If you need to drill glass, then the easiest way is to entrust this matter to a specialist. But firstly, such services are not cheap, and secondly, there are people who like to make their own. Let's try to figure out how to make a hole in the glass without damaging it. Consider what tools you can use in this case, how quickly and accurately you can do the work ahead.

Preparatory work

Before drilling glass at home, you must carefully prepare it:

• Using ethyl alcohol or turpentine, wipe the surface. This is necessary in order to degrease it.
• When working, it is unacceptable for the sheet to slide off, so this moment must also be foreseen.
• Choose a base so that the sheet is located on it completely.
• Before starting work, mark the place where you will drill. Use construction tape or a marker for this.
• If drilling glass with your own hands is a new job for you, then first practice on small pieces to avoid damage to the main sheet.
• The drilling process is quite slow. No need to press on the glass to get the job done faster.
• Position the drill at a right angle to the plane. Don't try to make a hole right away. Let the glass cool down periodically.
• After the perforation is almost done, turn the sheet over and finish on the other side. This will give you a perforation. correct form and at the same time avoid chipping and cracking.
• If small roughness or irregularities have formed on the surface, processing the glass with fine sandpaper will help get rid of them.

How to drill glass at home with a conventional drill?

To successfully complete this task, you will need:

1. A set of drills used for metal or ceramics.
2. Screwdriver or low speed drill.
3. Plasticine.
4. Turpentine.
5. Alcohol.

Operating procedure:

• Place the glass sheet on a flat surface.

Important! Pay attention to the fact that the edges do not hang.

• Set the screwdriver or drill to the lowest speed.

Important! Drilling speed ranges between 250 and 1000 rpm.

• Clamp the desired drill in the chuck.
• Using an alcohol solution, degrease the surface, and then make a plasticine recess in place of the future hole.
• Pour some turpentine into it and start working with a drill.
• Do not apply too much pressure to the tool as cracks may form.

Sand use

This is a rather old way. It was used when there were no screwdrivers and drills. To drill glass with your own hands using this unusual method, you will need:

1. Petrol.
2. Sand.
3. Tin (it can be replaced with lead).
4. Gas-burner.
5. Metal mug.
6. Sealing wax.

The algorithm of actions is as follows:

• Degrease the surface with gasoline.
• In the place where the hole is to be made, pour some moistened sand.
• Using a sharp object, make a hole in the sand, the diameter of which is equal to the size of the future perforation in the glass sheet.
• Melt tin or lead in a metal mug using a gas burner.

Important! If there is no burner, then you can heat the metal in a mug and on a gas stove.

• Pour the molten lead into the prepared hole.
• When the metal hardens, remove the sand and take out the hardened glass. The resulting hole will be perfectly shaped and will not need to be machined.

How to drill a hole in glass at home with a homemade drill?

To make a homemade drill, you will need a diamond roller from a glass cutter and a metal rod:

1. Saw a groove in the rod to insert the roller into it. You need to fix it so that it is motionless in relation to the metal rod.
2. Fix the drill made in this way in a screwdriver or drill and start drilling. This is equivalent to the fact that you are perforating with a diamond-coated drill.

Important! If for some reason you cannot buy a factory-made drill, then you can make it yourself.

There is another way to independently prepare the drill for work in order to drill glass at home:

1. Clamp a regular drill in pliers and hold for several minutes over the flame of a gas burner.
2. After the tool is white hot, cool it with sealing wax.
3. After the drill has cooled, remove the remaining sealing wax.
4. With this simple manipulation, you get a durable tool that can make holes in a tempered glass sheet.

• To avoid cracking of the material, apply a little turpentine or honey to the surface at the drilling site.
• Do not press the screwdriver or drill while working, do not shake the tool from side to side.
• Take breaks of 5-10 seconds. During breaks, lower the drill into a vessel with cold water for cooling.
• If you choose between a drill and a screwdriver, give preference to the latter, since the drilling mode in this case will turn out to be more gentle.
• For surface treatment, you can use both a solution of ethyl alcohol and acetone.
• Do not forget about safety - you need to work in goggles and gloves.
• The minimum distance from the point of drilling to the edge of the sheet: 15 mm for fragile grades, 25 mm for ordinary glass.
• It is desirable to place a glass sheet on a wooden surface.

