How to make a hole in glass. Drilling glass at home

For working with glass, it is best to use special drills (1, 2) and diamond-coated core bits (3, 4), shown in the figure below. They will allow you to make a large number of holes of high quality. You can also drill with hardened and pobedite drills (5). This will make the job more difficult. Such a tool must be used with extreme caution.

Even an ordinary drill for metal (6) will allow you to make a hole in the glass. To do this, you must first pour fine wet sand into the work area, and then periodically add it. The disadvantages of this method: laboriousness, blunting of the tool.

Glass is drilled at low speeds: 300 - 700 per minute. A manual or electric drill with speed control is suitable. The radial and axial runout of the drill in the chuck should be minimal. Otherwise, it must be replaced.

Drilling glass at home

It is impossible to drill on weight without emphasis. The glass should be placed on a flat horizontal surface so that it fits snugly against it. It will not be superfluous to use a substrate made of thin soft fabric.

It is convenient to mark the center of the hole with a marker, felt-tip pen or gel pen. From the edge of the glass, it is desirable to retreat at least six of its thicknesses. Otherwise, a crack is likely to form.

During operation, the drill and hole should be constantly moistened with coolant, ensuring heat dissipation. For this purpose, water, kerosene or turpentine are usually used. You can protect the drilling site with a plasticine ring and pour liquid into the formed bath.

With the help of an overlay in the form of a wooden plank or plywood with a hole of the required diameter, the drill is kept from slipping. You can use another option - stick adhesive tape on the glass.


The pressure exerted on the drill should be light. Otherwise, the likelihood of glass cracking increases significantly. As you move forward, the pressure should decrease. This will help to avoid significant chips at the exit from the hole. The resulting sharp edges must be cleaned with fine sandpaper.

Tempered glass cannot be drilled

This will lead to its splitting into many small fragments, despite the fact that it has increased strength. Tempered glass is widely used in the automotive industry, furniture industry, housing construction. It is distinguished by the marking in the form of the letter “ W” or inscriptions “ Tempered". If there are no symbols, you should pay attention to other characteristic features. These can be iridescent spots that are visible on the surface at a certain angle, as well as through polarized glasses and filters.

According to GOST R 54162-2010, edges and holes are processed before hardening. Sharp edges indicate that the glass is not tempered.

Probably, almost every home craftsman has to work with glass. Cutting a sheet of capricious material into pieces is not a particular problem, but the need to drill glass causes difficulties for many. To perform this manipulation, it is possible to contact a specialist whose services are quite expensive, or you can try to do this work yourself. In fact, there is nothing noticeably complicated here, you just need to be careful, because with the slightest deviation from the following recommendations, the surface will become covered with cracks.

It is possible to drill any holes in the glass

Types and features of glass as a material

Glass manufacturing technology is quite complex. A mixture of several components melted at very high temperatures is subjected to rapid cooling, while the crystallization of the material is not completely completed, and it remains amorphous. The type of glass is determined by its main chemical ingredients. There are the following types of glasses:

  • oxide;
  • sulfide;
  • fluoride.

Silicate or oxide material is widely used for the manufacture of a variety of glass containers, including bottles. When melting quartzite, quartz glasses are obtained, sometimes called rock crystal. It is formed when lightning strikes quartz deposits. Glasses can also be classified according to their purpose. Thus, various types of glass can be used to reduce radiation levels, manufacture fiberglass, protect laptop, tablet and smartphone screens, as well as in the manufacture of incandescent lamps, kinescopes and x-ray equipment.


Samples of different types of glass

Depending on the field of application and operational characteristics, glass of different composition can be optical, chemical, medical, protective, window, utensils, and so on. Industrial varieties that are also used in everyday life are divided into several subspecies:

  • low melting point and light color sodium-potassium glass;
  • hard and refractory calcium-potassium material;
  • expensive and fragile lead glass;
  • resistant to aggressive chemical environments and temperature differences borosilicate products.

