How To Drill A Hole in Glass?

You can easily drill a hole in glass. But for this purpose you need to choose an appropriate drill. Choice of drill strongly depends on the size of the hole you are going to make in glass. For drilling the holes that are smaller than 1/2 inch, you will need a diamond drill (ball-shaped bit or round-end cylinder bit). But in order to drill the holes larger then size of 1/2 inch you will need a diamond core bit. If you are using suitable drills, then resultant holes will be smooth enough and they will not need any finishing.

For drilling a glass you will need these things-

1. A flat platform/surface
2. Suitable lubricant
3. Diamond drill bit
4. Safety glasses
5. Variable speed drill

Instructions

1. At first step you should put on the safety glasses, this will protect your eyes from broken pieces of glass. You should also wear safety gloves. It will save from cuts and scratches.

2. Now, place the glass piece on a flat platform/surface. This platform will hold your glass against the action of drill.

3. Mark the location on glass, where you want to drill a hole. You are suggested to leave a margin of 1 inch around the glass perimeter; this precaution will minimize the risks of glass breakage.

4. Now, insert a 3/32 or 1/8 inch diamond bit in the drill. You should use a diamond bit having size smaller than your actual need. This will prevent cracking of the glass during the actual drilling.

5. Before starting the drilling you should apply lubricant on the drill bit.

6. Drill half of the hole in the glass, but take care of pressure applied. You should use very light pressure. Moreover, initially you should use drilling speeds of 2500 – 5000 rpm only. Gradually increase the speed of the drill and keep applying the lubricant according to the requirement.

7. After this turn over the glass and start drilling from the opposite side, this bi-side drilling will avoid any cracking of the glass. This will give you “pilot” hole.

8. Now after drilling the “pilot” hole, increase the size of the diamond bit gradually. And keep drilling the pilot hole until you achieve the required size of hole. Gradual drilling should be very careful; you should take care about enough lubrication while drilling.

How to balance the pressure, lubrication and speed
Balancing the pressure, lubrication and speed is skill in glass drilling. It can be learned with practice. If are drilling for the first time then you should use very light pressure, very less speed of the drill and large amount of the lubricant. You should increase the speed of drilling and pressure only after enough practice. You cant be a perfect driller at first attempt, so don’t feel bad on cracking of some glasses. For easy drilling you should use a lot of lubricant.

Dont’s of glass drilling
1. You should never use the diamond bits in “hammer drills”, because the impact of “hammer drills” will bend the diamond bits.

2. You should never use diamond bits for drilling steel and any other metals (ferrous). For steel, iron etc you should use carbide bits.

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