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Home > Archive > Home Repair forum > February 2008 > how to smooth glass?
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how to smooth glass?
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| I have a small project, and going to cut a square piece of glass,
out of some stock spare glass.
It will be about 14 inches x 14 inches.
Question I have, is how to I slightly smooth the sides of the glass,
and I also want to slightly round the 4 corners as not to be sharp.
Will my dremel tool, handle this? Any of my regular sanders?
It does not have to be anything but roughly smooth, dont need
precision for this job, and basically, this piece of glass will be
underneath a phone and datebook, on a small freestanding cabinet top.
Thanks for any help.
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| Jeff Wisnia 2008-02-05, 5:25 pm |
| J.Lef wrote:
> I have a small project, and going to cut a square piece of glass,
> out of some stock spare glass.
> It will be about 14 inches x 14 inches.
> Question I have, is how to I slightly smooth the sides of the glass,
> and I also want to slightly round the 4 corners as not to be sharp.
> Will my dremel tool, handle this? Any of my regular sanders?
> It does not have to be anything but roughly smooth, dont need
> precision for this job, and basically, this piece of glass will be
> underneath a phone and datebook, on a small freestanding cabinet top.
> Thanks for any help.
>
>
A belt sander will do it, with a fine grit wet/dry abrasive belt and
best to use water cooling if you can manage that too.
Or, try a hand held diamond grit sharpening stone or "file". That'll
smooth glass nicely.
Jeff
--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.
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| salty@dog.com 2008-02-05, 5:25 pm |
| On Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:02:12 GMT, "J.Lef" <j.lef@verizon.net> wrote:
> I have a small project, and going to cut a square piece of glass,
>out of some stock spare glass.
> It will be about 14 inches x 14 inches.
> Question I have, is how to I slightly smooth the sides of the glass,
>and I also want to slightly round the 4 corners as not to be sharp.
> Will my dremel tool, handle this? Any of my regular sanders?
> It does not have to be anything but roughly smooth, dont need
>precision for this job, and basically, this piece of glass will be
>underneath a phone and datebook, on a small freestanding cabinet top.
> Thanks for any help.
>
400 grit wet/dry sandpaper and water will do this pretty easily. If yu
want to really round the corners, the side of a dremel abrasive cutoff
wheel would work pretty well. Wear eye protection!
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| PaPaPeng 2008-02-05, 5:25 pm |
| On Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:30:21 -0500, salty@dog.com wrote:
>On Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:02:12 GMT, "J.Lef" <j.lef@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>
>400 grit wet/dry sandpaper and water will do this pretty easily. If yu
>want to really round the corners, the side of a dremel abrasive cutoff
>wheel would work pretty well. Wear eye protection!
>
The Dremel is too fast and the cutoff wheel diameter too small. Get
a block of carbide knife/tool sharpener stone. It is rectangular and
fits quite comfortably in the hand. Use it wet to hone the glass
edge. I recall seeing such a stone in the Dollar Store. If not a
place like Harbor Freight should have it.
I reread you post again. You can use a smooth flat concrete surface
as on your floor. Wet that generously and grind your glass edges
against that. Otherwise put a wet dry sandpaper on same and grind
against that.
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| charlie 2008-02-05, 5:25 pm |
|
"Jeff Wisnia" <jwisnia@conversent.net> wrote in message
news:13qhhd0e9anee2b@corp.supernews.com...
> J.Lef wrote:
>
>
> A belt sander will do it, with a fine grit wet/dry abrasive belt and best
> to use water cooling if you can manage that too.
>
> Or, try a hand held diamond grit sharpening stone or "file". That'll
> smooth glass nicely.
i doubt that you'd get it right the first time using a belt sander. a
diamond or ceramic knife sharpener would work. if electric, when it's not
running. wear gloves if you're not used to handling glass, especially thin
window glass as it is pretty easy to break it. if you're near a place that
sells stained glass, take the glass there and run it over their diamond
grinder. it probably won't cost you anything.
regards,
charlie
http://glassartists.org/chaniarts
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| salty@dog.com 2008-02-05, 5:25 pm |
| On Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:59:28 GMT, PaPaPeng <PaPaPeng@yahoo.com> wrote:
>On Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:30:21 -0500, salty@dog.com wrote:
>
>
>The Dremel is too fast and the cutoff wheel diameter too small.
I only recommended the dremel for making the corners round. It would do that
very easily, and the poster indicates he has access to a dremel already. He
doesn't need to buy anything new for such a small job.
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| J.Lef wrote:
> I have a small project, and going to cut a square piece of glass,
> out of some stock spare glass.
> It will be about 14 inches x 14 inches.
> Question I have, is how to I slightly smooth the sides of the glass,
> and I also want to slightly round the 4 corners as not to be sharp.
> Will my dremel tool, handle this? Any of my regular sanders?
> It does not have to be anything but roughly smooth, dont need
> precision for this job, and basically, this piece of glass will be
> underneath a phone and datebook, on a small freestanding cabinet top.
> Thanks for any help.
>
>
In the laboratory, we would smooth cut glass tubing by abrading with a
course wire screen.
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| Blattus Slafaly £ ¥ 0/00 :) 2008-02-05, 5:25 pm |
| J.Lef wrote:
> I have a small project, and going to cut a square piece of glass,
> out of some stock spare glass.
> It will be about 14 inches x 14 inches.
> Question I have, is how to I slightly smooth the sides of the glass,
> and I also want to slightly round the 4 corners as not to be sharp.
> Will my dremel tool, handle this? Any of my regular sanders?
> It does not have to be anything but roughly smooth, dont need
> precision for this job, and basically, this piece of glass will be
> underneath a phone and datebook, on a small freestanding cabinet top.
> Thanks for any help.
>
>
Use those little fine stones that come with the Dremel tool.
--
Blattus Slafaly ? 3  7/8
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| John McGaw 2008-02-05, 8:25 pm |
| salty@dog.com wrote:
> On Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:02:12 GMT, "J.Lef" <j.lef@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>
> 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper and water will do this pretty easily. If yu
> want to really round the corners, the side of a dremel abrasive cutoff
> wheel would work pretty well. Wear eye protection!
>
>
I've done it with 600-grit silicon carbide on a 5" random-orbit disc
sander with no problems. My sander has a dust collection port which,
along with the HEPA vacuum, keeps down the flying dust but eye
protection is mandatory. It could also be done by hand by gluing an
abrasive sheet to a dead-flat surface and rubbing the glass back and
forth over the abrasive.
--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com
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| salty@dog.com 2008-02-06, 9:26 am |
| On Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:28:27 -0500, John McGaw <nobody@nowh.ere> wrote:
>salty@dog.com wrote:
>
>I've done it with 600-grit silicon carbide on a 5" random-orbit disc
>sander with no problems. My sander has a dust collection port which,
>along with the HEPA vacuum, keeps down the flying dust but eye
>protection is mandatory. It could also be done by hand by gluing an
>abrasive sheet to a dead-flat surface and rubbing the glass back and
>forth over the abrasive.
And I've done it with a $.50 piece of wet or dry sandpaper and water. Glass is
surprisingly soft. Doing it wet helps thye paper cut faster and eliminates dust.
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| Kuskokwim 2008-02-06, 1:25 pm |
| On Wed, 06 Feb 2008 06:22:58 -0500, salty@dog.com wrote:
> And I've done it with a $.50 piece of wet or dry sandpaper and water. Glass is
> surprisingly soft. Doing it wet helps thye paper cut faster and eliminates dust.
BINGO!! This is the correct answer. It's quite easy to do.
If you don't mind a little, minor dust, emery cloth works well too.
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