Cutting Glass

[Alan Young]

Any one used ther laser to scrib glass so that you can break it along the scribe? I am thinking about using it to cut(scribe) stain glass.

Alan

[Joe Pelonio]

Alan,

I too do stained glass, and thought that would be cool. In fact I asked before I bought the laser and was told it wouldn't work. Being stubborn I did try it, and it didn't work. I think the reason is that the laser really just shatters the surface of the glass, where the glass cutting wheel when scoring actually is like a hot knife in ice, so when you snap it right away
it works great, but if you ever tried scroring a bunch of them and then waiting to snap it doesn't always work, you have to score it again. Sure
would make the stained glass projects easier, though.

[Bob Tate]

I have scored lots of glass with the laser prior to breaking it. It works very well. I have the good old hand glass score tool but I have the worst luck with my straight edge slipping while trying to score it. The laser works really good for me.
Try it out, dollar store picture frames come with some cheap glass that is great for testing. That stuff etches really good in the laser too. I have sole a bunch of etched glass (frosty) mats in those frames. I do not have any finished items on hand. I will try to get some done this weekend and put up a picture if anyone is interested.

[Alan Young]

I guess maybe it might depend on the type of glass. The next step I guess is just to try it. Thanks for the comments.

Alan

[Joe Pelonio]

Alan,

You're probably right, I've never tried it with clear smooth glass, I tried it with stained glass which has varying thickness and much of it is not even smooth but textured.

[Barbara Sample]

Hi Bob,
I would love to see a photo of what you are describing. A picture is worth a thousand words.
Thanks again,
Barb

[Joe Pelonio]

When I tried it before I used rastor to engrave a 1/2 point line, so after hearing of Bob's success I tried it again using vector. With clear and clear colored it did seem to work, but on opaque, textured and multi-colored glass it made a nice deep etch but wouldn't break.

Bob, you can put cork or a thin dense foam rubber on tha back of your straight edge to keep the glass cutter from slipping. I have more trouble with curves, following the lines freehand. I don't know how I used to do it before I got a grinder.