Cutting Glass

[ronrca]

A word of caution
Extremely sharp edges. You can easily sever your fingers or other body parts. Please be very careful and if in doubt, dont! A word of advice when cutting - do not rush. Be patience and calm thinking of the danger and what you are doing.

The tools:
http://forum.simplydiscus.com//s...ead.php?t=36435 (http://forum.simplydiscus.com//showthread.php?t=36435)


Cutting glass actually isn’t that difficult once you do it. Basically there is no room for errors, not like cutting wood/plastic. The worst part is that once you have scored the glass, that’s it. Sometimes the glass ‘breaks’ not along the score line and the glass is wasted. It happens but not too worry. Practice makes prefect. Id recommend finding some scrap 3mm glass and cutting it just to get the feel for it how the cutter scores the glass, the sound of a good score, the feel and sound of breaking the glass. Once you feel comfortable with cutting/breaking, you can start with the thicker glass and building you tank. Btw, more on building/designing the tank later.

So, now your ready to cut the glass. You have all the supplies and tools required. The glass you have cleaned until you can comb your hair in the reflection. The next step is finding a good sized area for you to work. I prefer the floor because I can put some muscle (actually weight) into the cutting. You should be able to move around the glass or be able to rotate the glass easily without any obstructions. You will also want a ‘mat’ of some sort because there will be some glass pieces that fall off. You certainly don’t want them to get into the carpet or on the floor where you step on and cut up your feet. In my case, Ive chosen a cardboard that afterwards I fold up and discard.

You can see the tools that I'm working with, the Tsquare, a dryeraser marker, measuring tape, cutting tool and tile plier.

The first thing you will want to do is see if your piece of glass is square. It’s a pain to put a tank together when the pieces are not square. This is where I use the Tsquare.

[ronrca]

Next, measure the cut line and using the marker, mark the distance top and bottom.

A word of caution! Do not cut glass widths less than 2". It doesnt break very good at all but that may be just me! ;)

[ronrca]

Now line up the mark tics using the Tsquare making sure that the top and bottom line up and are exact. I usually measure again with the Tsquare lined up just to make sure. You will also need to compensate of the width of the cutting tool edge-center-of-wheel. This is where the practice helps. With this particular cutting tool, I need to offset the Tsquare 1/8” from the mark tics to ensure proper distance.

Once you have the Tsquare lined up, make sure you hold it firmly in place. With small pieces of glass such as this one, I can easily hold it in place with my hands and knee however large pieces require help. I use small clamps together with some pieces of plastic so I don’t crack the glass with the clamps. I then clamp the Tsquare to the piece of glass firmly.

Next, starting at the top of the glass as seen in the pic, pull or draw the cutting tool towards you, making sure you press down firmly to ensure a good cut line or score line. Make sure that you don’t stop but continue all the way down in one continuous motion (again, practise).

[ronrca]

You will hear the sound of nails on blackboard and see a groove down the cut line. This indicates a good score line and a good break.

[ronrca]

Now using the tile pliers, line up the bottom of the glass with the straight piece of the plier and the angle pieces on top of the glass. The glass will break away from you or down towards the floor.

[ronrca]

Once the plier is properly aligned, slowly squeeze the pliers together. You will actually see the glass splitting apart if you do it slow enough which is neat. If not, you will heard it snap.

That’s it! Next is finishing the edges. Use diamond grit sandpaper and sand the edges until round similar as you would finishing wood. Silicon adheres to rounded edges better because of the increase surface area.

So give it a try!

Tank building basics soon to follow! ;)

[Smokey]

To all the members of SimplyDiscus;
PLEASE READ>;
Quote from "Cutting glass"; by Ron.R.
Extremely sharp edges. You can easily sever your fingers or other body parts.?
> What other body parts are you using to cut the glass??
OUCH; OUCH OUCH!!!!

Smokey
p.s more to come... Hahahahaha............. not a play on words ; LOL .............but a responce to an article that needs more attention!!

Any body can cut glass... More to follow if the members of S/D request it!

[ronrca]

other body parts
How about cutting your hands or arms? Even legs when rotating or moving pieces of glass? There are more possibilities of course but then again being a family orientated site, why bother with the particulars. ;) ;D

[Northwestcoastdisc]

That is a good idea to show everyone how to cut glasses, etc.

Be careful its really very dangerous job might be serious cut your hands and fingers, best to wear thick rubber gloves or thick leather gloves. I wore the rubber gloves is best safely for working for glasses.

I was working at Sea Star Aquarum for 3 years. I was building tanks from 3 gallon to over 300 gallon tanks.

from 12" by 8" by 8" ( L x W x H ) to 96" by 48" by 36"( L x W x H ) some time 12 feet long tank.

there is many diffrent shapes of tanks! cube tanks , corner tanks, hexgaton tank, octagon tanks, flatback hex tanks, etc

Also i was breeding for Japanise Koi for my boss ;D

I was really enjoy working.

