Precision Glass Cutting

Sebzy

Hoping someone might have done this before.

I have a piece of glass that needs to be cut to 18 mm × 13.5 mm it's 2mm thick and has not coatings.

Could anyone recommend a method of cutting this? Have a tolerance of about +-.5mm to play with.

TIA

chris85

The small dimensions of the piece you want makes it a bit difficult to score the glass and break it that way. May still be able to do it this way but not sure.

What dimensions is the glass piece you are cutting from? Is it just one piece you need from the original piece?

Sebzy

A circle of radius 25mm
Just one piece from one piece.

Was thinking about fixing it to a adhesive board and scoring it but am quite unsure about staying within my tolerances.


if anyone's wondering why all this messing around with glass it a replacement CCD filter for a DSLR. I'm replacing it with a 950nm IR filter.

chris85

Are them CCD filters not circular in shape rather than rectangular?

This also depends on what sort of machinary you have available?

A CNC machine would easily scribe them tight tolerances but most people dont usually keep them around (they look bad beside the TV )

Also is this glass expensive? the reason why I ask is that I dont want to recommend a method I cant guarantee and that you will be left with nothing if it fails

Sebzy

yeaa no CNC around these days. It's Rectangular in shape as are all CCD sensor/filters
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/SensorSizes.png

Anyone know if a wet diamond cutter would do it like the Dremel 545

not expensive at all only about 20E for the R25mm piece

chris85

Sebzy wrote: »

yeaa no CNC around these days. It's Rectangular in shape as are all CCD sensor/filters
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/SensorSizes.png

Anyone know if a wet diamond cutter would do it like the Dremel 545

Sorry didnt know they were rectangular.

The dremel may do it but may be hard to keep within tolerances as you would need an extremely steady hand with the dremel to keep them tolerances and it doesnt help that the glass surface will not help the dremel stay steady.

You could try scoring the glass first. You should be able to keep them tolerances scoring the glass. Make sure you only have one score line on each side to keep things easy. You could then use a dremel to cut down the score line. The score line should give enough of a groove for the dremel to stay straight.

Turbulent Bill

chris85 wrote: »

Sorry didnt know they were rectangular.

The dremel may do it but may be hard to keep within tolerances as you would need an extremely steady hand with the dremel to keep them tolerances and it doesnt help that the glass surface will not help the dremel stay steady.

You could try scoring the glass first. You should be able to keep them tolerances scoring the glass. Make sure you only have one score line on each side to keep things easy. You could then use a dremel to cut down the score line. The score line should give enough of a groove for the dremel to stay straight.

I was going to suggest a circular saw with a dicing blade (used to cut silicon wafers etc.), but as you probably won't find one the Dremel should do the trick. You might try to rig up a small slideway to rigidly fix the Dremel to, or even attach it to a drill press. Put the glass on adhesive plastic film and stick the other side of the plastic to a sacrifical block of wood. You can then align Dremel and glass, rigidly fix one or other, then make your cuts. Rotate the jig or peel off the cut glass to make the other cuts. I wouldn't recommend doing this by hand as the Dremel will almost certainly slip.

I haven't attempted this before or stand over it, so be careful!

chris85

Turbulent Bill wrote: »

I was going to suggest a circular saw with a dicing blade (used to cut silicon wafers etc.), but as you probably won't find one the Dremel should do the trick. You might try to rig up a small slideway to rigidly fix the Dremel to, or even attach it to a drill press. Put the glass on adhesive plastic film and stick the other side of the plastic to a sacrifical block of wood. You can then align Dremel and glass, rigidly fix one or other, then make your cuts. Rotate the jig or peel off the cut glass to make the other cuts. I wouldn't recommend doing this by hand as the Dremel will almost certainly slip.

I haven't attempted this before or stand over it, so be careful!

Good idea for the rig but setting up the rig could be tricky to set up, the dremel would definitly be hard by hand even with the groove from scoring the glass.