Glass processing at home

Glass is a very fragile material, but a lot of everything useful and beautiful can be made of it. In addition, you can not do without it: it is in the windows, dishes are made of it and much more. And how is its manufacture? If you still do not know, we will reveal how glass processing is performed at home, because it consists of several stages. Using the information in this article, you can try your hand in this direction by creating decorative objects for your home.

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Tools for work

At home, they usually grind and polish this material. For the high-quality implementation of these stages, you should acquire the following tools:

• A drill.
• Glass cutter.
• Pliers.
• File.
• Grinder with the ability to change the speed of rotation. This is very important, since it is necessary that the brittle material does not overheat.
• Velcro head with which grinding wheels will be fixed.
• Grinding wheels of different grit. Their surface should be emery, resistant to moisture.

Important! Glass is not only expensive but also unsafe material. In order to avoid injury, goggles are put on the eyes and cotton gloves on the hands.

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First stage of processing

When the initial, rough processing of the edge of the glass is performed, it will become not only smooth, but also safe. However, the surface still remains quite rough.

Do-it-yourself glass edge processing is carried out using conventional pliers or a side cut-out of a glass cutter:

• Glass needs to be captured in small sections, breaking off pieces two to three millimeters in size.
• To remove smaller protrusions, pliers are used. In this case, you need to firmly grab the material and gently squeeze the tool.

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Edge finishing

The choice of finishing method depends on the required profile. It can be flat, shaped, trapezoidal, etc.

Important! Using the straightforward method, it becomes possible to set the desired angle to 45 degrees. Thanks to the curved method, a curved profile is attached to the edge.

How to process the edge of the glass at home?

• Initially, a file is used for finishing. If the glass is thin, use velvet.
• You can also use whetstones. They can be carborundum and emery. To make the process easier and faster, kerosene or turpentine are used to wet the tool.
• For filing glass, especially thin, smooth movements are used.
• If possible, the treated surface is placed under a water stream.
• If you need to obtain a straight edge, the material must be placed vertically, and then move it back and forth along the grindstone.

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Glass polishing

Thanks to polishing the glass, the surface becomes more perfect, the product becomes not only more beautiful, but also safe. The edge turns into a dull, slightly rough, greenish hue. Nevertheless, her appearance remains not very attractive, and besides, microcracks and small scratches may appear. To eliminate all irregularities, the edges are polished.

We already know how to polish glass at home, but polishing differs from this process, but not significantly.Most importantly, it is not abrasive materials that are used for edge processing, but soft fibers. As a result, the edge turns into a smooth and transparent, and the glass looks very aesthetically pleasing.

Solid glass products always have a polishing edge, as the design is even brighter. In addition, polishing is also carried out if the glass is tempered, since then it is already impossible to process the material.  

Important! Remember that glass is a very fragile material that does not tolerate overheating. Therefore, when working, you should not rush, you need to perform all actions carefully.

Polishing is done after grinding is done using the finest-grained abrasive. This must be done, as the polishing tape will not be able to cope with the removal of large defects.

Important! After you learn how to sharpen glass at home, you will notice that the residual stress on the surface is minimized. That is why during transportation, the risk that the glass will be damaged will be significantly reduced.

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Recommendations:

• When you are finishing, it’s best to use old tools, as their surface deteriorates greatly.
• Instead of grindstone, you can use a block of wood, on which sandpaper is attached.
• Initially, tools with a coarse-grained surface are used, then they switch to fine-grained.
• Do not rush, as deep scratches on the surface may occur due to slipping off the tool.

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Stock footage

As you can see, there is nothing terrible and super complicated in processing glass. It is quite possible to do this at home, using the minimum set of tools that, surely, every owner has.