If there is a need to drill glass, people usually turn to a special company. In fact, you can do this work yourself using appropriate drills or sand. It will also be possible to drill glass using less traditional methods.
What you need to know about glass?
Glass production is carried out by supercooling the melt. The speed of this process is very high, which is why crystallization does not have time to complete. The result is a very brittle material. You need to remember this fact when starting to drill into a glass surface.
There are several classifications of glass. Depending on the materials used, products are divided into oxide, sulfide and fluoride. If we talk about the scope of application, then glass can be window glass, dish glass, optical glass, medical glass, safety glass, chemical glass, etc. At the same time, industrial varieties are divided into several groups:
- potassium-sodium material has a low melting point and has a light structure;
- the calcium-potassium variety is quite hard and difficult to melt;
- the lead product is quite fragile and expensive;
- borosilicate material is resistant to temperature fluctuations and various substances.
Many people wonder how to drill glass. For this purpose, it is necessary to have a suitable high-quality drill available, as well as a material capable of instantly cool the glass. Most often, specialists use one of several types mentioned.
If you decide to do the work yourself, be sure to prepare the glass. The surface must be degreased with alcohol and wiped with a dry cloth. It is also important to ensure that the glass sheet does not slip on the work surface.
Drilling is carried out in several stages.
- The drilling point must be marked. For this purpose, use a marker or construction tape.
- In order not to spoil the material, you should first practice on the fragments.
- As a rule, the drilling procedure takes a lot of time. In any case, you should not press on the glass in order to speed up the procedure.
- The material must be kept at a right angle. At the same time, while drilling one hole, it is worth taking several pauses so that the product has time to cool.
- When you're done drilling, flip the surface over and drill the holes on the other side. This will prevent the formation of cracks or chips.
- Fine-grained sandpaper will help eliminate unevenness.
To drill glass at home, you need prepare the following:
- a drill designed for drilling a ceramic or metal surface;
- screwdriver;
- turpentine;
- alcohol;
- plasticine.
The glass surface must be positioned so that it lies flat. Then you should insert the drill bit into the screwdriver or drill and make sure that it will not break the glass. After this, the surface is degreased and the desired location is marked with plasticine. Next you need to start drilling.
Using a homemade drill
To create holes on a glass surface, you can use a homemade drill. Its main element is a diamond roller located in a regular glass cutter. Alternatively, you can take a metal rod in which a hole for the roller is prepared. This variety is considered a good modification of a diamond-coated element.
If you need to make a hole in glass with a maximum diameter of 50 mm, then you can take any drill, and then grab it with pliers and hold it for several minutes over the flame coming from gas burner. When the tip turns white, it is cooled in wax. Thanks to such hardening, the product can drill through almost any glass.
If you first asked yourself the question of how to drill glass at home, then when performing work, be sure to follow simple recommendations.
Creating holes with sand
If you think that a screwdriver or drill may not be effective, use regular sand. You will also need gasoline, lead, any metal vessel and a gas burner.
- Glass must be degreased using gasoline.
- Then wet sand is poured into the location of the proposed hole.
- After this, a funnel is made with any sharp object. A mixture of lead or tin is poured here and after a few minutes the wet sand is removed.
- After this procedure, the frozen part will move away from the glass surface. To make this happen, the lead is preheated using a gas burner and a metal mug.
Unconventional methods of drilling glass
If the above options are ineffective, then you can use other methods.
In everyday life, the need to drill glass rarely arises. Many people are afraid of this type of work because of the fragility of the material. There's really nothing complicated here. Enough choose a special drill and start drilling carefully. You can also cut the hole using unconventional methods.
If you need to drill glass, the easiest way is to entrust this task to a specialist. But firstly, such services are not cheap, and secondly, there are people who like to make things on their own. Let's try to figure out how to make a hole in glass without damaging it. Let's look at what tools you can use and how quickly and accurately you can complete the work ahead.
Preparatory work
Before drilling glass at home, you need to carefully prepare it:
- Using ethyl alcohol or turpentine, wipe the surface. This is necessary in order to degrease it.
- During work, it is unacceptable for the sheet to slip, so this point must also be taken into account.
- Choose a base so that the entire sheet rests on it.
- Before starting work, mark the place where you will drill. Use construction tape or a marker for this.
- If drilling glass with your own hands - new job for you, then practice on small pieces first to avoid damaging the main sheet.
- The drilling process is quite slow. There is no need to press on the glass to get the job done faster.
- Position the drill at right angles to the plane. Don't try to make the hole right away. Let the glass cool periodically.
- Once the perforation is almost done, turn the sheet over and finish the work on the other side. This will allow for perforation correct form, and at the same time avoid chipping and cracking.
- If small roughness or irregularities have formed on the surface, treating the glass with fine sandpaper will help get rid of them.
How to drill glass at home with a regular drill?
To successfully complete this task, you will need:
- A set of drills used for metal or ceramics.
- Screwdriver or low-speed drill.
- Plasticine.
- Turpentine.
