Best glass cutting tools according to redditors

Glass cutter tool.

The glass is just standard single-strength (1/8") glass from the hardware store. I buy them in sheets size 12x30 and then cut them down to 4x5. I used to make orders for the hardware store to cut them in 4x5 size, but they started getting sick of it and charging me a premium. I use this glass cutter and I'm pretty happy with it.

The glass doesn't quite fit into film holders, but I've managed to find a few old glass plate holders on eBay that work pretty well. I've got a 3d printed one too, and am looking to finalize the design and release it pretty soon.

Beyond that, it works in a normal 4x5. I have the ground glass in mine reversed (foggy side away from the lens), since autochromes need to be exposed glass-side first.

Just get this, $23 and you're set.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01EG6TP9A/ref=mp_s_a_1_1/167-5726856-9481462?ie=UTF8&qid=1478979249&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=bottle+cutter&dpPl=1&dpID=4115CJ0rkYL&ref=plSrch

Not OP, but the easiest way to cut glass bottles like this is with a glass bottle cutter like this or this.

I've been cutting bottles like this to make wine bottle candles for my centerpieces and my favors!

internal shot

Parts list:

• Pelican 1120 Case
  
  
• Induction Coil Module
  
  
  
• Mosfet
  
  
  
• Momentary Switch
  
  
• Power indicator light
  
  
• Toggle Switch
  
  
• Power Supply
  
  
• Glass Test Tube
  
  Tools:
  
  
• Glass Cutter
  
  
• Connectors I only used 2 of the prong connectors for the toggle switch
  
  STL for 3d printing:
  
  All three files
  
  Wiring diagram:
  
  Terrible MS paint Diagram

There are a few safer and relatively cheap alternatives on Amazon

Here's one I bought

https://www.amazon.ca/-/fr/Bouteille-Cutter-machine-d%C3%A9coupe-Tutoriels/dp/B072FCX7W9/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=Wine+bottle+cutter&qid=1570474559&sr=8-1

We wanted to do candles in wine bottles for our centerpiece but our venue won't let us do uncovered flames. As a workaround we decided to go with something like this where the candles are inside the bottle.

Of course this meant cutting the bottoms off of nearly 100 bottles, which meant exploiting our friends for free labor hours of work delabling, washing, scoring, and cutting the bottles.

The whole process was pretty smooth, but pretty labor intensive. The scorer worked like a charm but it takes a bit of practice to get a straight score. Still we did lose about 12 bottles but we had plenty of extras as we've been begging our friends and families for all their discarded wine bottles for the last year.

If this is something you're interested in for your wedding here are the tools we used:

https://www.amazon.com/AGPtek-Bottle-Machine-Cutting-Bottles/dp/B0155WMTGU/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1475268871&sr=8-3&keywords=bottle+cutter

https://www.amazon.com/Bottle-Cutter-Genround-Machine-Cutting/dp/B01EG6TP9A/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1475268871&sr=8-4&keywords=bottle+cutter

The one in the second link works slightly better but they were both decent. Basically all you have to do is score the bottle ONCE around in a straight line, then dunk it in hot near boiling water then ice water back and forth. After a dunk or two it splits right along the line.

Took me around 20 minutes to setup including the glass cutting!

Great video showcasing the whole process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLD2chHhsXI&t=396s

Ikea LOTS mirror https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/39151700/

Tools I used for this project (Canada/non-affiliated)

• Glass cutter https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B075W8WZYY
  
• Straight edge https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0083SGQTA
  
• Clamp https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B000NPXJS2

I used this glass cutter to etch the glass, then broke it off by dipping the bottles in hot and cold water (back and forth for a few minutes), then sanded the tops for a while.

My advice is if you do it make more then your target number because some break uneven. I made six to get four and just ditched the two worst ones. Ill probably just make those “duds” into candles.

If you want that shit to break on impact you need to score the bottle with a glass cutter. You know, one of these

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004YNNP/ref=s9_acsd_top_hd_bw_bs6zh_c_x_5_w/139-0216923-7062946?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-3&pf_rd_r=G2E4P4WMY1G0PS1X2ZSY&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=daa158e8-1d34-51d0-b958-18647c7872e9&pf_rd_i=12896601

How are you cutting them? I've cut thousands of wine, champagne, and liquor bottles. I use this cutter and diamond sanding pads, and I get beautiful smooth edges with minimal effort. I don't use the candle provided with the cutting kit. I use a hot water from a kettle and cold tap water to stress the score.