Glass cutter application

With this tool you can create holes of large diameter or complex shape. The algorithm of actions is the following:

1. Apply with a marker or felt-tip pen contours for further processing.
2. Press the tool smoothly and evenly, do not make sudden movements.
3. To fall off the cut off part, gently tap on the surface with the handle of the tool.
4. To remove glass residue, use special tongs.

Important! Before you start working with glass, check the condition of the tool. It is necessary that the roller is in the center of the glass cutter, rotates freely and evenly.

If it is necessary to drill glass surfaces, many people prefer to entrust this matter to professionals, turn to special services, spend money, and most importantly, time. How to drill glass at home and how you can drill glass, we will learn further.

Varieties and features of glass

The formation of glass occurs during supercooling of the melt from several components, while the rate of this process is quite high and the crystallization process does not have time to complete.

Glass is a fragile material that is often used for human needs. Glass is formed at a fairly high temperature from 200 to 2500 degrees. Not all glasses are transparent, this property is not common characteristic of this material.

In relation to the main material that is used during the manufacture of glass, glasses are distinguished:

• oxide,
• sulfide,
• fluoride.

Depending on the type of application, there are:

• quartz-type glass - made by melting quartzite or rock crystal, this material is natural, it is formed during a lightning strike at the location of quartz deposits;
• optical type glass is used to make lenses or prisms;
• chemical-type glass is characterized by high resistance to chemicals and temperature changes;
• Industrial glass is widely used in the manufacture of a variety of things that people use.

Industrial glass is:

• potassium-sodium type - characterized by a low melting point, different shapes are easily obtained from it, it has a clean and light structure;
• potassium-calcium type - has high hardness and is difficult to melt, does not have a pronounced luster;
• lead type - it is similar to crystal, very fragile and shiny, is more expensive, has a lot of weight, but at the same time is quite soft;
• borosilicate type - resistant to temperature changes, foreign substances, rather expensive.

In relation to the scope of use, glasses are distinguished:

• window,
• tare,
• radiation resistant,
• fiberglass,
• protective,
• crockery,
• crystal,
• thermometric,
• heat-resistant,
• medical,
• heat-resistant,
• electroflasks,
• electrovacuum,
• optical,
• chemical,
• quartzoid.

Varieties of drills for drilling glass

The process of drilling glass requires a good, and, most importantly, suitable drill and a material that will instantly cool the glass during the drilling process. Consider the main types of drills that are suitable for glass:

• a drill in the form of a spear or a feather - made of hard alloys, the diameter of such devices is from 3 to 12 mm, if you have working skills, drilling glass with such a drill is quite possible, but you cannot do without the formation of small chips;
• drills in the form of a spear with the presence of diamond coating - they are distinguished by softer drilling, there are no chips;
• tubular or round drills are used to cut circles or rings on glass surfaces, this process is most conveniently carried out using a drilling machine;
• diamond-coated brass type glass requires mandatory cooling, through the supply of water or turpentine;
• a diamond type tubular drill is used to drill a hole in glass, it has the form of a crown with a shank, the end of the crown has a diamond coating, it requires cooling.

Preparing glass for drilling

1. Before you start drilling glass, you should prepare the surface for this process.

2. Using alcohol or turpentine, be sure to degrease the surface, and then wipe with a dry cloth.

3. It is not allowed to slip or shrink the glass sheet on the surface.

4. The glass sheet must be placed on the base.

5. It is better to mark the drilling point with construction tape or a marker.

6. In the absence of skills in working with glass drilling, it is better to practice on small fragments so as not to eventually spoil the material.

7. Drilling glass takes a long time, do not press hard on it to speed up the process.

8. Hold the drill at right angles to the glass surface. Don't drill one hole at a time, stop periodically to let the glass cool down.

9. At the end of drilling, when the hole is almost ready, you should turn the glass over and drill a hole from the back side. This procedure will help to avoid chips or cracks and make a hole of the desired shape.

10. To remove small roughness or irregularities on the glass surface, use fine sandpaper.

How to drill glass with a regular drill

To complete this process, you must have:

• drill, which is used for drilling metal or ceramic surfaces;
• screwdriver or low-speed drill;
• plasticine,
• turpentine,
• alcohol solution.

The glass must lie on a completely flat surface. Pay attention to the position of the glass, the edges must not overhang and the glass must not wobble.

On a screwdriver or drill, set the minimum rotation speed. Insert the glass and check whether the device breaks the glass, if there is a large runout, it is recommended to replace the drill.

