, then the drill can be removed. Clean it from the remnants of sealing wax and you can start drilling, our drill is hardened.
When you need to drill a hole in a small piece of glass, you just need to place it in a container with cold water. The container should be convenient in size. Surface working surface glass should be lightly covered with water. The product must not float in the container.
If the glass is quite large or the water container was not at hand, you need to moisten the drill inserted into the drill with turpentine and carefully so that the liquid does not start drilling all the glass. Place the glass on a flat hard surface.
2. If you only have a carbide drill and need to drill glass, this method is for you. The secret lies in the liquid that needs to moisten the drill. You can prepare this liquid yourself. To do this, aluminum alum must be dissolved in acetic acid. There is another option, mix camphor with turpentine in a ratio of 1: 1.
3. There is a method of drilling glass when you don't have any drill at all, but you have a drill. And so, we insert a piece of copper wire into the drill chuck. Then you need to prepare a special paste according to the following recipe: take one part of camphor powder and dissolve it in two parts of turpentine.
Next, we take a coarse-grained sandpaper and with a file or some hard object we remove the powder from its working surface. Pour this powder into the resulting liquid and mix well. The resulting mass is poured onto the drilling site and you can start drilling, observing the precautions.
4. The following method is similar to the above, but there are differences. Instead of a piece of copper wire, you need to use a flat tube.
Then from plasticine mold a ring with a diameter of 5 cm and a wall height of 1 cm around the circumference. We place the ring at the drilling site and fill it with turpentine and camphor paste. Another paste can be prepared from corundum powder diluted with a little water. Further you can drill, but it should be noted that the diameter of the hole will be slightly larger than the object with which you will drill.
5. We present you another method of drilling with a tube. To do this, you need to take a tube 4-6 cm long. It can be a tube made of aluminum, copper or duralumin. We drive a wooden cork into the tube from one end to a depth of no more than 2-2.5 cm, at the other end we cut out the teeth with a file. We screw a screw 0.5 cm thick into a wooden cork. The smooth side of the screw should protrude 1-1.5 cm. We saw off the head of the screw.
Glue cardboard circles to the drilling site, which should be the same diameter as the required hole. Place the glass on a rubber surface. Sprinkle the drilling site with abrasive powder. We insert our tube into the drill chuck, the protruding part of the screw.
We process the teeth we made on the tube with turpentine. Next we move on to drilling. Having drilled about a third of the depth of the required hole with a tube, you need to turn the glass over and continue drilling on the other side.
How to make a hole without drilling?
And now we will reveal to you the secret of how to make a large diameter hole in glass without drilling at home. This method will suit you, if not, drills of the desired diameter.
Degrease the glass surface with a sponge soaked in gasoline or other degreasing liquid. In place of the hole, pour wet sand a little larger diameter the hole we need. Sand must be poured until it begins to collapse in diameter, that is, as high as possible.
We take a wooden stick that needs to be sharpened. The diameter of the stick should be equal to the diameter of our hole. With a stick, we carefully make a depression in the sand to the surface of the glass, but so that there is no sand in the center of the funnel thus obtained.
Then we melt tin or lead, that is, the usual "solder". After waiting 1-2 minutes, shake off the sand, and take out the cooled metal, at the end of which there will be a piece of melted glass. As a result of this operation and thanks to high temperature we got smooth hole the size we need.
That's all. We hope that with the help of our advice you will cope with a seemingly difficult task. Now you can teach simple tricks his friends. We wish you success and confidently affirm that everything will work out for you!