Not saying you have to do it this way, just letting you know that there is a way to get the edges cleaner.

Now I usually cut with electric tile cutter and sand on DIY flat lap, but for someone looking to only do straight cuts and not make the glasses for sale I'd say go with one of the jigs available and then just do the hot-cold water routine, a candle or a jet butane torch over the score line.

Alternatively, you can also make a jig yourself, it's not that hard and will probably save around $30.

It's the circular glass cutter. https://www.amazon.com/Heavy-duty-Circular-Glass-Cutter-Suction/dp/B00D4LDFAO

His isn't identical, but it's the same idea.

To be honest, I did struggle between sharing this here or with r/ArtisanVideos but it isn't really a video and I'm not certain it is artisanal, but it certainly does take a bit of skill to do it as well as this guy does.

That said, the specialized tool just for this purpose does a lot of the work that people assume would be harder to do.

Being in the US, I don't know any local businesses in your area. I've always found glass shops to be extremely helpful. For the ones that are full -- ask them about other places to take classes. They'll even give you informal pointers if you ask.

I started many years ago without taking a single class. Today, there's probably tons of stuff on the internet, so it may not be necessary.

You'll need a glass cutter. I prefer the pistol grip type, but some people use this kind.

Then you'll need glass. If you can't get any near you, you can buy it online (don't know how much shipping is). Some glass is much easier to cut than other. Ask the salesman if you don't know.

I would get started by learning to cut glass. I'm sure there's a youtube video out there. Here's a page to get you started.

Then there's a lot of materials to buy: glass grinder, copper foil, soldering iron, solder, flux. And a lot of things to know, only a small percentage of which I do. Google is your friend.

I tried making my own cutter and the results weren't always good. The string method was worse (though I didn't give it much of a chance.)

I bought something almost exactly like this

https://www.amazon.com/Glass-Bottle-Cutter-Genround-Machine/dp/B01EG6TP9A

and I can usually get about 9/10 bottles cut with no flaws. Maybe worth the money?

Also: I tend to use a bucket of cooler faucet water for the higher thermal difference (instead of just room temperature), and I never tap it, I just alternate boiling water (I'm pretty generous with it all around the cut), and you can hear it fracture when it hits the cooler water. If you hear that once or twice, you can usually just gently tug the two pieces apart.

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B074N61165/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_5JcmDbZEEYD05

Its pretty straight forward once you get the hang of it. Definitely spend time on sanding the edges. I just used a sanding sponge. Online has lots of videos.

Amazon...
Heavy-Duty Glass Cutter, 6 Wheel Compasses Circular Cutting Cutter with Suction Cup Circle(100CM) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07J1TGNZ6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_gEMVCb98ZXPA5

I Cut the bottom off of 50+ wine bottles for wedding table decorations. The best method we came up with was using a glass cutting tool here

We tried a blow torch to heat the cut and it dip it into an ice bath. It was ok. What worked best was low boiling water and an ice bath. Place the bottle in up to the cut and then dip into water. Gave a nice clean break. The cut doesn't need to be deep at all. The shallow cuts broke better because we didn't put as many micro cracks into the glass.

[Or OP used a circular glass cutter.........] (http://www.amazon.com/Ephrems-Original-Bottle-Cutter-Kit/dp/B007PK12GY/ref=sr_1_1?s=arts-crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1382379202&sr=1-1)

This is easier - http://www.amazon.com/Ephrems-Original-Bottle-Cutter-Kit/dp/B007PK12GY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1376621587&sr=8-3&keywords=ephrem%27s+deluxe+bottle+cutter

You sound like my girlfriend. More sleep is lost to crafting than anything else. She also does a lot of stuff with wine/liquor bottles. This bottle cutting tool is awesome and there's all kinds of neat things to make. She primarily makes the self watering planters and luminaries (cuts the bottom off and sits it on top of a votive candle). Although some of the stuff she makes requires more expensive power tools. She has an ETSY store called Mino'aka Studios. You may be able to get a couple of ideas from there.