Proper preparation is the key to success

It is quite possible to make an even and neat hole in the glass with your own hands, you just need to properly prepare its surface before performing the manipulation. This is the key to a successful job. The following actions will be required:

  • grease is removed from the glass, and it is located on a non-slip surface;
  • the marked location is sealed with a plaster to prevent the cutter from slipping;
  • the drill when drilling is located strictly vertically;
  • it is unacceptable to exert strong pressure on the material;
  • work must be carried out with breaks for cooling.

There are drills for holes of various diameters.

Standard option - use of a drill

Often the task is to drill a small round hole in the aquarium for the aeration tube. To drill at home, the standard option is to use a conventional metal drill. To do the job, you will need a drill with the ability to adjust the speed or a screwdriver.

It is also necessary to prepare a small piece of plasticine and turpentine. A funnel is formed from plasticine, into which turpentine is poured as a cooling working element. The plasticine rim is located around the center of the planned hole.


Careful work guarantees success

Having placed the drill strictly vertically and setting its speed controller to a minimum, they begin to act. When the process is almost finished, but the hole has not yet been completely formed, the glass sheet should be turned over to the other side and continue working from the opposite side to prevent cracking of the material. The final processing of the edges of the resulting through channel is carried out with fine sandpaper rolled into a tube.

Do-it-yourself glass drill

Devices for drilling glass can be made independently. To do this, you must perform the hardening procedure for an ordinary drill. It is clamped with pliers and the cutting end is placed in the flame of a gas burner. When the metal is heated to white, it is cooled in a wax bath. The metal hardened in this way can handle almost any glass material.


This is what homemade glass drills look like

A regular glass cutter can also help. To do this, the cutting element in the form of a diamond roller is fixed on a metal rod in such a way that it is motionless with respect to it. The resulting device can be called a modification of the factory tools with diamond coating.

Making a hole with sand

Before the advent of drills and screwdrivers, holes in capricious material were made with sand. To do this, it was poured in a wet state to the required place and a funnel was formed in the sand, the lower diameter of which exactly corresponded to the cross section of the required through channel.


An ancient way to make a hole in glass

Then molten lead or tin was poured into the funnel. After some time, the sand, together with the solidified glass mass, is removed. The hole is perfectly aligned. Its edges do not require further machining. Lead is easily melted by placing it in a mug and directing the flame of a gas burner at it, or simply by placing a metal vessel on a gas stove.

Large hole cut with a glass cutter

A circle of large diameter can be cut in glass with a glass cutter. To do this, use the circular design of this tool. It consists of a suction cup located in the center of the diameter, an adjustable tripod and the glass cutter itself. The movement of the glass cutter should be smooth and uniform, and excessive pressure should not be exerted on the handle.


Drilling a large hole in glass

The cut is made once, after which the separation line is tapped from the inside with the handle of the glass cutter. With the correct execution of all manipulations, the cut fragment is easily separated and falls out into the substituted bucket.

All sorts of different ways to make a hole

It is possible to make a through channel in a glass surface in other ways. For example, you can use ordinary copper wire. First you need to dilute one part of camphor powder in two parts of turpentine, add fine-grained emery and mix the resulting mixture thoroughly. Then apply the composition to the place of work, insert the copper wire into the drill chuck and begin the drilling process.


A large hole can be made with a homemade drill

You can also do the work using a duralumin, aluminum or copper tube. At the working end of the improvised tool, cutting teeth are cut with a needle file. A wooden cork is driven into the other end, into which a screw with a cut head is screwed to strengthen it in the drill chuck.

At the right place, cardboard washers are glued to the material being processed on both sides. The working end of the tube with cutting teeth, moistened with turpentine, is inserted into the washer and glass is produced by one third of the thickness of the material. Then the sheet of glass is turned over, and work continues on the other side until a through hole is obtained.


A hole in the glass will help make a soldering iron

Some craftsmen use a soldering iron to make through holes in a glass sheet. Previously, a marking risk in the form of a ring is applied to the surface of the material. Then the tip of the soldering iron warms up well, and the accurate melting of glass along the segments of the circle begins. Frankly, when using this method, it is rarely possible to obtain sufficiently even edges of the hole.

Before starting any manipulation, it is necessary to thoroughly degrease the surface to be treated. This is done with a rag soaked in gasoline or turpentine. The glass is then thoroughly dried.

