How to drill glass yourself at home and ensure a straight hole. Drilling glass at home

Mirrors and glass are an integral part modern interiors. But the material is quite fragile and expensive, and drilling holes in glass and generally working with it requires special skills and knowledge. How to drill glass without cracks? What should you consider and what tools are best to use?

Tools for making holes in glass

How can you drill through glass so that it turns out neatly and quickly enough? To create a neat hole in glass or mirror, you will need a drill or screwdriver with a special tip. For glass, special drills are used: tubular or feather drills with abrasive or diamond coating. Drilling holes in glass feather drills more economically feasible, since they will last you longer than tubular ones. Since glass is very fragile, it is better to use small diameter drills - 8-10 mm.

How to make a larger hole in glass? For round holes middle and large diameter special crowns are used. On sale you can find crowns with a diameter of up to 120 mm.

Drilling holes in glass without special tips for glass and ceramics is possible using a new metal drill, pre-hardened in fire. Doing this yourself at home is quite difficult. It is also possible to drill a hole in the glass with a carbide drill bit for concrete. Working with glass with such tools is not as convenient as with special ones, but it is possible.

Attention! You won't be able to drill tempered glass! If you try to drill with any tool, it will simply crumble!

Several effective ways to drill glass

Let's now look at how to drill a hole in glass. There are several ways to do this.

• Drilling a hole in glass at home is quite simple if you have everything necessary tools. The glass should be placed completely on a flat surface. It should not hang down and play. The area where the hole will be drilled must be degreased with acetone or alcohol. A restrictive circle is made from plasticine or clay around the intended hole, into which a little turpentine, machine oil or ordinary water should be poured to wet the drill and glass. You can buy a mandrel manufactured industrially. They are usually sold made of plexiglass.

Drilling holes in glass is done using a drill or screwdriver at low speed (400-700 rpm or 1 speed). It is necessary to hold the tool level and not press hard on it while working. When cutting a hole using a crown, you must very carefully monitor its position. An industrial mandrel made from plexiglass or a homemade mandrel made from chipboard or cardboard will help you with this.

They are usually attached to plasticine, which can be easily removed at the end of the work. This will allow you to hold the crown correctly, parallel to the glass, and add water or other liquid to prevent the material from heating up. Not acceptable sudden movements and uneven cutting of the circle on either side, trimming should proceed evenly.

• How to drill glass at home without wetting it with liquid? To do this you will need a special homemade drill. Take out the diamond roller from the glass cutter, which you fasten into a metal rod. To do this, you must first prepare the slot. The roller is secured in the rod with a rivet so that it does not rotate. This drill allows you to drill holes in glass without lubrication with liquids.

• Is it possible to drill holes in glass without liquid or special homemade drill? Yes, but this is quite risky, so it is better not to use this method with large expensive items. In this case, the place where it is necessary to make a hole is sealed with electrical tape or chewing gum. Then everything is the same as in the previous two methods - a drill or screwdriver at low speeds without pressure with a special tip.

Advice! To ensure even edges of the hole, it must be drilled on both sides of the glass. It is more convenient to do this with a mandrel.

• How to cut a hole in glass without a drill or screwdriver? Our ancestors used this method. First, degrease the glass surface in the area of ​​the future hole with acetone or alcohol. Next, pour wet sand on it and scratch out the contours with a sharp object. required hole. Pour molten tin or lead here. This creates a neat through hole.

Now you know several ways to make a hole in glass without destroying the material. Which method you choose is up to you, but we recommend choosing method 1 or 2, as they are the fastest, simplest and least risky.

It is a well-known fact that glass is an extremely fragile and difficult material to process at home. However, no one will argue that it would be, at the very least, irrational to call a glazier specialist to your home every time you need to perform any minor household work related to this material, such as hanging a bathroom mirror, installing or repairing glass shelf in the nightstand or table. In this article we offer you simple solutions in situations related to glass processing that can happen in everyday life. Namely, how to drill hole in glass or a mirror.

Do it small hole in glass, you can use an ordinary drill with a hardened drill bit. The secret is that the drill must be hardened in fire until it begins to turn red. After the drill is sufficiently heated, it needs to be moved into a container with previously prepared sealing wax, the drill will cool in it. After such manipulations, the drill can be safely used to make holes in glass surfaces. Immediately before drilling, the tip of the drill must be lightly moistened with turpentine. Drilling is carried out as follows: first you need to make a small depression in the glass (you need to drill at low speed of the drill), then stop. Drop any technical oil into the resulting recess for better drill movement.