We love the idea of craft trading as well. If you're interested you should reach out to her on ETSY. She knows about my redditing "problem" so just mention we talked on here. I'm more into woodworking, but she's the crafting genius. I'm sure she'd love to talk to you about that.

That's funny, we have a lot of Nov/Dec birthdays as well...including mine. I can sympathize. The crafting really ramps up once the weather cools off and with the holidays approaching.

I bet now you don't feel so bad about rambling, huh? I tend to go on and on as well.

Cutting glass is easy. The tool to do it is here GLASS CUTTER or you can get them at Lowe's or Home Depot in the paint department for about the same price.

Better yet, Lowe's will cut the glass for you for free and if the cut is wrong, they will redo it at no cost. It is about a third the cost of having a glass shop do the job.

Home Depot no longer cuts glass.

As far as putting a notch in the wood, use a "Dado Blade" on a table saw, this is exactly what these blades are designed to do.

I too am new to 3D printing with the MP Select Mini v2 being my entry into the process. I have yet to make the bed reroute changes that everyone seems to keep suggesting, but that is next on my list now. I have done 2 things I think have made easy and "relatively" cheap improvements.

1. Added glass to the print surface. As many people have commented both there and in this Sub the build surface can warp and/or comes warped. Glass can help resolve this and add to ease of leveling your bed. Additionally I find it much easier to get the prints off cleanly from the glass without issues getting the print to stick while printing. I do use a glue stick, which is cheap and easy to apply and remove. There are a few written guides as well as videos on how to cut/prepare the glass. I was a bit worried before diving in, but it was wayyyyy easier than I had expected. I purchased this glass cutter - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H4W6NMG and a replacement 8.5x11 glass for a frame $1.80 from a craft store. I was able to get 2 build plates out of this if only barely. Using some butterfly clamps to hold it to my build plate. Now that I have the tools and know how if my 2 glass plates break I am only out $2 and can create 2 more with another $2 rather than risking damage to the actual build plate.
   
   
   
2. Octoprint (https://octoprint.org). The functional benefits may be argued, but I really enjoy it. I already had a Raspberry Pi 2, so I didn't need to purchase anything, although I did buy a WiFi adapter (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014HTNO52) for it and a webcam (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004FHO5Y6). This gives me the ability to monitor my prints from wherever and make sweet time lapse videos to make all my friends jealous with ex: https://imgur.com/8FANLEr. You can also use Octoprint as a server for uploading and managing your prints, rather than dragging your SD card between computer and printer. It also means you don't have to have a computer connected to the printer if you didn't want to go the SD route. There are also cool plugins that you can play with added for additional benefit. I added Pushbullet (https://github.com/OctoPrint/OctoPrint-Pushbullet) and configured it to send me hourly updates on the print, time left and image from webcam.
   
   
   Personally I got a 3D printer to get into some of these more one off type projects, so it was well worth it IMO.

Yeah I don't know what you are seeing for 20 or 30. I got this on Amazon for like 6 bucks and it feels really sturdy.

Yeah, it totally makes sense to me now, especially now that I'm looking at your photos more closely. I had the same experience, 100%. My opinion is that if the missing color on the backs is not repaired before installation, you will always see it. How could you not?

Your installers are saying "that's how it is" because they're not being careful enough.

If you have any extra pieces of tile, you can try cutting new pieces yourself to see how it goes. Score the tile from the front using a glass tile cutter like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075W8WZYY


Then place a thin piece of wire on a flat surface and place the tile on top of that, front side up. Make sure that the wire and the scored line are in alignment. Then press down on the tile and it should easily snap along that line.

I had a lot of extra tiles so I did it many many times, probably successful 25% of the time.

If that doesn't work, see if there's a place who can cut the tile for you with a water jet. I had good luck with that for the pieces that I couldn't snap.

Cutting glass is easier than you'd think. If you find a frame at a garage sale or something with decent glass that is bigger, chances are good you can cut the glass yourself! I just did the same thing today!
I used this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004YNNP/ref=twister_B01HKUG03S?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks, buddy. Extremely easy.

Bought case here

Bought acrylic [here] (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Clear-Matte-Frosted-One-Side-P-95-Acrylic-Plexiglass-sheet-1-4-x-12-x-24/222629059334?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649) Could buy a much smaller size for cheaper

Bought acrylic scorer here

The acrylic I listed is the exact perfect width, so you only have to worry about depth. Use the scorer to go over the same line a couple times, then whack it over your knee and there'll be a clean break.