It is better to feel the work of the cutter in advance by drilling a few holes in unnecessary pieces of glass. It is important not to create excessive pressure on the working part, even if it feels like the drill is spinning idle, without making the surface of the glass. This is not so: drilling is slowly but surely happening.

In the process of work, it is necessary to perform cooling of the glass surface and the cutting part. Small-sized products can be drilled in water by lowering them into a container of a suitable volume. In this case, you can not be afraid of overheating.
Cooling the glass during the drilling process ensures a good result

The working point must first be sealed with masking tape and markup should be applied on top of it. This simple action will prevent slipping at the very beginning of the workflow. The drill must be placed vertically, maintaining a strict right angle during the entire time of the manipulation.

It is guaranteed to get rid of the appearance of even small cracks in the material by turning the sheet with the reverse side when choosing a greater thickness of the glass surface.

In addition, this procedure will help reduce the taper of the resulting hole. Accidental cuts on its sharp edges are prevented by grinding the protrusions with fine-grained sandpaper.

Be sure to wear goggles to protect your eyes from the smallest glass fragments in the form of dust. It is necessary to drill thin glass, stepping back from its edge by at least thirteen millimeters. It is necessary to retreat from the edge of thick glass by about twenty-five millimeters, otherwise the material will certainly crack.

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The following video is carefully selected and will certainly help the perception of the foregoing.

Any man should know how to drill a hole in glass if you do it with a special drill. You can also buy an ordinary metal drill, which is also convenient to make holes in a mirror or glass. If you take up this type of work with insufficient experience, then you can spoil the glass so that it cracks. Therefore, you should take up the work without overestimating your capabilities. If there is a lack of self-confidence, it is better to seek help from an experienced master.

Glass drilling rules

If you have to drill a hole in any glass, it is better to practice first so that it does not burst on any unnecessary piece of glass. When doing the work, a considerable amount of diligence, accuracy, patience and care will be required. In this case, be sure to follow the safety rules, otherwise trouble may arise. Be sure to wear gloves and goggles before drilling a hole.

When drilling glass close to its edge, be sure to take into account the thickness of the material. If the glass is thick, then the holes must be made, departing from the edge by 25 mm, and if it is thin, then retreat at least 15 mm from the edge.

When working with a drill, you should remember that you need to do the work carefully, otherwise you can damage a fragile object. If you have to work with a mirror, then it has the same properties as glass.

Before starting work, the glass is cleaned of dust and dirt. After that, you should carefully wipe the place where you need to drill a hole with a material moistened with gasoline or turpentine. To mark the places for drilling, you need to take a marker. In the process of performing the work, a manual or electric drill can be used.

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Tools for drilling holes in glass

The process of drilling a hole in glass is associated with the use of such types of tools as:

  1. Carbide drill with diamond coating.
  2. A special liquid that allows you to wet the drill or the glass itself.
  3. Marker.
  4. Electric or hand drill.
  5. glass cutter
  6. Sealing wax.

If you need to drill a small hole, it is best to use a diamond drill. For this purpose, a conventional drill with a small diameter is also suitable if the necessary tool is not available. The end of the drill is recommended to be hardened, for which you just need to heat the drill. After a sharp indentation into the prepared sealing wax of the end of the drill, which has turned white, you should wait for the tool to cool. If the sealing wax no longer melts, then work begins on drilling holes in the canvas.

To drill glass or mirrors, you can use a special diamond-coated tubular drill and a drill with a speed control.

It is very convenient to make holes with a screwdriver, and not just with a drill. Marking is not done using the usual method, that is, a cross placed in the center of the hole. Having decided on the diameter of the future hole, put a mark in the form of a square.

If a beginner uses a drill, then it begins to slip strongly from the required mark. To avoid this, you can use a small piece of wood or plastic. It is fixed in the place of the glass where there is a mark, for which adhesive tape is used, and the drill is held during the work.

It is important to prevent possible overheating of the drill, for which special stops are periodically made. Stopping, the tool together with the product is cooled by wetting them with water. Continue drilling at low speed. It is not necessary to make sharp or vigorous movements when making holes in the glass, since its structure is very fragile.