Attention! When working with glass, proper safety precautions must be observed! When working with glass, be sure to use gloves and safety glasses, this will protect the most vulnerable parts of the body. Sometimes experts also advise wearing a protective mask or respirator to protect Airways from glass chips, which is inevitable when working with glass. Work on drilling glass must be carried out only in specialized clothing: glass particles tend to get stuck in clothing materials, which can further cause discomfort and cause itching on the skin.

How to make a hole in glass using wire?

This technology is almost identical to the previous one, with the only difference being that the fire-hardened drill is replaced with wire, which, like a drill, must be fixed in the drill chuck. First, you need to cover the working surface of the glass with a special composition: take 2 parts of turpentine, 1 part of camphor and 4 parts of emery powder. The prepared solution should be applied to the place on the glass where you plan to make a hole.

There is also another modification this method– with the only difference that here you do not need lubricants.

For this method you will need a glass cutter and a slightly modified “drill”. From the glass cutter you need to remove the diamond roller, which must be secured in a metal rod with a pre-cut groove. The roller is fixed in the rod with a rivet. This is done so that the roller is firmly fixed in seat and did not rotate when drilling. Next, such a “drill” is installed in the drill chuck, and the necessary work can be easily performed.

How to drill a large hole in glass?

All of the above methods for producing holes in glass are suitable only for small household needs, and drilling large-diameter holes using similar methods is extremely difficult. But what to do if you absolutely need to drill a hole in the glass or mirror? big size? Below is the technology that will achieve required result. However, this method can hardly be called drilling.

First, you need to especially carefully and carefully clean and completely degrease the surface of the glass or mirror in which you plan to make holes. Next, you should pre-determine the point at which the drilling will be carried out. Soaked sand is placed around this place: the planned hole will be located in the center of it. Let us repeat about maximum compliance with safety regulations. Working with glass is, in a certain sense, a very dangerous and labor-intensive process that requires increased concentration attention and accuracy.

So, solder is placed in a specially prepared container. It should be heated to approximately 250-280° C, no less. Calculate the amount of solder based on what you will need to fill the required sand mold. After filling out the form, you need to leave the tin to cool. When the tin cools down, unnecessary part The glass will fall off along with the solder. At the output you will get an even hole in glass any required size.

This is where the list of household methods for drilling holes in glass, available to almost everyone, ends.

When working with installing mirrors in the bathroom or assembling furniture, the question often arises of how to drill a hole in the glass so as not to damage it. There are many ways to accomplish this task. Some require the presence of specialized tools, others require the use of available materials and knowledge of the basic properties of this fragile material.

Drill glass with extreme caution!

The main thing in the process of drilling glass at home is extreme caution and lack of haste, since the material is very expensive, and its damage can lead to serious damage. financial costs to buy a new one.

Properties of glass

In order to make a smooth and neat hole in glass, you need to know how to properly use tools for processing it. For success, it is important to understand not only the process itself, but also the physical and mechanical properties of the material.

Glass has a disordered or, as it is also called, an amorphous structure. Its molecules are arranged randomly, like those of liquids. The main component of any glass is silicon oxide with various additives that facilitate the melting of the material during its manufacture.

With rapid physical impact, glass is easily destroyed.

After solidification, the molecules continue their slow, chaotic movement relative to each other, so, no matter how strange it may sound, glass is a very thick liquid. This special state of aggregation of the material determines its basic properties:

1. Fragility. Although the molecular structure of glass resembles a liquid, under rapid physical impact it collapses without exhibiting plastic deformation.
2. Hardness. Glass is a close relative of quartz, a mineral with a relative hardness rating of 7 out of 10. Natural substances with ratings of 8, 9 and 10, topaz, corundum and diamond, are used as strong abrasives and are well suited for cutting and drilling glass. Exists a large number of artificial materials with high hardness. First of all, the alloy should be called the winner. Its main component, tungsten carbide, has a hardness of 9. Pobedit is very often used in drills and core bits for glass processing.
3. Strength. Glass is fragile, but quite durable material, although this parameter is not the same and depends on the direction of deformation. Glass can withstand a fairly large load in compression, while when stretched it breaks much faster. This should be taken into account when transporting, handling and installing the material.