I did have to buy longer screws at a hardware store. Measure screw holes and drill. That's it

EDIT: I still have to sand the corners to make them rounded, but that shouldn't be too hard.

Snow, snow, go away

Glass Cutter 12.75
Veronica Mars $6.99

You are so pretty, mirrors turn to see your reflection in their glossy facade.

How did you get your bottles cut so clean? I tried the Kinkajou cutter and the this one but I can't get consistent results. Any tips?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-101228-Circular-Cutter-Diameter/dp/B001C7QL1C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1484235888&sr=8-2&keywords=circular+glass+cutter

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004YNNP/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apis_1519001525672

I use two of these clamps to protect my hands! https://www.amazon.com/ASG-Nicks-Grinder-Glass-Grinding/dp/B003ZZK1YC

While it is not the perfect tool, [Ephrem's Original Bottle Cutter Kit](http://www.amazon.com/Ephrems-Original-Bottle-Cutter-Kit/dp/B007PK12GY/) is one of the best way I found to do this.

bein t'es pas obligé de péter la vitre.

check ça:
https://www.amazon.com/Heavy-duty-Circular-Glass-Cutter-Suction/dp/B00D4LDFAO

The cutters I looked at all were kind of a cradle thing, that the bottle had to fit into, and none of the ones I want to cut are short enough. Like this one: https://www.amazon.com/AceList-Bottle-Cutter-Scoring-Machine/dp/B00YCK3XFS

I couldn't just reverse the bottle, as there would be no length against the cradle to hold it steady to do the score - I tried, and I wound up with bad cuts :/

On a serious note, it's really easy to cut glass. If you can find some glass of the right tint in a thrift store, it's cheap to get. Then go home, buy one of these, then go at it to your heart's content and save money.

Really, you shouldn't be paying to have glass shipped to you, nor for others to cut it. It's quick easy and cheap.

I would think something like this would let you cut a hole in the glass tile and just place your lens into the hole. That said, I never tried it, so I could be full of crap.

this

The acrylic "glue" is more like a bond, since it actually softens the pieces of acrylic and chemically bonds them together. Was considering bonding two layers together since they are 1/16 sheets but it looks like it is holding together pretty well. I use this tool to cut the pieces, this pack for the standoffs, and finally these m2 5mm screws. Oh also bumpons from hobby lobby for the bottom and I also got in on the aluminum cone feet in the recent drop on massdrop. Final version of the case will have cleaner cuts. Oh also.. I would recommend a step drill bit for drilling the holes, since the acrylic could crack in the drilling process.

Love the Idea. You know those kits that are basically a tool that cuts glass bottles in half so you can use them as drinking glasses? I assume a tool like that would give you a clean enough cut so that you may install the percs and then glue the two neck ends back together for that reverse hourglass shape. I know the glue runs the risk of looking kind of sloppy, but i feel like your best chance is starting with as clean a cut as you can get, and those kits seem to do the job.

You could even dress up the joint between the two half bottles with something wrapped around the outside. You don't have to hide the fact that they're 2 bottles glued together. Just hide the unsightly adhesive/caulk/glue, and I feel like you'd be good.

Edit: Maybe even a mock dog collar wrapped around the joint to keep on theme.

one of these

Bring the tube to any place that does glass work, like windows and glass tables and what not and ask them to cut it, or buy cheap bottle cutter and cut it yourself

​

https://www.amazon.com/Glass-Bottle-Cutter-Genround-Machine/dp/B01EG6TP9A

This is so nice of you, thank you for hosting this contest.

I'm all about repurposing. This wine bottle cutter would be a much safer way to repurpose my wine bottles!

Town Drunk

Thanks again!

You could probably conceal the tiki-ness somehow. Get one of these $22 bottle cutting tools.

Take a dark glass wine bottle. Cut the bottom off. Stick the Tiki torch through the bottle so that the upside-down bottle conceals the torch. You might have to cut the neck end of the wine bottle off in order to make that end big enough to fit the torch through.

Then figure out a way to hold the bottle in place. Maybe tie a short stick crossways below the bottle so the bottle can't slide down.