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Carrying out preparatory work before drilling

After laying the glass on a surface that is not only perfectly flat, but also strong, otherwise the material will crack, markings begin to be made. It should be ensured that the glass product is positioned evenly, being motionless. Before this, you need to take a piece of soft cloth and lay it under the canvas. Before drilling, a hole is marked, the contours of which should be applied with a glass cutter. The frequency of rotation of the drill is adjusted to a level of no more than 350 rpm.

To install a drill to perform work in the required place, a recess must be made. For this purpose, a roller type of glass cutter is installed, which should be rotated along the axis to form a recess. After that, drill with a drill. You can avoid overheating of the drill by working without increasing the number of revolutions, be sure to wet the drill and the glass object with water.

To prepare glass for drilling holes in it with a larger diameter than the diameter of the drill, it is degreased and the place where it is necessary to drill is marked with a marker. First, a small hole is made, and then a nail of the appropriate size or a bolt is inserted into it, which will hold tightly.

Next, a rope is tied to the nail, and on the other hand, its end is tied to the glass cutter. They make a special circle, its radius is equal to the length of the rope. When the circle around the nail is made with a glass cutter, it is removed by gently tapping the canvas so that the circle made comes out of a hole of a larger diameter, the edges of which are processed with sandpaper.

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How is glass cutter used?

Drilling glass with a glass cutter requires the use of a diamond roller. After that, a special metal rod is prepared, in which it is required to make a slot by cutting out. You can fix the roller using a rivet, which will allow it to be rigidly fixed so that there are no twists. When the drill is ready, it is attached to the drill, after which they proceed to making a hole in the canvas.

When the object is laid on a perfectly flat surface, it is degreased, then the contour along the mark is drawn up with a plasticine bath. Its sides should be neat. It should be on the upper side of the object, after which liquid should be poured into it. It can be not only water, but also turpentine. The sides allow you to fill the bath with a small amount of liquid only once. The main thing is to drill without much effort with a drill set at low speeds.

When choosing a carbide drill, one important point must be taken into account, which is associated with the heating of the drill with glass during the drilling process. The end of the drill should be cooled in a timely manner with turpentine or another liquid that promotes cooling, which will make the hole perfectly neat. Drip turpentine should be in the recess, which is received.

To cool the drill, use a liquid containing aluminum alum, which is dissolved in acetic acid. Instead, a special mixture can be used, obtained using camphor with turpentine in equal parts. Therefore, to create protective bumpers, the use of plasticine is required.

If, while doing work, in a hurry, accelerating and pressing on the drill, you can spoil the glass object. It is drilled to the very half of the thickness size, then it turns over, then again they continue to drill a hole on the other side towards the first one. So you can avoid chips from the outer sides of the canvas. This method should be used when doing work at home.

When doing work at a very slow pace with the application of weak efforts, the pressure force must be controlled. You need to carefully monitor the speed at which the drill of an electric drill rotates. If you want to perform this type of work using bottles or other glass objects with seams, it is better to step back from the seams. This will increase the chances of maintaining the integrity of the bottle or other item.

Glass is a brittle material that is prone to impact and uneven heating, so it has several important properties. Consider the technology of drilling glass products at home, as well as the tools and devices that need to be used.

Glass drilling tool

  • drilling
  • Drills, bits
  • Protective glasses

For working with glass, it is best to use special drills (1, 2) and diamond-coated core bits (3, 4) shown in the figure below.

They will create many high quality holes. You can also drill hardened and winning drills (5).

The job will take longer. Use this tool very carefully.

In the hole, make a hole in the glass, which allows even normal drilling in metals (6). To do this, fine wet sand must be pre-poured into the work area, and then add it occasionally.

Disadvantages of this method: hard work, spinning tools.

Glass rotates at low speeds: 300 - 700 per minute. Suitable is a manual or electric drill with adjustable speed.

How to drill a hole in home glass: dismantle all options

Radial and axial drilling in the stem should be kept to a minimum. Otherwise, it should be replaced.

drill glass at home

Don't hold the weight without stopping. The glass should be placed on a flat horizontal surface so that it snaps against it. It is not advisable to use a thin soft tissue substrate.

It is convenient to mark the center of the hole with a marker, plug or gel.

