Drilling Holes In Glass

[The Glassblower]

Put a brass tube in a drill press for the drill bit.
Build a plastiscine dam around where you want the hole.
Put a puddle of sillicone carbide dust in the plastiscene pool.
Raise the brass tube frequently while drilling, so more sillicone carbide can catch on the brass tube.
This is much cheaper than diamond drill bits and a water cooled drill press.

Brian.

 

[Lateral Line]

Do you put water in the pool as well so the Silicon Carbide is a slurry?

 

[Paul_MTS]

Very interesting.

I'ved been buying glass drill bits off ebay for about £15, then just add plenty of water.

 

[The Glassblower]

Do you put water in the pool as well so the Silicon Carbide is a slurry?

No. Just the powder.

 

[Lateral Line]

I will try this next time I need to drill glass/tiles/ceramics.

 

[simonbrown403]

Do you put water in the pool as well so the Silicon Carbide is a slurry?

No. Just the powder.

Where do you buy the silicone carbide, and how much is it normaly

Thanks

Simon

 

[Lateral Line]

Look at ebay.co.uk. Search for "silicon carbide" in "lapidary materials", or look at this eBay shop. Silicon Carbide is a very cheap commodity, post will cost you more than the material. You may have a craft shop near you which sells it, it is used for polishing stones amongst other things.

Follow up question to OP, I guess you use fine grade SiC? I also guess I can use copper tubing instead of brass - i.e. to fit the plumbing I am installing!

Curiously, this is one of 2 current threads which refer to Silicon Carbide.

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

Put a brass tube in a drill press for the drill bit.
Build a plastiscine dam around where you want the hole.
Put a puddle of sillicone carbide dust in the plastiscene pool.
Raise the brass tube frequently while drilling, so more sillicone carbide can catch on the brass tube.
This is much cheaper than diamond drill bits and a water cooled drill press.

Brian.

Ok, I'm confused. Don't hole saws have a centre arbour(small centre drill bit) that keeps the outer cutting edge from wobbling all over the place? This is assuming you're using tube not solid round bar. Most of us want at least a 20mm(3/4") hole which if you just grab a bit of tube will defently not fit into a chuck of even a large industrial drill press. So did you turn a piece of Brass? That will have to be well centred and an arbour some how added. How thick is the tube/abrasion seat? Do you use any coolant?
Sorry for all the questions but I really want to give this ago and carn't seem understand how it's done.
Thanks Alex

 

[Paul_MTS]

I can answer your first question in that hole saws for glass don't have a centre drill bit to keep it steady.

 

[Native American]

Brian, this sure is different, and sounds like it would work really well. My tanks have tempered bottoms. Is this an approved way of drilling those, or am I still out of luck (i.e., do not drill your tempered glass plate or risk breakage)?

Last time I tried to drill tempered plate...well, I'm glad I was wearing safety goggles. Drilling or cutting untempered has never been a problem.

v/r, N-A

 

[Lateral Line]

You will not be able to drill tempered glass. I see you know why! If you see tempered glass which is drilled, it would have been drilled before it was tempered.

 

[Native American]

Well, I was hoping I could somehow get some holes in the bottom of my tanks to avoid having extra plumbing in the water.

Lat Line, thanks for the reply on that...I guess that once you get a tank w/ tempered plate, there's no safe way to modify it.

v/r, N-A