Using cotton wool and alcohol, degrease the glass and make a recess from plasticine in place of the future hole. Pour turpentine into it and start the drilling process. To avoid cracking, do not apply great effort during this process. Gently and without pressure, hold the device above the glass.

The minimum revolutions for drilling per minute are 250 and the maximum 1000 cycles.

How to drill glass at home with sand

At a time when there were no screwdrivers and drills used this way glass drilling. In order to drill glass with sand, you will need:

• sand,
• gasoline,
• tin or lead
• gas burner,
• a metal vessel, preferably a mug.

Be sure to degrease the surface with gasoline, and pour a hill of wet sand into the place of the proposed drilling. Next, using a sharp object, make a funnel of the same size as the hole.

Pour the previously prepared mixture of tin or lead into this form, after a few minutes, remove the sand and remove the frozen part of the glass, which should easily move away from the surface.

To heat lead or tin, use a metal vessel and a gas burner. If there is no gas burner, replace it with an ordinary stove.

Such a hole is perfectly even and does not require additional processing efforts.

How to drill glass with your own hands using a homemade drill

The drill used in the process consists of a diamond roller, which is placed in the simplest glass cutter and a metal rod.

In the rod, you need to cut a special hole into which the diamond roller is placed. The roller is installed in such a way that it is motionless.

Attach the drill to a drill or screwdriver and start drilling.

This drill is a modification of conventional diamond-coated drills, so if it is not possible to buy such a drill, make it yourself.

Another option for manufacturing a drill involves drilling glass, with a small hole diameter of up to 50 mm. Take any ordinary drill. Turn on the gas burner, clamp the drill bit with pliers and hold it over the jet of flame for a few minutes. When the tip of the drill turns white, cool it quickly by lowering it into sealing wax. After it cools, remove the drill and remove drops of sealing wax from the surface, if any. This glass has become tempered, and perfectly cope with the drilling of glass.

1. A little honey or turpentine should be applied to the place where the hole will be drilled in order to prevent cracks and splits.

2. Do not press the drill from above.

3. The interval between drillings is 5-10 seconds. It is advisable to dip the drill into a vessel with water during a break to prevent the glass from melting.

4. Do not swing the drill from one side to the other.

5. If possible, it is better to use a screwdriver, this item is more gentle, as it has low speed.

6. The cost of drilling glass in professional conditions is from $ 10, therefore, using these tips, you can save a lot of money.

7. Not only alcohol, but also acetone is perfect for degreasing the surface.

8. While working with a drill, do not forget about safety, wear goggles and gloves

9. The distance between the edge of fragile glass must be at least 1.5 cm, for ordinary glass 2.5 cm.

10. The best surface for working with glass is wood.

Working with glass with a glass cutter

1. In order to make a hole in the glass of large sizes or an unusual shape, a glass cutter is suitable.

2. Using a felt-tip pen or marker, make a markup on which drilling will be carried out.

3. When working with a glass cutter, do not make sudden movements, pressure should be smooth and have the same force.

4. Use the handle of the glass cutter to tap on the glass so that the cut part falls out.

5. To remove excess glass, use special tongs.

6. Pay attention to the condition of the tool before starting work. The location of the roller should be central, it should rotate smoothly and evenly.

Unconventional ways to drill glass

1. To drill carbide type glass, coolant must be prepared. To do this, take acetic acid and dissolve aluminum alum in it. In their absence, mix turpentine with camphor in a ratio of one to one. Treat the glass with one of the solutions, and only then start drilling.

2. If there is no drill, use copper wire to be inserted into the drill. In this case, drilling takes place using a specially prepared solution. One part camphor and two parts turpentine, to this mixture add coarse sandpaper type powder. Lay the mixture in the place where you want to drill a hole and start working.

3. There is another way using this solution. Use a metal piece of tubing that should be inserted into the drill. Make a plasticine ring and attach it to the glass surface. The height of the ring is 10 mm and the diameter is 50 mm. In the recess, apply a solution of turpentine, camphor and emery powder.

4. Take a tube made of aluminum, copper or duralumin, the length of which is about 5 cm. Hammer a wooden plug into one end, and cut out the teeth with a hexagonal file into the other. Screw the self-tapping screw into the end on which the wooden plug is located, saw off its head. On the inner and outer parts of the glass, attach two circles previously cut out of cardboard, the diameter of which, such as the diameter of the future hole. Lay the glass on the rubber surface and sprinkle abrasive powder on it. The place where the self-tapping screw is attached, with a cut off head, put it in a drill or a screwdriver, treat the reverse side of the so-called drill with turpentine solution. Drill the third part of the hole on one side, and then turn the glass over and finish the job.