It is desirable to remove at least six of its thickness from the edges of the glass. Otherwise, the probability of hacking is high.

During operation, the drilling hole and hole must be constantly wetted with coolant to ensure heat dissipation.

For this purpose, water, kerosene or turpentine are usually used. You can protect the drilling site with a plasticine ring and pour the liquid into the molded tub.

Using a panel in the form of a wood panel or plywood with a hole of the required diameter, hold the drill plate. You can use another option - hold the adhesive tape on the glass.

Drilling pressure should be low.

Otherwise, the probability of vitreous cracking increases significantly. As the pressure progresses, the pressure must be reduced. This will help not to collapse too much when exiting the hole.

The resulting sharp edges should be sanded with fine sanding paper.

Tempered glass cannot be drilled

This will split into a number of small fragments, despite the fact that it has increased power. Tempered glass is often used in the automotive industry, furniture industry, housing construction. It is distinguished by a mark in the form of the letter " with"But the inscription" tempered».

If there are no signs, look for other features. These can be luminous spots that are visible on the surface at a certain angle, as well as with polarizing glasses and filters.

According to GOST R 54162-2010, edges and holes are processed before curing.

Sharp edges indicate that the glass does not glow.

The fragile, capricious and brittle structure of home glass presents very serious processing problems with this substance.

Glass is difficult to cut into platinum, and even more difficult to cut through holes in it. However, sometimes it is necessary to choose the material in the glass canvas. However, if you want to successfully drill glass in a live environment, you need to know some special tricks.

Before you start drilling holes in the glass, you should be ready to go.

Initially, it should be disassembled or removed from the box, if any.

Then you must remove all external decorative elements such as corners, decorative rivets, suction cups and other materials.

Then it is necessary to clean the labels and movements, and then treat the surfaces of the glass plate with fatty substances.

Drill glass can be manual and electric, but experts recommend that the material is selected from the glass cloth with an electric drill.

This recommendation is due to the density of the glass structure, as sampling requires high speeds with minimal stress on the drilled material. The glass sheet during the drilling process must be placed on an absolutely flat smooth surface, the material must be on the working surface, otherwise the glass may simply burst.

Even before drilling glass with any point drills, it is desirable to fix the area to be drilled.

To do this, place the blade with roller glass in the middle of the future hole, gently press it and turn the tool along its longitudinal axis.

In this way, a small groove is formed on the glass canvas and will not float on the glass surface from the very beginning of drilling. You can also insert a transparent strip in layers 2-3 on the drilling site.

Rotary glass can be traditionally hardened drill, this tool, unlike classic steel drills, has a stronger cutting material that allows you to drill glass structure slowly and reliably.

You can buy hardened drill bits from specialty stores and you can also make them individually.

How to make a hole in glass? Here are two easy ways

To harden ordinary steel drills, it is necessary to heat up to an alcohol burner or a conventional stove. The heated battle should then be dipped into a container of sealing wax and cooled. Hardened drilling prior to use directly for turpentine grease. However, the best result is still achieved with special diamond drilling.

You can choose glass material with copper wire or hollow copper tube.

These tools are an alternative to hardened drills and are also used as accessories for electric drilling.

Glass for drilling with thick copper wire is possible only when a special composition is applied to the glass. The working mixture should consist of one part camphor, two parts turpentine and four parts powder.

The prepared composition should be applied to the glass area in which the material will be taken.

Drill glass hollow copper tube is only possible with corundum powder. To this end, the spindle area must be covered within a radius of two centimeters with a plasticity of one centimeter.

Then corundum powder moistened with water must be poured into the molded cavity, and it can be started to be drilled.

Designing large round holes in glass sheets can hardly be called drilling, since their implementation is based on glass cutting.

First you need to drill a small hole in the middle of the next round. The glass should then be placed on a flat wooden surface and a small nail should be pushed through the molded hole in the wooden base.

The nylon thread should be attached to the nail and the glass cut should be attached to the end of the thread at a distance from the future hole radius. The circle must be rubbed at the border of the stretched thread, and then the unnecessary material is pressed with a simple touch. Treat thin sanding paper with a sharp edge.

How to drill glass: three easy ways.

