How to properly cut glass with a glass cutter at home

Preparing

Never neglect to prepare for the glass cutting process. This operation is not possible without prior preparation. It is necessary to wipe the surface with a moistened rag to remove all unnecessary inclusions. After the glass is dry, dry it with a dry cloth.

Many experts recommend using old paper rather than rags. It does not leave fibers on the surface that interfere with the cutting process. Glasses that have already been used are much more difficult to cut, so it takes longer to prepare them. In addition to cleaning and drying such material should be degreased with kerosene.

Features of different types of cutting

Tempered glass, also known as tempered glass, is made by heating it in an oven to a temperature of 680 degrees and then quickly cooling it with even air currents. Such a product is used as a windshield and window glass in cars, as well as heat-resistant and fire-resistant overlapping. Glass is usually cut and processed just before annealing, which eliminates other problems. Processing of such material is not possible by conventional methods because of its mechanical properties.

Different cutting methods are available for tempered glass. The first is the laser cutting of glass. Because the laser cuts the material by heating it at a certain point, the internal stresses at that point drop and prevent the glass from cracking, producing a smooth, high-quality cut. The second and more complicated method involves a pre annealing process. The main purpose of this process is to release all residual stresses over the entire surface of the material, thus converting it into normal sheet quartz glass. Annealing is carried out by soaking the material in water until it reaches the temperature of solidification in the furnace. It is followed by slow cooling to a temperature below the strain. As a result of these actions, the glass loses its hardened properties and can be mechanically cut.

Acrylic glass, also known as organic glass, is a synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate, a transparent thermoplastic plastic. It is called glass only formally because of its transparency. The other properties are quite different and have nothing in common with real glass, which makes it possible to apply quite different working methods. In this regard, one of the most popular cutting methods is dissection using a milling machine, when no specialized equipment is required, but the same equipment used for wood and metal.

Other methods used to disassemble glass also apply to the acrylic version. Waterjet and laser cutting interacts with organic glass with great efficiency and provides faster cutting speeds than the same equipment used to process conventional glass. Cutting thick reinforced glass is hampered by the presence of metal mesh.

However, all of the cutting methods discussed above are applicable to processing this type of. The only difference is that in some cases you will have to cut the metal wire with wire cutters.

Holding the glass cutter correctly

How to cut glass properly with a diamond glass cutter

It must be held slightly to the right of the plane of the glass. Its cutting tip does not move, so the groove is made by one of its edges. The diamond mark is thin, almost imperceptible. However, this does not prevent them from being used to cut glass of considerable thicknesses.

How to cut glass properly with a glass cutter

Such a glass cutter is held strictly perpendicular to the plane. This position is due to the structure of the wheel, where changing the angle of the wheel will not allow the cutting edge of the roller to affect the plane of the glass. Note that when working with this type of glass cutter the groove is more noticeable, usually of white color.

When working with such a fragile and sometimes sharp material, the first thing you need to take care of is the work area where the actual cutting will be done. It is necessary to have a table with a flat horizontal surface so that it would not have any gradients. It will be more convenient to carry out these operations, if to cover a table with a coverlet.

Cutting glass with the glass cutter: tools required.

To perform such manipulations, you will need a certain set of tools:

• Glass cutter, because we are directly cutting with a glass cutter;
• a ruler to measure the necessary size of the glass;
• Angle;
• Use a marker or felt-tip pen to make your marks.

How to cut glass properly with a glass cutter?

To get a good result, it is worth saying a few words about how to cut with a glass cutter, how to hold it correctly in your hand.

Among experienced craftsmen engaged in cutting glass, you can find two techniques for using such tools:

How to Cut Glass. Beginner Tips

How to cut glass properly with a glass cutter?

There is no difference in hand positioning when using this tool. You decide for yourself how you want to handle the glass cutter. And at masters it is only a matter of habit.

How to use the cutter?

To begin with, a very convenient way to work with such a tool is to hold it on a ruler. That way you get a straight cut without any bends. The edge of the tool must be sharp, because it is this characteristic that determines the scratch on which the glass will break off.

The scratch should be thin and even along its entire length. If it turns out to be wide and has a whitish tint, this situation can be reasoned as a low-quality, blunted edge of the tool. Insufficient force applied to the tool can also be the cause of this problem.

How to cut with the glass cutter: in one go or should you run the tool over the glass several times?

This situation is a frequent problem with beginner glass cutters. Because it is considered a great mistake to run the cutter several times over the glass surface. There must be one scratch, made with the same amount of force on the glass cutter. Deformation of the glass surface can occur. Such a problem can be influenced by:

How to cut glass with a glass cutter and break it correctly?

Breaking the glass is another important step in cutting. After all, the integrity of the material and the quality of the cut depends on exactly how it is made.

