A word about drilling glass.....

[swordfish]

It's a pain in the *ss. In connection with another hobby of mine, I wanted to once drill a 1/8 inch hole in a piece of glass so I could have it hanging from a suction cup thing attached to a window. I went to Whore Depot and got one of those black-colored "glass drilling" bits that looks like a spade at the end and is supposed to also be good for drilling tile. Well what I think they *really* meant was that this thing is almost exclusively for drilling tile, and if the planets line up right then maybe, *maybe* you can successfully drill glass with it.

 

My efforts failed on several practice pieces. No matter what combination of speed (the drill has to turn to do it's thing, but go too fast and the glass will crack), lubrication (got to have some. I used 3-N-1 oil) and pressure (any amount seemed too much) I always got just barely into the glass surface and it'd crack.

 

Looking on the net for purpose-made, real glass drilling bits, I found the real thing to be far more expensive than was suitable for my budget. You also had to drill very slowly with them and even in the hands of a pro, they were supposedly only good for one or two drillings. I sort of recall them being made out of a rough-looking diamond substance on the cutting surfaces, or something like that......whatever it was it amounted to them being essentially un-sharpenable. They didn't really cut so much as they ground into the glass where you needed the hole. Some were bits, others were shaped like small circular saws.

 

So , for those of you thinking of doing this at home, you may as well forget it. If you take it someplace to get it done, maybe now you understand why they charge what they do and hesitate to even do it at all sometimes. You may also want to ask if they'll pay for the entire thing if they screw it up. Break tempered glass anywhere on it and you may as well throw the whole thing out. Glass is not really one of those things that is generally considered drillable from a practical standpoint, which is probably why you see so little of it anywhere. Just thought I'd tell ya......

 

Jeff

[Graywolf57]

Sword - Drilling glass is a topic that seems to come up here frequently and there seem to be more successes than failure.

 

Based on your bad experience I think it was more a poor choice of tool than anything. It is good that you shared this incase someone else was thinking of using that same bit.

 

The good news is that you'll probably get a lot of posts from people telling you they have done it successfully. The old trusty Dremel tool and diamond bit would have made short work of the eigth inch hole you mention at the start of your post.

 

Don't give up it can, and is being done.

[Graywolf57]

Oh Yeah, this does not apply to Tempered glass obviously.

[jtown]

I had no probs drilling my tank.

[c_k_kuehne]

That entire 1st post was way off base. I think if you would have done a bit more reasearch before attempting you would have been successfull.

 

I have drilled over 50 holes in glass and drill peoples tanks on a regular basis. I use steel/brass tube bits. They are fairly inexpensive and last forever. It only takes less than 5 min to drill a hole. out of all the tanks I have ever drilled I have only crack maybe two or three and they were all 10 gal tanks and that has to do w/ how thin the glass in a 10 gal tank is.

 

DIY tank drilling is entirely possible and fairly easy to do. Just do your reasearch before attempting.

[junglejim83]

go to harborfreight.com the have legit diamond whole saws for glass that work well and are cheap.

Jim

[c_k_kuehne]

Harbor freight also has a $20.00 portable drill press. You install your own drill and turn the base backwards. Before using remove the front cover and using pliers carefully remove the return spring.

 

For $20 makes a great drill press to use for drilling tanks.

 

Also Walmart has a $15 one speed drill. It goes 1200 rpm which is really close to the recommended 1300 rpm glass drilling speed.