Since there has never been a question asked here

S

Steve Sutton

Well-known member
that there hasn't been an answer for lets try this one.....

How do I "drill" glass?

My Sister is here and Debby and her have been doing the antique thing.....they came home yesterday with a box full of RUNWAY lights that they want to take the guts out of and make into "luminaries"....(for those of you that don't know what that is its "a candle inside a something").....and as we all know one must call things by their proper name.....

Actually looks like a pretty neat thing and they will make neat patio lights EXCEPT that they need a hole in the top so that there will be a chimney effect that will draw fresh air into the the glass globe from the bottom....

The glass is THICK but I doubt its shatterrproof....think industrial light fixture with the screw on globe with the wire guard over it.......

So can this glass be drilled and if so how?

thanks,

Steve
 
ah i have not tried this so dont blame me lololol
how about a diamond grit tipped drill bit or a mini tool grinder tip and water and real slow revolutions...??? try it on a broken one first good luck interesting prob let us know if you solve the mystery.....
 
thanks for the help......

Debby and DiAnne will now be happily kept busy for th eremainder of the seaosn drilling light covers and fabricating "luminaries"....wonder how long before I end up burning down the house after getting them all "lite up"?

Steve
 
I think I remember reading somewhere that one way to 'drill' through glass is to chuck up a piece of hardwood dowel rod of the appropriate diameter and then dipping the tip in jeweler's rouge. Keep the tip coated with abrasive and go to town. Wonder if it'd work?
 
Didn't read Ed's link but...saw NORM drill glass once..made a dam with clay or plumbers putty around the area to be drilled and kept it full of cutting oil. Won't those things smoke the inside of the fixture?
 
It looks like Ed has the answer with the diamond bits but here is my story anyway.

December 19, 1967

I was on my way to town to shoot pool in my 1958 VW Bug. I was only about a half a mile from home going around a double terraced curve/hill when I hit black ice. Spun me around in a 180 and then hit the ditch. Rolled end over end 3 times and hit a telephone pole. The car was REAL bad, crunched frame, doors etc. PLUS the back window had popped out intact.

Rather than total the car I decided that if I straightened out the left front wheel, wore lots of clothes (it was winter in Wisconsin) and could find someway to reinstall the back window, I could at least survive a couple of months until I went into the Navy in April.

I figured if I could drill a couple of holes in the window I could attach it back on the car with wire through eye bolts and fender washers.

I had the window propped up on the work bench and started drilling with a regular old 1/4" bit. Drilled for a long time and finally.....zipped right through the glass (it had melted)...........cool, this will be easy. Started on the second hole, drilled for a long time and finally PICOOOOOOW, the window shattered in a thousand 1/2" pieces.

Sooooooooooo sure you can drill through glass ONCE, just don't try it twice.
 
they're planning on using "votive" candles inside them, (the cavity isn't all that big), and those don't give off much smoke but they may well find out that the idea was better than the reality.....they are pretty cool looking...some red, some blue, some clear and a couple of yellow ones.....

My sister is an art teacher, a widow and a bit eccentric.....always has been but she's gotten even more so since her husband passed away....she lives in this really nice neighborhood, typical sub-division with everyone competing for the best manicured lawn.....DiAnne eschewed "grass" long ago and her house looks like the Jungle Exhibit at the zoo sitting between two perfectly manicured lawns......a pond in the front yard with pampas grass, water plants and then a pure RAIN FOREST in the rest of the yard....Orchids and air plants dripping from tropical trees....if there is a common ground coverr on the place its the forest of bromeliads every one of which has its resident tree frog that all create a din at night that must drive the neighbors up the walls....Cow Skulls on the fence posts, big ass Gator Skull on the front porch, (it holds a pumpkin that she carefully carves to look like a screaming person during the months of October and November and has been know to be seen with a Santa Claus hat in its teeth in December, and one year sported the ass end of a stuffed animal Bunny Rabbit surrounded by a spilled Easter Basket). I tease DiAnne about being the crazy lady in the neighborhood that the local kids are afraid of....She definately has no trouble with kids "playing" in her yard....


I suspect that utlimately these things will be re-outfitted with regular lights and they will then festoon the huge live oak in the front yard and I expect that will add to the feeling that she a bit on the "crazy" side......

Pete.....I'll keep the "drill once-but never twice" in mind......I'll chuckle everytime I think about a windsheild wired into a frame work of fender washer every time I think about it....

Steve
 
"and a bit eccentric.....always has been but she's gotten even more so"

So are you saying, it runs in the family?????? hehehe
 
Damn...you were lucky you weren't squished by your bug!!!

I never tried auto glass. Back in the day before the current "shaggin waggin" I customized a "66" econoline in red velvet and mirrors. You remember those mirrors in the late 60's with the black or gold sparkly look? Everybody had them on their basement walls behind the wet bar. I wasted several mirrors by forcing the bit. You have to let the bit cut at it's pace. I remember my dad saying to me "boy you'll never get a respectable girl in that thing" Hell, I wasn't looking for respectable girls...
 
Dianne and I give each other LESSON's on "crazy" whenever we visit.....and we're the NORMAL ones in the family....The REAL crazies are my older sister and younger brother.....DiAnne and I both use them as someone to set our GOALS by.....

Steve
 
Obviously you never rolled a bug, they roll real nice.........in just about any direction. It was a bit problematic getting out the one window that could be rolled down. Funny thing was, the chassis was so crunched that in order to dim the lights I had to press in the clutch to get to the dimmer switch.

Red velvet and mirrors? I take it you got rid of it before you met your wife. :)
 
Steve,

She sounds like fun to me. It would be a hoot to rip up a Billy bass or one of those holloween witches and put the mechanism in the gator at Holloween and watch the kids scream as they go past!
 
Hehehe...Pete, you know those Econolines? They don't roll as nice as a bug! Actually I won a couple of van show awards and sold it so I could buy my first boat. I was told the new owner got trashed one night and rolled it. Never heard how he came out.
 
Since it IS the 21st century and all, Steve, I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the obvious answer to the question,

"Where would I go to find out how to drill glass?"

How about

www.drillglass.com

Honest
 
Ahhhh..yes...the old gold lace mirrors. They were made here in the town next to the other town and we used to get scrap 2nds sometimes when the guard wasn't on duty.My brother had a Ford van we called the " Nob Job" with orange shag carpet and the big household speakers that were never screwed down so that when you came too and jammed on the brakes you'd have to duck to keep from getting hit with them...he semi rolled his..went over on it's side and stopped. That van was fun.
 
Lee,

That's awsome. I had the infinity speakers that had the wood lattace looking grills. The bigger the better. These things stood amost 3' tall but only had a 2 way setup with an 8" woofer and a tweeter. My neighbor got them for me when he was on leave in Japan. I think I gave him $25.00 a piece for them. Like you said never bolted them down and look out when you hit the brakes!
 
Steve, finally I get to answer a question for you instead of you answering mine. I have drilled glass several times now for fish tanks. I have an 1 1/8 diamond bit I got from ebay. I use plumber putty and build a well and fill it with water about 1/8 deep and just a little bigger than the bit. I use a cordless drill with variable speed and start the cut at an angle, slowly grinding the glass away and tilling the drill back straight up. So far I haven't broke a tank, but I think it's more luck than skill. From what I have done and seen, the secret is go slow and very very little pressure.

Hope it help.
 
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