Such manipulation can take place using your hands directly, tapping with a tool on the back side of the material. If there was a situation with a change of direction of the break, it can be corrected by the pliers or the notch on the glass cutter itself.

If you fulfill all the points, you will be able to cope with the task without any problems.

How to cut safely with a glass cutter?

Safety is an important factor when working with glass and glass cutters.

In order to understand how to cut glass with a glass cutter and not to harm your health, it is worth to understand the dangers of such an activity. Glass can cut your hands, and a piece of glass can reach your feet and even your eyes. These consequences can cause considerable damage to health. It is therefore necessary to use tight-fitting clothing that covers the entire body surface, to use gloves on the hands, to use closed shoes, and to always work in protective goggles.

All tools for cutting and breaking glass at bargain you will find in our online store. Go to the catalog and place your order.

How to cut a mirror with a glass cutter at home?

Probably no room can do without mirrors. They are not only needed to look good, they can be used in various interior design solutions.

If there is a need to cut the mirror, then you should keep in mind: this material is fragile, which can cause certain difficulties. To avoid this, you can use the services of professionals. But if you are a careful person and will use the recommendations of this article, then you will be able to cope on your own.

Precautions

When cutting glass without safety gloves and glasses, you can cut your hands and injure your eyes because of dust and shards. It is forbidden to attempt to cut a sheet of glass by placing it on your lap or on a questionable support structure. Glass can not be transferred by the edge of the bare hands. sharp as a scalpel, the edges cut the skin in a fraction of a second. Lifting the sheet, it is taken not by one edge, but by two edges. A large sheet is easy to break if carried carelessly.

Shoes and pants should be of the closed type. unprotected leather is easily cut if accidentally dropped. There are cases when a worker cuts veins in his hands or feet with sharp edges and is permanently unable to continue his work. Protective suit or overalls should be of thick fabric. it will protect the body from injury. After work, shoes and clothing should be sent to the cleaner. this will prevent the scattering of glass particles around the house or territory of the object, their accidental ingestion in food.

How to work with an oil glass cutter

Glass has an interesting breakdown pattern due to its amonic structure. It always breaks along the shortest path, that is, in the thinnest place. So even the slightest scratch is enough, as long as it starts from one edge and ends on the other.

the roller glass cutter does not make a scratch, it squeezes through the groove breaking the edges with its many fine flakes. Pressure on the tool should be commensurate to the thickness of glass to be cut and, accordingly, the diameter of the roller. remember also that only one pass over the marking is possible, the second pass over the marking will cause the roller to bruise and blunt almost immediately.

hold the cutter correctly as a handle, using the palm of your hand as a stop and bringing the little finger forward for extra stability. the movement is always towards yourself, i.e. the glass cutter simply follows your hand, the necessary pressure is provided by your fingers. The position of the glass cutter in the longitudinal projection is always strictly perpendicular.

All the talk about the correct inclination of the handle in the cutting direction is the purest nonsense: a round roller doesn’t care what angle it is turned at. However, for oil glass cutters, it is preferable to keep the handle closer to a perpendicular position for normal pressure on the grease feed wick.

So, putting a roller to the far edge of the need with minimal pressure to pull through the 35 mm risk that the mark guaranteed to touch the end of the glass sheet. After that the main line is pulled along the same mark, this time with normal pressure. If the forced marking is interrupted, it is necessary to start with a small step on the made scratch and mark the place of the interruption, in order to tap it carefully afterwards. The main specificity when working with the oil glass cutter is to provide enough pressure to press the feed wick. Otherwise, such a tool cuts like an ordinary roller tool.

Preparation of glass, tools and place

Preliminary measures are not required if you have to cut a completely new material. In this case, it is only wiped of dust, it is better to do it with newspaper, but you can also microfiber. For glass that has already been used, preparations will take some time. Several operations are carried out:

• The material is cleaned on both sides with a liquid that is specially designed for glass;
• If for washing another means not containing alcohol was used, degrease it using acetone, kerosene, alcohol, white spirit or Fairy without glycerin in composition.

The prepared glass is left to dry in a closed room. Some people recommend covering the material with foil.

Types of tools

In order to guarantee high-quality work, it is necessary to buy a good, handy tool. With professional glass cutters to work more difficult, but the result is worth it. Those that are intended for household purposes, are not demanding to the master, but this unpretentiousness affects the quality of the cut. All varieties of these tools have their own “niche”, because home masters have to cut different kinds of glass: both thin and quite massive.