Ask me any question about this


Duncan

NWCD

[Smokey]

Thanks Ron, for mentioning just how easy it is to "cut" one's arms or legs, etc.
SO True - a piece of glass has the ability to cut quickly and without you even knowing.
I started working/cutting glass way back in 1975; actually in Cumberland, B.C.
Still have all my body parts.... lol... mind you a few nicks have evolved over the years.
If proper care and FULL ATTENTION is observed, cutting glass can be safe.

If you want to try cutting glass, get some thin, 2 to 4 mill pieces and practice.

[Northwestcoastdisc]

hi smokey

i agree with you

2 to 4 mill of glasses are easy to cut and snap it

more than 8 mill are hard to snap!

for 90 gallon to 120 gallon tank use 10 mill glass thick.

Duncan

NWCD

[RandalB]

Keep it coming guys,

I am planning to build 2x 15H Refugiums for Reef Tank projects and was planning to use Glass for the partitions. I'd rather do it myself than pay a glass shop to do it for me. I even have the Drywall square already! I spent a couple of hours teaching myself to drill holes in glass over last weekend so I am ready for the next step. I used a 10 Gallon tank for practice because of the thin glass and how easy it is to crack it. Took some doing but I got the technique down.

RandalB

[hexed]

Hi,
My father has been working with glass for over 25 years. That makes me very lucky ;D He can build me anysize tank ;) But I do want to add the following: When working with glass it is best to use those suede type work gloves. Also when sanding the glass never never use your bare hands. Put the sand paper in one of those holders and always wear the working gloves just in case. I watched a guy at the glass company sanding the edges and it cut his entire palm. Another guy lost half his thumb cleaning the glass. Always best to be safe then sorry.
Happy building and build it safe :D

[Smokey]

Just for S/D members:
The thickest glass I have had the oppertunity to cut is 1.75 inch. [Not for the weak of heart.]
The thickest glass tank - I have had the oppertunity to built is of 1 inch thick glass.
AND THIS was not new glass! [e.g. = not hot of the presses]. There is a very noticably difference.
Glass; like any rigid/solid material, can be "worked", ~ As long as the person realizes what they are working with. AND takes full respondacibilty for their own actions. [ What I mean by this - " OPERATION MALIPERATIION" ].[e.g. - how painful can a paper cut be??}{ the mediam of glass can be less forgiving}.
The "just" of my post is - do not be afraid to venture forward.
However, prepare yourself apporiately!

Have a clean, "secure" working area. Please, have a vacum cleaner handy!!
Do not setup; yourself/ the workarea, in an area which can cause you to be distracted.[ aka-telephone, children, spouse] and /or the living room; [ yes, I do mean this]. Children, and/or other persons, walking/wandering in; can cause themselves inapproiate "cuts/harm".
Full mental concentration is required. Any person who has worked a material will understand what I am referring about. [ aka - the skill saw; weedwacker, and/or time for a snooze on the couch].
WEAR EYE COVERS!. glass does fragment; very tiny splinters.

o.k. NOW, that the scare tactics are out and in the open;;;; >> Glass is a vey nice material to work. Clean and percise! One off the nicest materials I have worked. Right up there with stainless steel.
My personal appoligizes to the GODS of wood. I am inept when it comes to working wood. [ four years of techinocial colledge taught me this].

Glass is more percise and easier to work than wood, steel, plastic, or the monther-in-laws. [ Again; my appoligizes - to my mother in laws... hahahahhahaha , yea right].

Smokey

[rubinsteinnyc]

BUMPSKI!!!! don't know if this thread developed further somewhere else but I did not find anything. I will try attempting to make a tank or two. Any pix of making/building a tank RONRCA and NORTWESTCOASTDISC?

[rubinsteinnyc]

bump

[jball1125]

Your bumping a 7 year old thread. I dont even think those members are active anymore. Hope you get your answers though. I have been doing some research on glass cutting myself and its quite ironic that you bumped this up because its actually quite helpful.

[rubinsteinnyc]

I search first before asking questions
talk to me :)

[jball1125]

Good stuff on the seach but usually if a thread is very old its best to start a new topic, the reason being that sometimes those members are not active anymore and if there was pictures in the thread they would most likely have been deleted.

Dont think there was a continuation to this thread..... I have never built a tank so I cant help there, however, I might be trying soon so If I do Ill post it up.

[rubinsteinnyc]

i got some glass to play with. some time to kill away from school. need to buy some tools. diy's i love em:)

[FischAutoTechGarten]

It's awesome that Ron's pictures still come up.

That's the thing with forums....info/photos get lost/deleted.... there is so much pertinent information out there that gets lost just becuase it's deemed 'old'. A 7 year old thread on glass cutting is as current today as it was when it was written... but that is the internet for you.

I still go back and read old stuff on thekrib.net on occasion.... much of that dates back to 1993.

[KEWX]

You could also you the "stone" used on tile to polish the edges. I forget what the stones is called but it is grey. Maybe it's a pumas.