Glass is a brittle and fragile material. However, cutting does not cause any problems with the right tool. Our guide shows how to cut glass correctly at home.
Cutting and replacing a damaged window pane is hardly a job for DIY people today. Because most windows today are equipped with insulating glass, replacements can only be made for them by the expert. However, you can still replace normal glass in windows.
Insertion is easy because most of these discs are only held in the frame by clamping profiles. Increasingly, however, glass is used in furniture construction or for glazing images. And for this, cutting, trimming or drilling with the right tools is easy to do yourself.
Glass cutters for smooth cuts
All flat glasses (except safety glass) can be machined with a glass cutter. These have tiny cutting wheels made of carbide, which are only supposed to scratch the glass surface. For cutting, you always need a stop at which the cutter is guided.
For straight cuts, this can be a rail or a ruler with a non-slip underside, for round cuts a stop with the corresponding radius.
How to cut glass correctly at home: working with special tools
When scoring with the glass cutter, the glass must always lie flat. The best surface is a smooth cloth on a solid, flat plate. The rest of a solid carpet is also suitable as a working pad. The cut can be drawn with a grease pen or felt pen.
However, only the endpoints of the cutting line should be marked so that the color paste or felt ink do not obstruct the cutting wheel of the cutter. The stop, which can be made non-slip by sticking two strips of tape, is designed in such a way that it connects the points.
The distance from the center of the cutting wheel to the edge of the cutter must be taken into account. The cutting wheel is then guided over the glass in one go. You may have to re-do this a couple of times, always exactly in the same cutting groove.
Cleanly carry out round cuts in the glass
In the case of round cuts,which are always carried on a stop or on a template, it is important to make sure that the scoring forms a continuous line. For narrow radii, a glass cutter with a rotatable foot is recommended. It follows the contours better than a rigid tool.
By light tapping with the glass cutter just below the cutting line, the glass jumps at this point and can be easily broken, with the help of pliers, with straight lines over a sharp edge and with narrow strips with the recesses in the glass cutter. If small remnants remain standing, you can remove them by carefully nibbling them with a special glass crushing pliers.
With drills you also get holes in glass. There are glass or spiral drills with special equipment. To avoid bending the drill in the borehole, the machine should be in a stand. The glass pane must lie firmly and flat and be held during drilling. The drill is cooled and lubricated with turpentine or water.
How to cut glass correctly at home: instructions
Glass processing tools must be equipped with particularly hard cutting. Here cutting and drilling tools.
The glass cutter is guided vertically over the surface with medium pressure at the stop. For lubrication, dip the cutter in water or turpentine beforehand.
The recesses in the glass cutter are for breaking off narrow strips after scribble. Before hand, knock with the cutter from below against the cut.
Wider stripes are broken over a sharp edge. Also knock from below against the cut and then break jerky with even pressure.
Professional glass cutters are filled with cutting oil. The axle of the highly loaded cutting wheel is constantly supplied with the necessary lubricant via a wick.
With a damp grinding sponge or a corundum stone (tool pull-off stone) you can defuse the extremely dangerous edges of the cutting surfaces.
The rotating and particularly pointed foot of this special glass cutter fits round stops better than the wider foot of the standard model.
For circular cut-outs or round glass panes, there are circular cutters. They are fixed in the centre with a rubber vacuum cleaner and are finely adjustable.
Cutouts are divided into individual segments by multiple scoring. After knocking from the bottom, they are carefully broken out individually.
Round cuts are done in a circular manner and the material falling out of the outside is additionally divided into star-shaped segments, which are broken off piece by piece.
Nibble rounded corners to the outer edge and cut them off with glass crushing pliers. Nibble small remnants with a dotted pliers (above).
Thick glass must be lubricated during drilling. A small ring of clay effectively prevents the coolant from leaking away.
With thin glass, it is sufficient to wet the drill with cooling fluid from time to time. After piercing the drill, drill the rest from the back.
Protect against sharp edges. To work with glass panes, you should protect your hands from injury with gloves or a cut-resistant blanket. Discs can be lifted more safely with special rubber suction rods.
Find more great repair guides and tips.
Gerhardt Richter is a writer and a trainer at trade technical colleges, specializing in carpentry, plumbing, mechanics and construction.