• Diamond, professional tools. These tools have been used since the century before last. The reason for their popularity is the well-known hardness of the stone (artificial or real), which guarantees the quality of work and a long service life. with this glass cutter it is relatively easy to cut materials of 5-10 mm thickness (corundum) to 10 mm (real diamond). Its price is rather high, especially in case of real “diamond”. The work will require some skill from the owner, so beginners are better to look at other contenders.
• Roller, household and budget. Their cutting work is performed by rollers, which are made of a wear-resistant alloy of tungsten and cobalt (hardened steel). Such glass cutters are able to overcome glass with thickness up to 4 mm. For an introduction to the tool, this is the best option. the difference of this tool from diamond is that it cannot scratch glass. He squeezes it, so that a shallow groove appears on the surface.
• Oil but roller cutters are the second type of professional glass cutters. They have a reservoir of oil in the handle and the oil is applied to the cutting assembly, the purpose is to reduce friction, which allows the rollers to penetrate deeper in a shorter time. Glass up to 8 mm thick can be cut with this tool without any problems. These glass cutters can also achieve results at home.

There is another kind. a glass cutter-cirk, they cut round-shaped parts. Its price is high because it is a professional tool. Its elements are: a cutting roller, a guide bar and a suction cup, some models have a reservoir for grease. It is inexpedient to buy such a product in a store. For domestic purposes, it is assembled independently: from an ordinary glass cutter, rail and suction cup.

Every tool should be tested before buying. Let the seller do it. If you are satisfied with the result, use the glass cutter that was tested in front of the buyer, because it is possible that others may have flaws. cutting edge defects.

Requirements to the working place

Manipulations with such a sensitive material require a specific surface. Otherwise the glass could be scratched, cracked, and chipped, and the workman could be injured. Perfect flatness is the first requirement. There must not be any indentations or protuberances on the table/bench.

Stability is a must, because the cutter can easily jump off the marked mowing line, resulting in defects. A cloth placed between the glass and the working surface provides the necessary grip. A large terry towel, a bedspread, or a sheet can serve as such a surface. Even an ordinary oilcloth will do.

Diamond glass cutter

The diamond glass cutter is capable of cutting glass up to 10 mm thick

The diamond glass cutter can safely be called “flagship” among similar tools. These glass cutters use diamond, the toughest material in the world, as a cutter. Because of this, the diamond glass cutter is capable of cutting glass up to 10 millimeters thick, making the most even cut that is almost chip-free and requires minimal machining. The only disadvantage of diamond glass cutters is their comparatively high price, even if not a natural diamond but a synthetic one is used as a cutter.

Working with diamond (or any other glass cutter, for that matter) requires a certain amount of skill.

The first step is to prepare the surface on which the glass is to be cut. An ordinary table with a soft surface (e.g. carpeting or linoleum) can be perfectly suitable for this purpose. The prepared glass is placed on the surface.

It is advisable to test the cutter on an unnecessary piece of glass before the actual cutting operation. Hold the instrument with your thumb and forefinger and draw the line across the glass with somewhat more force than you would with a ballpoint pen or pencil. If the result remains a thin white line. the glass cutter is ready to work and you do everything correctly, if the line is thick and filled with small glass crumbs try to change the angle of the cutter.

The actual process of cutting glass with a diamond glass cutter is as follows. Use a ruler and an angle to mark the glass. Then on the side of the same ruler or any flat bar spend the glass cutter with medium force. The white line left over from the glass cutter is aligned with the edge of the table and easily pressed onto the hanging edge of the glass. If you have done everything correctly, the glass will break off quite easily exactly along the cut line.

When working with thick (thicker than 2 millimeters) glass, it is recommended to “tap” the cut line lightly with a hammer before breaking.

If the glass does not break, do not try to make another cut in the same place as the previous one. It is better to displace the marking a little and make the whole operation anew.

In order to understand the operation of the diamond glass cutter we recommend that you take a look at the following

Before you cut glass

In the past, both glass and tools for its processing were expensive and glass cutting was done only by masters with good skills, but now the situation has changed significantly. Nowadays, anyone can work with glass.

The tool

To work with a glass blade requires a very good tool.

That is why before you buy glass and work with it, it is necessary to start buying tools.

But you should not buy the first tool you see, because it may not be of good quality and will not be able to cut the glass as it should.

It is very important to determine what tool you need, because glass cutters come in several kinds:

Rollers

The roller glass cutter has a special roller that is made of a very strong tungsten-cobalt alloy. The normal diameter of the roller is 6.6 mm, this roller diameter allows you to cut glass up to 4 mm thick.

Diamond

The diamond glass cutter is equipped with a correspondingly small diamond, this diamond cuts glass. The hardness of diamond is well known and has been used for cutting glass for many years.

Oil

Not so long ago the list of glass cutters added oil glass cutters.

This is essentially an improved roller tool, with a reservoir of lubricant built into the handle to supply the roller. This lubricant binds the particles that form when cutting the glass and provides a smooth movement. This glass cutter can cut glass up to 20 mm thick.

A couple of tips for buying

• Before buying any type of glass cutter, it is best to ask the seller to check the tool.
• If you are satisfied with the tool you can buy it, but buy the one you have been shown.

It is not recommended to buy unproven tools, because in most cases the cutting edge is defective.