It seems that a hole in glass is impossible, and still impossible in round bottles.
In fact, drilling holes are very simple. You need exercise, two plates, tape and water.

There are many tools: f.ua/shop/ruchnoj-instrument

How to make a hole in a bottle and is it possible to drill a glass:
0:03 – How to drill a hole in a bottle
0:09 - you need 2 boards
0:10 - drilling
0:13 - Scottish ribbon
0:16 - water
0:18 - wrap the bottle with a dash
0:30 - Mark the drilling site
0:35 - We train effortlessly
0:42 - cool the drilling site, fill it with water
1:04 - remove scotch tape
1:20 - he's ready!

Drilling glass is over, and now you know how to drill glass at home!

Therefore, for drilling glass - take a flat drill with a universal drill or a metal drill.

How to drill a hole in a bottle - add a little trick - remove overheating and make the design more dense.

This realistic one will show you how to drill glass in a bottle or any other object, you can drill holes in glass and you will learn how to drill glass at home!

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How to drill a hole in glass - the necessary tools and drilling technology

Section: "Master of the house"

To drill glass, you will need two things: a glass on the glass and a coolant for the drill bit. For cooling, I mean, I guess.

When drilling glass as well as other materials, a lot of heat is generated, but if it is not shown on other materials, it is important for glass.

Below you will find several types of drills in the photo on glass, some of which can also be drilled in ceramics.


The tallest in the picture is a regular and cheap drill bit, feather-shaped or a carbide-shaped spear.

Diameters from 3 to 13 mm. Drilling quality is satisfactory, small chips are possible.

The second is a letter, but with a diamond coating. It runs smoother than a carbide tip.

The next three exercises - tubular, small diameter or round glass work - are used to cut circles and rings in glass, i.e. holes. This is best for drilling machines, even if you can use a hand drill at home.

They differ in production technology and diameter. Next, from top to bottom, the yellow drill is completely made of brass tube, and finally, the diamond coating is electroplated in two layers.

When drilling holes with such drills, all work must be carried out only by cooling, supplying water or other special coolant to the work surface.

And the lowest in the photodrill is a large-diameter tubular diamond bolt.

It is used for drilling holes in glass, ceramics and other non-metal materials. The case is made of steel, in the form of a crown with a stem of 9 mm.

At the end of the crown, the diamond powder was dispersed in various fractions. Drilling, like the previous exercises, should be done by cooling.

If you're spinning it on glass that you didn't have, you can do it yourself - from the side of the old three-axis file.

The mill needs to be cut from a portion of the file on one side of the round edge so that it can be squeezed into the holder and on the other side to make a pointed drill - 3 pages sharply under a sharp 3 sided wedge with an angle of about 30-40 degrees. It also needs to be adjusted to the desired diameter. During grinding, you must constantly cool the drilling in the water so that you do not let it go.

Drilling with such a drill is best done with a carpenter with an engine speed of 120-150 rpm. When the drill tip passes through the glass, rotate the glass and slowly turn it back. The drilling site should always be moistened with water or turpentine. In order not to spoil the valuable workpiece, first trim the glass.

Now finish the work on the glass, now let's look at home cooling methods.

To ensure that the glass does not break from the temperature difference between drilling, heat must be removed from the drill bit.

In principle, there is nothing complicated, you can easily wet the drilling and drilling site with water over time. Another way is more reliable: it makes a ring from plasticine, it is well applied to the drilling site and pours water into it.

A more advanced way is to attach a faucet to a water faucet, this is possible from a drop, and then put in a glued ring of plates (borders) and thus make a stream of water.

The water will cool down and remove the heat as much as possible.

In the end, it must be drilled at low speeds between 250 rpm (maximum drill) to 1000 rpm (smallest drill) and do not put much pressure on it and finally more to relieve pressure. The glass itself, like cutting, must lie on a flat and hard surface.

How to drill glass at home with your own hands

Well, to work with glass, of course, it must be beautiful. Try it and you will succeed!

Viktor Donskoy
www.masteru.org.ua

The need to drill glass does not appear so often. Therefore, not all home craftsmen know drilling techniques. Drilling glass is a complex process, it has many nuances, it requires accuracy, patience, special tools and little tricks.