How to drill glass video:

Glass shelves, tables, boards for the kitchen are not only beautiful, but also practical. However, to make this shelf or table, you need to attach the glass to the rest of the parts using self-tapping screws. Not every person is able to correctly make holes in a transparent surface without damaging the glass itself.

Watch our video on how to drill glass at home and try decorating your home with original glass shelves.

To make holes in the glass, we need:
- a special drill, we will use a diamond-coated crown with a diameter of 8 millimeters;
- drill or screwdriver;
- glass;
- glass blank;
- scotch;
- masking tape;
- a container with water to cool the surface that we wake up to cool.

We insert the drill into the drill and clamp it well there so that the drill does not dangle during drilling, but is exactly in the center.

Before we start drilling our main element, we must first prepare our workpiece. To do this, we attach adhesive tape to it on one side, it is needed so that when we drill a hole in the glass, small fragments did not fly off or lay on the table, but were glued to the adhesive tape.

The place that we will drill is moistened with water. This is necessary in order to cool the glass surface and the drill itself.

It is impossible to immediately take and drill a hole in the glass, the drill will crawl over the surface. For this, we need a template so that by inserting a drill into it, we can easily drill a hole already in the material we need.

In order not to damage the table, place a small piece of cardboard or a regular board.

Everything is ready, remove the tape and wipe with a damp cloth.

Now you can start drilling through the blank of the main glass.

We glue the workpiece to the place where we will drill the hole and fix it with masking tape so that it does not go.

Pour the workpiece with water.

The workpiece can be removed when the drill fits snugly into the main glass and does not jump off to the side.

It is better to drill glass from two sides. For the second side, we also need a template to go deeper a few mm inward.

Then we remove everything superfluous from the glass with a cloth so that there is no dirt and smudges.

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

Drill glass with extreme care!

The main thing in the process of drilling glass at home is extreme caution and no haste, since the material is very expensive, and its damage can lead to large financial costs to buy a new one.

glass properties

In order to make an even and neat hole in the 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, amorphous structure. Its molecules are arranged randomly, like in liquids. The main component of any glass is silicon oxide with various additives that facilitate the melting of the material during its manufacture.

With a quick physical impact, glass is easily destroyed.

After solidification, the molecules continue to slowly chaotically move relative to each other, so, no matter how strange it may sound, glass is a very thick liquid. Such a special state of aggregation of the material predetermines its main properties:

1. Fragility. Although according to molecular structure glass and resembles a liquid, but with a quick physical impact, it collapses without the manifestation of plastic deformations.
2. Hardness. Glass is the closest relative of quartz, a mineral with a relative hardness index of 7 out of 10. Natural substances with indexes of 8, 9 and 10, topaz, corundum and diamond, are used as strong abrasives and are well suited for cutting and drilling glass. There are a large number of artificial materials with high hardness. The first thing to be called alloy will win. Its main component - tungsten carbide - has a hardness of 9. Pobedit is very often used in drills and crowns for glass processing.
3. Strength. Glass is a brittle but rather strong material, although this parameter is not the same and depends on the direction of deformation. Glass withstands a fairly large compressive load, while it breaks much faster when stretched. This must be taken into account when transporting, processing and installing the material.

Glass drilling tools

Glass processing at home is carried out with the help of tools, the working surface of which is made of special alloys or inlaid with materials of high hardness. These include: win, corundum and its analogues, diamond. Pobedite and diamond drills are the most common.

Diamond coating is superior to glass in hardness.

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

In order to make a large hole in the glass, for example, to install an outlet, the diameter of a conventional drill is not enough. In such cases, they resort to the use of crowns with abrasive - mainly diamond - coating (Fig. 3). These tubular drills have different diameters - 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 folk 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

Because glass is a very fragile material, it must be handled with extreme care. Regardless of the drilling method and the tools used, the sheet of material to be processed must be placed on a flat and non-slip surface. Carefully check for dirt, sawdust or grains of sand on the work table, as any foreign object that gets under the glass can cause it to crack during drilling.

A few common ways to create even holes in glass are:

Screwdriver provides low speed when drilling glass.