Glass Drilling Tools

Glass processing at home is carried out using tools whose working surface is made of special alloys or inlaid with materials of high hardness. These include: will win, corundum and its analogues, diamond. The most common are pobedite and diamond drills.

Diamond coating is superior to glass in hardness.

Pobedite drills have a spear-shaped structure, and the working body can be represented by either a single (Fig. 1) or two mutually perpendicular carbide plates (Fig. 2). Such tools are used not only to create holes in glass and mirrors, but also in ceramics, such as tiles.

In order to make a large hole in glass, for example, to install a socket, the diameter of a conventional drill is not enough. In such cases, they resort to using crowns with abrasive - mainly diamond - coating (Fig. 3). These tubular drills have different diameter- from 3-4 to 120 mm. Drilling a hole with such a tool is much faster and safer than with a carbide drill, but due to the larger area of ​​contact with the glass, the crowns require the use of fairly powerful drills.

There are also traditional methods the use of improvised tools and materials for drilling glass and ceramics, but we will consider them a little later.

Rules and sequence for drilling holes in glass

Since glass is a very fragile material, it should be handled with extreme care. Regardless of the drilling method and the tools used, the sheet of material being processed must be located on a flat and non-slip surface. Check the workbench carefully for any dirt, sawdust, or grains of sand, as any foreign object caught under the glass can cause it to break while drilling.

Several common ways to create smooth holes in glass:

The screwdriver provides low speed when drilling glass.

1. When using a carbide drill, use a powerful screwdriver or electric drill with speed controller. The number of tool revolutions per minute should be minimal - no more than 350-500. Before starting treatment, the surface is degreased with alcohol or turpentine. A very important action, on which the outcome of the operation, cooling of the drill and the treated surface largely depends. It is carried out as follows: a ring stopper made of plasticine or putty is installed around the site of the future hole (Fig. 4). It will act as a “pool” filled with heat-removing liquid and prevent overheating of the drill and glass. In order to prevent cracks from appearing during drilling, the hole is first made approximately 1/3 full, after which the glass is turned over and work continues. After the hole has become through, its edges are processed by folding it into a tube. sandpaper or a round diamond-coated needle file.
2. The use of a diamond-coated bit also requires cooling, but since the diameter of the stopper in this case will be quite large, it is possible to create simple system from a dropper connected to a water source or bottle. This method makes it possible to work even on a vertical surface, which is especially important when processing ceramic tiles. One of the features of working with a crown is the need to constantly maintain its parallelism with the glass. Even the slightest distortion should not be allowed, otherwise the difference in stress in this place will destroy the material.
3. A hole in the glass can be made with an ordinary drill, having first hardened it. To do this, heat up to white the tip of the drill and then sharply plunged into the oil. After final cooling, the drill can be used in the same way as a carbide drill.
4. If a situation arises in which it is not possible to obtain the above tools, folk methods are used. The first of them is based on creating a drill from scrap materials - a steel rod with a cut at the end, into which a roller from a glass cutter is inserted and fixed (Fig. 5). The method is quite artisanal, since there is a high probability that during operation the roller will simply fly out of the clamp, which can lead to damage to the material.

The second method is much more interesting; the history of its use goes back far into the past. It is based on the property of glass to crack when exposed to contrasting temperatures. To make a hole using this method, a small cone of wet sand is placed on the surface of the glass. Through its top to the very bottom they make wooden stick or a metal rod, a channel whose diameter must correspond to the dimensions of the future hole. Next, molten lead, tin or solder is poured into the channel (Fig. 6). After cooling, the pile of sand along with the metal is removed, and a smooth hole is formed at the point where the solder contacts the glass. The explanation is very simple: at the point where the temperature is elevated, the glass begins to crumble, and the wet sand around does not allow the heat to spread further.

Glass is a fragile, easily breakable material, but if you know a few tricks, you can still drill it. The safety rule when working with glass is to wear safety glasses when drilling, because small and large fragments can get into your eyes.

When drilling thin glass holes can be made at least 13 mm from the edge, and if it is thicker, then the indentation should be about 25 mm, otherwise the glass may crack. For drilling glass, there are special drills with hardened tips.

To obtain large diameter holes, drill bits are used.

For them, you can use a regular hand drill or an electric one, turning it on at low speed (less than 350 per minute). First degrease the surface with acetone or alcohol. During the drilling process, you need to drip turpentine onto the glass at the drilling site.

It is necessary to avoid strong beating of the drill so that it does not crack.