Preparation for work

How to drill glass correctly so that the hole is neat, without chips, and the sheet does not crack? First of all, preparation for drilling is required. The sequence of actions is as follows:

  • remove grease with an organic solvent (alcohol, white spirit, turpentine) and wipe dry with a clean cloth;
  • lay the sheet on a flat base so that it rests on the base with the entire area and does not slip;
  • mark the drilling site with a marker or glued masking tape;
  • drill a test hole on a piece of glass, checking the quality of the tool and your skills;

Drilling glass is a careful and slow operation, it will be necessary to provide for a margin of time.

Drill glass with a regular drill

A special glass drill is the best tool. It happens that it is not at hand. The method of how to drill a neat hole in glass with a conventional drill is known to many experts and requires some additional training.

This will require:

  • drill for metal;
  • low speed drill;
  • a piece of plasticine;
  • a tablespoon of turpentine;
  • a small amount of alcohol.

Step-by-step instruction:

  1. Lay the sheet on a flat base so that it rests on it with the entire area and does not slip. The edges should not hang down.
  2. Degrease the drilling area and the surrounding area with a radius of 10 cm with alcohol.
  3. Lay out a plasticine edge 5-10 mm high and 20-30 mm in diameter around the drilling site. Pour turpentine in there.
  4. Fix the drill in the chuck. Make sure there is no beat. Set the gearbox to minimum speed.
  5. Drill without exceeding 1000 rpm.

When the speed starts to fall, this means that the hole in the glass has almost been drilled. You should reduce the pressure on the handle of the drill and hold it tighter so that it does not deviate from the vertical and a chip does not form on the other side.

How to drill glass with sand

A somewhat unusual way to drill sheet glass without a drill. This will require:

  • a handful of clean river sand;
  • a piece of tin or lead, you can use solder;
  • solvent for degreasing;
  • pointed rod, equal in diameter to the future hole;
  • a large spoon or a small metal vessel that plays the role of a crucible;
  • portable gas burner.

The glass surface should be degreased within a radius of 10 cm from the place to be drilled.

The sand is moistened and a pyramid 30-50 mm high is formed from it. It is tedious to compact the sand well, the accuracy of the operation depends on it. With a stick, a hole is formed at the top of the pyramid, with its bottom resting against the place that needs to be drilled. The recess must be made strictly vertical, with dense edges.

The preparation is over, now you need to melt the metal with a burner and carefully, in a thin stream, pour it into the recess. The melt will make a hole in the glass, sealing the edges. You will need to sweep away the sand and carefully pull out a piece of metal sticking out of the melted hole.

How to drill with a homemade drill

How to make a hole in the glass, if at hand there is only a glass cutter, originally intended for cuts in a straight line? It is necessary to carefully remove the cutting roller with sprayed artificial diamonds from it, without losing the small axis on which it was attached. Next, you need to take a metal tube or rod with a diameter slightly smaller than the roller. At the end of the tube, a cut is made with a width equal to the thickness of the roller, and a length slightly greater than its diameter. In the slot of the tube, the roller is fixed on the axis, tightly compressing it. Now you can insert the rod into the drill chuck and drill a hole with a diameter equal to the size of the roller. The quality of the inner surface will be almost perfect.

Some do-it-yourself home craftsmen make a hardened drill from an ordinary metal drill that can cope with a glass sheet. To do this, the end of the drill is subjected to heat treatment - hardening. With a gas burner or a blowtorch, heat the end of the tool (1-2 cm) to redness, and then sharply place it in a sealing wax stick. With a sharp cooling, the structure of the material will change, and such a tool will be able to drill through the glass.

In order not to split the sheet with a homemade tool, you need to follow a few rules:

  • so that the sheet does not crack and chip, the drilling site is smeared with honey and turpentine;
  • you need to press the drill with minimal effort;
  • turnover should be minimal;
  • you need to drill in steps of 10-15 seconds, in between, cool the drill by dipping it in a jar of water;
  • the drill must be held strictly perpendicular to the plane of the sheet;
  • do not mark a hole in the glass closer than 15 mm from any edge of the sheet.