- Alcohol.
Operating procedure:
- Place the glass sheet on a flat surface.
Important! Be careful not to overhang the edges.
- Set the screwdriver or drill to the lowest rotation speed.
Important! The drilling speed ranges between 250 and 1000 rpm.
- Clamp the desired drill bit into the chuck.
- Using an alcohol solution, degrease the surface, and then make a plasticine depression in place of the future hole.
- Pour some turpentine into it and start working with a drill.
- Do not press too hard on the tool as this may cause cracks.
Using Sand
This is enough old way. It was used when screwdrivers and drills were not available. To drill glass with your own hands using this unusual method, you will need:
- Petrol.
- Sand.
- Tin (can be replaced with lead).
- Gas-burner.
- Metal mug.
- Sealing wax.
The algorithm of actions is as follows:
- Degrease the surface with gasoline.
- In the place where the hole is to be made, pour a little moistened sand.
- Using a sharp object, make a hole in the sand, the diameter of which is equal to the size of the future perforation in the glass sheet.
- Melt tin or lead in a metal mug using a gas torch.
Important! If you don’t have a burner, you can heat the metal in a mug and on a gas stove.
- Pour molten lead into the prepared hole.
- When the metal has hardened, remove the sand and remove the frozen glass. The resulting hole will be perfectly shaped and will not need to be processed.
How to drill a hole in glass at home using a homemade drill?
For the manufacture of homemade drill You will need a diamond roller from a glass cutter and a metal rod:
- Saw a groove in the rod to insert the roller into. It must be secured so that it is motionless in relation to the metal rod.
- Fix the drill made in this way in a screwdriver or drill and start drilling. This is the same as using a diamond-coated drill bit to perforate.
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 a drill for work in order to drill glass at home:
- Clamp regular drill in pliers and hold for several minutes over the flame of a gas burner.
- After the instrument is white-hot, cool it with sealing wax.
- After the drill has cooled, remove any remaining sealing wax.
- With this simple manipulation, you get a durable tool that can be used to make holes in a tempered glass sheet.
- To avoid cracking of the material, apply a little turpentine or honey to the surface at the drilling site.
- Do not press the screwdriver or drill while working, do not swing the tool from side to side.
- Take breaks of 5-10 seconds. During breaks, lower the drill into a container with cold water for cooling.
- If you choose between a drill and a screwdriver, give preference to the latter, since the drilling mode in this case will be more gentle.
- To treat the surface, you can use either a solution of ethyl alcohol or acetone.
- Do not forget about safety precautions - you need to wear safety glasses and gloves when working.
- Minimum distance from the drilling point to the edge of the sheet: 15 mm - for fragile types, 25 mm - for ordinary glass.
- It is advisable to place the glass sheet on a wooden surface.
Application of glass cutter
With this tool you can create holes of large diameter or complex shapes. The algorithm of actions is as follows:
- Using a marker or felt-tip pen, draw contours for subsequent processing.
- Press the tool smoothly and evenly; do not make sudden movements.
- To make the cut part fall off, gently tap the surface with the handle of the tool.
- To remove any remaining glass, use special tweezers.
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 and rotates freely and evenly.
Glass is a fragile, easily breakable material, but if you know a few tricks, you can still drill it. The safety rule when working with glass is to wear safety glasses when drilling, because small and large fragments can get into your eyes.
When drilling thin glass, holes can be made at least 13 mm from the edge, and if it is thicker, then the indentation should be about 25 mm, otherwise the glass may crack. For drilling glass, there are special drills with hardened tips.
To obtain large diameter holes, drill bits are used.
For them you can use regular hand drill or electric, turning it on at low speed (less than 350 per minute). First degrease the surface with acetone or alcohol. During the drilling process, you need to drip turpentine onto the glass at the drilling site.
It is necessary to avoid strong beating of the drill so that it does not crack.
1) First of all, we lay the glass on a flat and stable surface. Having marked the drilling location, we make a ring out of putty, lay it around the drilling site, pressing it tightly to the glass surface.
Pour a little turpentine or vinegar into the center of the ring and begin drilling with slight pressure, setting the drill to low speed. It is advisable not to drill immediately through hole, or better yet, drill a small hole on one side, turn the glass over, and repeat the whole procedure on the other side. Using a thin, flexible tube wrapped in fine-grained sandpaper, we clean the edges of the hole.
2) If you need to drill a hole with a diameter of less than 4 mm and there is no special drill, you can use a regular drill. To do this, the drill must first be hardened. We clamp the drill with pliers and hold it over the fire of a gas burner until the tip becomes white hot. Then we immediately cool it by placing it in sealing wax. When the sealing wax stops melting and cools down, remove the drill and clean off the adhered particles of sealing wax. Now you can start drilling using the previous method.
3) If you need to drill a hole in a small glass product, then first immerse the glass product in cold water. The container must be selected so that the product in it does not move, but sits tightly, and the water slightly covers the entire surface of the glass. Now you can drill.
