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Friday, January 26, 2018
How to drill holes through glass
Boing Boing: Chris Notap bought some cheap hole-cutting bits on eBay and tried them out on a pane of glass, a mason jar, a ceramic bathroom tile, a mirror, and a coffee mug. The results are nice.
6 comments:
Peter Kelly
said...
This tutorial comes at a very convenient time. We are just finishing our first box project for Susan, and next up is the metal/transparent box. Being able to cut holes in glass and other materials like that might be a god send. I think that the trick with the water bottle to make the cut water lubricated is incredibly clever, and definitely not something that I would have thought of on my own. I’m surprised that the tools that he used are relatively easy to get, and seem to get a very very clean cut through most thicknesses of glass and even ceramic. The actual design of the cutting tools is very cool. They look like they just have extra texture at the end of the cylinder, similar in texture to the discs used by dremels. I’m a little surprised that they aren’t more similar to glass scorers, but I can see how that would be difficult to turn into a power tool.
That was a pretty cool video. I do not foresee having to drill through too much glass in the entertainment industry, but now if I need to I know how to. First, I was surprised how cheap those bits were. I have seen similar bits go for upwards of $25 each, but maybe they were diamond coated and I am assuming the ones in the video were not. But if they were, that a great deal. I really liked the little jig he made. Most bits have a centering point of some kind, but every now and then you have a hole saw without one or you are trying to size up a hole and have nothing to center in. This little trick is pretty simple and works pretty well the couple times I've done something like that. Now that cooling system (i.e. a bottle with a hole) I have never seen that before but I love it. It's a very clever way using air pressure.
Am I the only one who expected some crazy life hack kind of video? I mean, that jig is pretty handy but you could probably rig something similar or just use a drill press, which is probably a better idea anyway to keep an even and constant pressure on the glass. I didn’t know that plain water was a good enough coolant for these things, but I guess you don’t want to get the glass all greasy and the little bits of glass should be washed away as soon as possible. The other silly thing I found about this video is he literally says “it’ll get better with practice and you won’t crack the glass” and in instructional videos like this, I kind of want to see a sure-fire way to complete a task like this and not be told “oh yeah this isn’t going to work until you get used to it”
So in the past I have had very mixed results when trying to cut glass in the past, sometimes I got really nice clean cuts but other times the glass would crack and splinter really bad. I the video Chris Notap bought some cheap hole-cutting bits on eBay and tried them out. And honestly the video for this is mid and simple and his end results are fairly good results. I do like his idea about using the two litter bottle with a hole in it to make a consistent stream of water to help cool the bit down. The bit themselves I haven't seen in that style before with the basic hole cutting saw but with finer teeth on it. Having watched this video I am fairly impressed with his end results and will probably try and mimic his process if I need to drill through glass in the future, hopefully it works as well for me as it did for him.
Overall I thought this video was helpful for people doing home projects or other small scale tasks, but I'm not so sure how well bits like these would work for more regular or constant use. I do think for one-time projects, bits like these are great because you don't have to spend a whole bunch of money on something you're only going to use to drill a few holes and then store away in a drawer somewhere forever and never touch. I did like his cooling system; I thought it was very creative and, again, is a great tip for someone who does not want to invest money in a more "official" tool for a small scale project. I also thought the template he made was a smart way of making a guide, again, for very cheap and with materials most people doing these sorts of projects probably have lying around.
I haven't spent a lot of time drilling through glass, but as far as I know it is more about technique than equipment, though the equipment is important. It seems that water is truly the key to drilling through glass. As the video shows, there isn't much technique to it, though it is interesting. So - maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it is all about the type of bit that you're using. I'm not sure that there's 150 words about this - though it is interesting.
6 comments:
This tutorial comes at a very convenient time. We are just finishing our first box project for Susan, and next up is the metal/transparent box. Being able to cut holes in glass and other materials like that might be a god send. I think that the trick with the water bottle to make the cut water lubricated is incredibly clever, and definitely not something that I would have thought of on my own. I’m surprised that the tools that he used are relatively easy to get, and seem to get a very very clean cut through most thicknesses of glass and even ceramic. The actual design of the cutting tools is very cool. They look like they just have extra texture at the end of the cylinder, similar in texture to the discs used by dremels. I’m a little surprised that they aren’t more similar to glass scorers, but I can see how that would be difficult to turn into a power tool.
That was a pretty cool video. I do not foresee having to drill through too much glass in the entertainment industry, but now if I need to I know how to. First, I was surprised how cheap those bits were. I have seen similar bits go for upwards of $25 each, but maybe they were diamond coated and I am assuming the ones in the video were not. But if they were, that a great deal. I really liked the little jig he made. Most bits have a centering point of some kind, but every now and then you have a hole saw without one or you are trying to size up a hole and have nothing to center in. This little trick is pretty simple and works pretty well the couple times I've done something like that. Now that cooling system (i.e. a bottle with a hole) I have never seen that before but I love it. It's a very clever way using air pressure.
Am I the only one who expected some crazy life hack kind of video? I mean, that jig is pretty handy but you could probably rig something similar or just use a drill press, which is probably a better idea anyway to keep an even and constant pressure on the glass. I didn’t know that plain water was a good enough coolant for these things, but I guess you don’t want to get the glass all greasy and the little bits of glass should be washed away as soon as possible. The other silly thing I found about this video is he literally says “it’ll get better with practice and you won’t crack the glass” and in instructional videos like this, I kind of want to see a sure-fire way to complete a task like this and not be told “oh yeah this isn’t going to work until you get used to it”
So in the past I have had very mixed results when trying to cut glass in the past, sometimes I got really nice clean cuts but other times the glass would crack and splinter really bad. I the video Chris Notap bought some cheap hole-cutting bits on eBay and tried them out. And honestly the video for this is mid and simple and his end results are fairly good results. I do like his idea about using the two litter bottle with a hole in it to make a consistent stream of water to help cool the bit down. The bit themselves I haven't seen in that style before with the basic hole cutting saw but with finer teeth on it. Having watched this video I am fairly impressed with his end results and will probably try and mimic his process if I need to drill through glass in the future, hopefully it works as well for me as it did for him.
Overall I thought this video was helpful for people doing home projects or other small scale tasks, but I'm not so sure how well bits like these would work for more regular or constant use. I do think for one-time projects, bits like these are great because you don't have to spend a whole bunch of money on something you're only going to use to drill a few holes and then store away in a drawer somewhere forever and never touch. I did like his cooling system; I thought it was very creative and, again, is a great tip for someone who does not want to invest money in a more "official" tool for a small scale project. I also thought the template he made was a smart way of making a guide, again, for very cheap and with materials most people doing these sorts of projects probably have lying around.
I haven't spent a lot of time drilling through glass, but as far as I know it is more about technique than equipment, though the equipment is important. It seems that water is truly the key to drilling through glass. As the video shows, there isn't much technique to it, though it is interesting. So - maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it is all about the type of bit that you're using. I'm not sure that there's 150 words about this - though it is interesting.
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