Can you manually cut a circle or hole from the center of a piece of glass?

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Can you manually cut a circle or hole from the center of a piece of glass?

by M G
(Oakland, CA USA)

Q: Is there a way to cut a circle or large hole out of the center of a sheet of glass, while still keeping the sheet intact?

I want the sheet w/ hole, not the circle (I know how to cut/get a circle).

I know I could do it with certain saws, but until I can afford one, is there a 'manual' way?

I tried drilling 3 holes at the points of a triangle and cutting lines connecting the holes in the shape of a triangle, with the intent of knocking out the triangle and then grinding from within toward the edges of my drawn circle - but my sheet has broken twice while trying to knock out the triangle, so... I need a new plan.

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Can you manually cut a circle or hole from the center of a piece of glass?

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Aug 03, 2011

Ways to core vitreous silica mixtures (glass)
by: Steve Koelzer 94087

Oh, the band saw requires a hole to thread the blade and the blade has to be severed and reattached... I came up with a table jig saw fabbed with carbide impregnitated ~eighth inch rod cutter blade; had to add some water but not too much. I cut anything and everything. In Phila got a seedy streaky slightly opaque orangy-red costly glass (just part of a sheet & beautiful, for Guinevere's hair). Dec. 1899 poster cover Lé Hermitage and it called for an unopened lily bloom sticking right into the middle of that hair. It was touch and go but I finally drilled a hole at end of lily and scored one curved half and then "sawed the other" and broke the scribe easily. Oh yes, had to split the lead calme in half, soldering at only the endpoints.//The hole in the glass is very hard to do. I made a corer by sawing slits in copper tube to rotate in graphite moat with water; works. Heard of cooling the center/heating outer to take advantage of shrink potential. There are diamond wire blades for coping saws one would use similar to silver working. Dremel carbide blade grinding's another. If drill hole near center, can submerge in water and cut with scissors (!) or in this case use a wood rasp to raze shards until desired shape. Try the outside for practise - they do work.

May 09, 2011

circle/center
by: Randy

The only way to cut a circle in the middle of a piece of glass is with a glass cutting band saw.
They are a very expensive piece of equipment.
There is no easy answer to this question

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Can you manually cut a circle or hole from the center of a piece of glass?

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Can you manually cut a circle or hole from the center of a piece of glass?