1) First of all, we lay the glass on a flat and stable surface. Having marked the drilling location, we make a ring out of putty, lay it around the drilling site, pressing it tightly to the glass surface.

Pour a little turpentine or vinegar into the center of the ring and begin drilling with slight pressure, setting the drill to low speed. It is advisable not to drill a through hole right away, but rather, after drilling a small hole on one side, turn the glass over and repeat the entire procedure on the other side. Using a thin, flexible tube wrapped in fine-grained sandpaper, we clean the edges of the hole.

2) If you need to drill a hole with a diameter of less than 4 mm and there is no special drill, you can use regular drill. To do this, the drill must first be hardened. We clamp the drill with pliers and hold it over the fire gas burner until the tip becomes white hot. Then we immediately cool it by placing it in sealing wax. When the sealing wax stops melting and cools down, remove the drill and clean off the adhered particles of sealing wax. Now you can start drilling using the previous method.

3) If you need to drill a hole in a small glass product, then first lower glass product V cold water. The container must be selected so that the product in it does not move, but sits tightly, and the water slightly covers the entire surface of the glass. Now you can drill.

If the product is too large, then place it on a hard horizontal surface. Then moisten the drill generously with turpentine and drill, making sure that the turpentine flows from the drill onto the drilling site.

4) If you only have a carbide drill, you can also use it. First, moisten the drill in a solution of aluminum alum and acetic acid, or camphor and turpentine (1:1). Cover the drilling area with a plasticine roller and pour liquid inside. Now the glass can be drilled.

5) If you do not have any drill at all, then you can drill a hole using copper wire. We insert the wire into the drill chuck and secure it. Now we prepare a special paste, for which we dissolve powdered camphor in turpentine 1:2, and then pour in coarse emery powder and mix everything well. Apply the paste to the drilling site and get to work.

You can drill glass in the same way by replacing the copper wire with a straight tube. For this method, install a ring of plasticine or putty, with a diameter of 5 cm and a wall height of about 1 cm. Pour the paste prepared for drilling into the center copper wire, and you can drill. With this method, the diameter of the resulting hole will be slightly larger than the diameter of the tube itself.

6) There is another way of drilling using tubes. To do this, we need an aluminum, copper or duralumin tube 4-6 cm long. We need to drive a wooden plug into the tube at one end to a depth of about 2-2.5 cm and screw in a screw 0.5 cm thick so that its smooth part protrudes above surface by 1-1.5 cm, and then saw off the screw head. We insert the protruding screw into the drill chuck. On the other side, we cut out the teeth using a triangular file. Now we glue cardboard washers with a diameter equal to the diameter of the hole to the glass on both sides. We lay the glass on rubber, sprinkle the drilling area with abrasive powder. We moisten the teeth on the tubes with turpentine and begin drilling. When we drill 1/3 of the glass thickness, we need to turn the glass over and continue on the other side.

7) There is another method in which you can make a large diameter hole without drilling at all. Fry the surface of the glass using gasoline, alcohol or acetone. We outline the outline of the hole and pour in wet fine sand so that it extends beyond the outline of the future hole. The height of the sand slide should be as high as possible. Using a sharpened stick, the diameter of our hole, carefully make a funnel to the surface of the glass. There should not be a single grain of sand left over the area of ​​the entire hole. Melt tin or lead and pour it into the center of the funnel.

After 2-3 minutes the sand is brushed off. We take out the solder cone along with the glass circle.

There is an ancient, but somehow forgotten now method of making holes in glass. The space on the glass where there should be a hole is properly cleaned of dirt and grease with gasoline, acetone or alcohol. Next, wet fine sand is poured onto the washed area and a funnel is made in the sand up to the glass with a sharpened stick of the required diameter. Molten solder (lead or tin is acceptable) is poured into the mold prepared in this way in sand. After 1-2 minutes, you should discard the sand and remove the solder cone. An even through hole appears in the glass.

Making holes in glass

Drilling a hole in glass

Another way to make a hole in glass

Once again about how to drill a hole in glass

Drilling a large hole in glass

Cutting round glass

Unconventional glass drilling methods

2. To drill a hole in glass, we recommend taking a triangular file, dipping it in turpentine and carefully drilling the hole.

3. You can also drill glass into lathe copper rod, lubricating it with oil and sprinkling with sandpaper. Special attention should be addressed to the hole when the drilling process comes to an end and only the last thin layer remains, since the glass can easily crack

Hole in glass video