If the product is too large, then place it on a hard horizontal surface. Then moisten the drill generously with turpentine and drill, making sure that the turpentine flows from the drill onto the drilling site.
4) If you only have a carbide drill, you can also use it. First, wet the drill in a solution of aluminum alum and acetic acid, or camphor and turpentine (1:1). Cover the drilling area with a plasticine roller and pour liquid inside. Now the glass can be drilled.
5) If you do not have any drill at all, then you can drill a hole using copper wire. We insert the wire into the drill chuck and secure it. Now we prepare a special paste, for which we dissolve powdered camphor in turpentine 1:2, and then pour in coarse emery powder and mix everything well. Apply the paste to the drilling site and get to work.
You can drill glass in the same way by replacing the copper wire with a straight tube. For this method, install a ring of plasticine or putty, with a diameter of 5 cm and a wall height of about 1 cm. Pour the paste prepared for drilling into the center copper wire, and you can drill. With this method, the diameter of the resulting hole will be slightly larger than the diameter of the tube itself.
6) There is another way of drilling using tubes. To do this, we need an aluminum, copper or duralumin tube 4-6 cm long. We need to drive a wooden plug into the tube at one end to a depth of about 2-2.5 cm and screw in a screw 0.5 cm thick so that its smooth part protrudes above surface by 1-1.5 cm, and then saw off the screw head. We insert the protruding screw into the drill chuck. On the other side, we cut out the teeth using a triangular file. Now we glue cardboard washers with a diameter equal to the diameter of the hole to the glass on both sides. We lay the glass on rubber, sprinkle the drilling area with abrasive powder. We moisten the teeth on the tubes with turpentine and begin drilling. When we drill 1/3 of the glass thickness, we need to turn the glass over and continue on the other side.
7) There is another method in which you can make a large diameter hole without drilling at all. Fry the surface of the glass using gasoline, alcohol or acetone. We outline the outline of the hole and pour in wet fine sand so that it extends beyond the outline of the future hole. The height of the sand slide should be as high as possible. Using a sharpened stick, the diameter of our hole, carefully make a funnel to the surface of the glass. There should not be a single grain of sand left over the area of the entire hole. Melt tin or lead and pour it into the center of the funnel.
After 2-3 minutes the sand is brushed off. We take out the solder cone along with the glass circle.
How to drill a hole in glass. You may need skills in cutting and drilling glass without turning to specialists. You might want to do it yourself coffee table with glass top. You have purchased a new aquarium and want to make a hole in it to drain the water without any problems. How to drill glass yourself without damaging it.
So, how to drill a hole in glass at home can be done using many options; we will describe the most famous ones below.
How to drill through thin glass
IN thin sheets , can easily crumble when cutting; holes are made using ordinary sand and molten tin, or lead.
Melts in a metal mug small sizes a piece of tin or lead. While the metal is slowly transitioning from solid to liquid, it is necessary to wet the sand with cold water and then carefully place it at the site of the intended drilling. In a pile of sand, we make a depression of the required size with a thin and long object.
Slowly pour hot tin or lead into the formed hole.
After five to ten minutes, the sand around the frozen metal is carefully swept aside. You need to wait about five to ten minutes, depending on the amount of metal poured, after this time the frozen piece slightly rises up. A piece of glass of appropriate size should be removed along with it.
Presumably, this method should work, but minor errors in the form of uneven edges of the hole and chips are possible.
How to drill through thick glass
Thick sheets require significant effort. You won’t be able to be lazy, as in the previous version. It won't be anything fancy, but extreme caution will be required.
So, how to drill glass, place the piece of glass being processed on flat surface, which will definitely not tremble or shake during operation. At the site of the upcoming drilling, we apply a mark, around which, using ordinary plasticine, known to all children, we build a not very high round side. Pour turpentine into the created “crater” and fill the hole completely with it.
After this, we take a drill or screwdriver into which a regular drill designed for working with metal is inserted, or one that has a sharp tip coated with pobedite. We insert the end of the drill into the hole and begin drilling.
It is very important that no significant force is applied during drilling. physical strength and that the drill operates at the lowest speeds.
How to drill a hole in glass of any thickness?
The methods described above are characterized by their unreliability and impracticality. After all, it is very difficult to predict the result of these experiments, and not everyone has the opportunity to melt tin at home or do something similar.
For the same method of drilling glass: we need to spend a little money on hardware store to purchase a special diamond-coated nozzle. The principle of working with it is very simple: the nozzle is inserted into a screwdriver, which is set to the lowest speed, the glass is placed on a hard surface, a template is placed on top of the glass, and it is poured onto the drilling site. cold water, and the drilling process itself begins. The template can be made in advance from an unnecessary small piece of glass or wood - it doesn’t matter.
Water must be added repeatedly during the process, and a short break must be taken every one or two minutes to avoid overheating the surface of the glass (this can cause it to crack).
When almost the entire thickness of the glass has been sawn, turn the blade over and finish the work you started at the other end. This way you will avoid the formation of chips and cracks along the edges of the hole.