1. When using a carbide drill, a powerful screwdriver or an electric drill with a speed controller is used. The number of revolutions of the tool 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 largely depends, is the cooling of the drill and the surface to be treated. It is carried out as follows: around the place of the future hole, an annular limiter made of plasticine or putty is installed (Fig. 4). It will act as a “pool” filled with a heat-removing liquid and prevent overheating of the drill and glass. In order to prevent the appearance of cracks during drilling, the hole is first made about 1/3, after which the glass is turned over and work continues. After the hole has become through, its edges are treated with sandpaper rolled into a tube or a round diamond-coated file.
2. The use of a diamond-coated crown also requires cooling, but since the diameter of the restrictor in this case will be quite large, a simple system can be created 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 glass. Even the slightest distortion should not be allowed, otherwise the voltage difference in this place will destroy the material.
3. A hole in the glass can be made with a conventional drill, having previously hardened it. To do this, warm up white color the tip of the drill, and then sharply immersed in oil. After the final cooling, the drill can be used in the same way as the carbide drill.
4. If there is a situation in which it is not possible to get the above tools, folk methods are used. The first of them is based on the creation of a drill from improvised 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 application goes back far into the past. It is based on the property of glass to crack when exposed to contrasting temperatures. In order to make a hole with this method, a small cone of wet sand is laid out on the surface of the glass. Through its top to the very bottom, a channel is made with a wooden stick or a metal rod, the diameter of which should correspond to the size of the future hole. Next, molten lead, tin or solder is poured into the channel (Fig. 6). After cooling, a pile of sand is removed along with the metal, and an even hole is formed at the point of contact of the solder with 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 it does not allow the heat to spread further.

drilling glass at home

Three ways to drill glass at home

Very often, when doing housework, we are faced with the need to drill a hole in glass or a mirror. For many, this process can cause some difficulties and turn out to be a completely unsolvable issue. But in fact, if you know some of the subtleties and "nuances", then you can quite simply solve this issue, using only available tools and means.

And so, let's not waste time and take a detailed look at these methods that will help us figure out how to drill glass or a glass product. Well, then, when you get the necessary information, I think that you can easily decide which method is the most optimal for you.

METHOD #1

The first method is the simplest of all. In order to use it, we need the following materials and tools:

A drill bit for metal or better for ceramic tiles (with a sharp pobedit tip), or you can use a triangular file sharpened in a special way

- drill (low speed) or screwdriver
- alcohol
- turpentine
- plasticine
- flat surface (table)

Now let's start preparing for drilling:

To begin with, we lay the glass on a flat surface in such a way that its edges do not overhang and the glass does not play on the table.

We set the rotation speed of the drill (screwdriver) to the minimum allowable speed, insert the drill and check it for "beating". If the runout is large, then we change the drill.

We degrease the surface of the glass with alcohol, then we make a restrictive circle from plasticine and pour a little turpentine there. That's it ... now you can drill glass.

The only thing to keep in mind is not to apply too much force when drilling, otherwise the glass may crack.

And so you mastered the first method, telling how to drill glass at home, and now it's time to move on to the second ...

METHOD #2

This method has been known since ancient times, when electric drills and screwdrivers did not exist. And in order to use it, you don’t need any drills or a drill ...

For work we need:

Sand
- lead or tin
- metal mug
- gas burner or stove
- alcohol

Now we are preparing a place for drilling ... To do this, degrease the surface with alcohol. Then we pour wet sand on it. and with a sharp object in the sand we make a funnel of the appropriate size.

Now molten lead or tin is poured into the prepared mold in the sand. After two or three minutes, the sand can be removed from the surface and the hardened solder can be removed. As a result, you will see a smooth through hole.

And now, when another method that tells about how glass can be drilled has been mastered, it remains for me to tell you about the third, last method I know ...

METHOD #3

This method is essentially a modification of the first method, however, it does not require additional lubricating fluids when drilling.

True, in this case, you will have to slightly modify the "drill" that will be used in the process.

To do this, we need to take a glass cutter and extract a diamond roller from it.

Then this roller should be fixed in a metal rod, in which a slot was previously cut. Then we fix the roller in the rod with a rivet, so that the roller sits rigidly in the seat and does not have the ability to turn.

Now we fix our homemade drill into the drill chuck ... and now you can safely drill holes in the glass with this device.

That's all ... This completes the description of the methods that allow you to drill through glass or a glass surface. I wish you successful use of the acquired knowledge in practice.