Before drilling a hole in the glass with a homemade drill at home, lay the sheet on a flat surface so that it is evenly

Working with a glass cutter

If you need to make a hole in the glass of a large diameter, again a glass cutter can come to the rescue.

For this, a special glass-cutting compass is used. It is a central support attached to the surface in the center of the future hole on the suction cup. A bar rotates around this support, on which the handle of the glass cutter is attached in a sliding clamp. The glass cutter describes a circle around the suction cup, cutting through the glass. The tool must be driven smoothly, with constant pressure. After the incision line is closed, it must be tapped with a handle. the cut circle is then lifted up on a suction cup.

It is better to process the cut surface with an abrasive bar or file to dull sharp edges and exclude the possibility of a cut during further work.

Unconventional ways to drill glass

How else can you drill glass at home? Exotic, but nevertheless, very effective ways to drill glass include:

  • Drilling holes in glass with copper wire of the appropriate diameter. To speed up the process, a mixture of one-third camphor and two-thirds turpentine is used. An abrasive powder is added to the solution.
  • You can also drill with a metal tube with a smoothly sawn end, clamped in a drill chuck. A turpentine-camphor solution with the addition of an abrasive powder is also used.
  • Metal tube with teeth cut at the end. The height of the teeth must be exactly the same, otherwise the glass will break.

What if you need to drill through tempered glass? At home, unfortunately, this will not work. It is better to contact a company that has equipment for waterjet cutting. The rest of the methods offered by these or those craftsmen do not give any guarantee of a successful outcome.

Special crowns and drills

A professional tool for drilling holes in glass is divided into two large groups:

  • drills with a sharp tip, used for small diameters;
  • drilling bits for medium and large hole sizes.

A glass drill with a sharp tip is a pointed plate of hard-alloy heat-resistant tool steel soldered into a base metal shank. The best glass drills are diamond. Their diameter usually does not exceed 8-12 mm. This tool can also drill glazed ceramics. When working, it is very important to keep the drill strictly perpendicular to the surface. Shank runout in the chuck is also unacceptable.

Drill bits for glass are a tube or bowl made of tool alloys coated with diamond dust. A tubular diamond drill is used for small hole diameters, it provides greater productivity and less risk of chipping than pointed lamellar ones.

Cover the end of the bowl with a coating of small artificial diamonds. It is one of the few materials that is harder than glass. There are also crowns coated with other abrasive materials on the market. They can also drill a glass sheet, but the risk of chips and cracks is higher.

A bowl-shaped crown can drill a hole with a diameter of up to 150 mm. For large sizes, use a compass with a glass cutter.

When working with a crown, it is necessary to monitor the temperature of the tool. It is better to use a special coolant

Drilling rules

Experienced master glaziers have formulated several rules for working with a glass sheet:

  • maintain the minimum possible speed of a screwdriver or drill;
  • the pressure on the handle should be minimal, increased pressure will not speed up the process, but most likely to a crack;
  • do not allow the drill to deviate from the direction perpendicular to the surface;
  • every 10-15 seconds take a break to cool the tool and the working area;
  • moisten the drilling site and the drill with water or a special cooling emulsion.

Intermittent work avoids overheating of the tool and material. It is overheating that most often causes cracking of the sheet.

When the drilling is almost finished, the most crucial moment comes, since the risk of chips around the exit hole becomes maximum. This moment is also felt by the increase in resistance felt on the handle of the drill. Experienced glaziers advise in this case to turn the sheet over and carefully start drilling from the opposite side. Then both the inlet and outlet holes will turn out to be neat, without chips and irregularities.

If irregularities still occur, they should be polished with sandpaper or an abrasive block.

Do not forget about proper preparation for work. The sheet must be laid on a flat surface. It should evenly rest on the lining over the entire area and not slip on it. The edges of the sheet should not extend beyond the base. It is best to use a plywood sheet upholstered with a thick woolen cloth.

Before laying, carefully sweep or vacuum the base to remove any debris or small glass fragments.

For drilling tempered glass, it is better to use waterjet cutting equipment. Homegrown methods are more likely to lead to cracks.

Round holes of large diameter are cut with a glass cutter and a compass.

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