Drilling holes in Glass

[Mike Spencer]

Lee,

A flex shaft is exactly what you need.  You will need to find some diamond bits though.  A quick "Google" search should yield ample possibilities. http://www.google.com/
Let us know how it works out.

Mike Spencer

[Russ Nobbs]

Several people have e-mailed me for more info. Here's an expanded answer:

Most rock shops (see yellow pages under Lapidary) carry small diamond bits. They are a thin wire with diamond powder glued onto or sintered into the wire. We can special order them but I think you can find them locally. Nearly all the Lapidary dealers on line carry them. Ebersole, Eloxite Corp, cyberrockhound.com, Rio Grande, Rock Haus Intnl, Diamond Pacific, mytoolstore.com, etc all should have them.

Diamond bits need to be run wet. That is, you need to put the bit in a Foredom,  Dremel or other small drill and submerge the object in a shallow tray of water. I usually move the bit up and down so the water can touch the bit and take the heat from the bit.  Using water as a coolant keeps the diamond from burning off the bit and keeps the opject being drilled from overheating and cracking.

I put a small piece of brittle styrofoam (the kind x-mas balls are made from) in the bottom of the tray and rest the object on it, This keeps me from drilling through the bottom of the tray. (Experience, eh?)

Here's a link to an article on this using a big drill press:
http://jewelrymaking.about.com/library/weekly/aa051901.htm

My setup with a Dremel in a tiny Dremel drill press stand is somewhat smaller.

Hope this helps.

[Metalman]

Just a note: Sometimes when you drill the glass the backside of your hole will break out in a way that is undesirable. 2 ways to work with this.
1]  If the back of your glass is good and flat, use a piece of scrap glass and drill right into it through the piece you are keeping.  This will give particularily good support around the edge of your hole for a really clean drilling.
2]  If the back is not flat enough for #1, the get your hole started on both sides so that as you come through the edges don't break out. The main difficulty here is to make sure the two hole starts are lined up correctly - a bit of a trick - experiment and practice will perfect this.
Good luck with it.

[Lee Richards]

I need help in finding a way to drill small holes in glass.  I have a flex shaft, but it is high speed.  Do I need to get a different drill and where do I find small drill bits for this purpose.  I am trying to drill holes 1/8" and smaller.
Thanks Lee

[Russ Nobbs]

Most rock shops carry the diamond bits. You'll need to keep the bit and workpiece wet, though, or the diamond will heat up and burn off.  I drill beads and shells in a small container of water with the piece held up with a small piece of foam - the stiff kind like beaded christmas balls are made from.

A small Dremel drill will work, also but you already have the flex shaft tool.

What are you trying to drill?

[tainted19]

hi, you can find diamond drill bits for glass at stained glass supply shops,glastar is one company that makes them.i just use my" household " drill i place the glass on a piece of stryo foam ,i mark where i want the hole  and place a piece of masking tape above and below the mark add afew drops of water,make sure you start the drill at a slight angle so it doesn't slip.i have made some stained glass wind chimes and this worked  for me.

[Russ Nobbs]

I was asked for more details about drilling stones recently. Here's an updated post on drilling glass, drilling beads, drilling sea glass and drilling gemstone.

In Asia beads are drilled using a variety of techniques. In India  very low tech bow drills with quartz or diamond bits are still in use. Laser drilling is used for high end work in both India and China. Ultrasonic drills are used in most Chinese gemstone workshops and factories. Large production factories  in China use a cassette to hold dozens of beads at a time and a drill head with dozens of precisely located wire drills. A slurry of grinding compound and water constantly flowes over the bits and stones. Most craft workshops in the US don't have an ultrasonic drill sitting in the corner.

Pearls can usually bedrilled with regular steel "high speed" drill bits in a Dremel style motor tool, a Foredom style flex shaft tool or, in a pinch, in a regular household variable speed drill. We carry the tiny drill bits or they are available at some hardware stores.

You can enlarge the hole in beads that already have a hole with a small bead reamer with diamond tips. I suggest dipping the tip in a bowl of water to keep the tip cool and make the diamond coating last longer.

A few very soft stones (amber, primarily) can be drilled with steel bits but most require diamond drilling.

Gemstones must be drilled with diamond bits and kept cool with water while drilling. I've drilled a lot of stones and shells with diamond bits in a Dremel tool mounted in the little drill press that sells with the Dremel. I have a small plastic tray with a bit of sponge of stiff styrofoam in the tray and enough water so the stone  or bead is slightly underwater. With the press, I use an up and down motion to lower the bit against the stone, raise it to allow water to cool the stone and bit. I do this over and over until it is almost all the way through. Then I flip it and try to meet the hole from the other side.

The Crystalite brand of diamond sintered drill bits are the best, in my opinion. Their "Triple Ripple" series is the best they make for gem stone drilling

We have some good discussion about drilling beads and glass in the Rings & Things forum.
http://www.rings-things.com/forum/index.php/topic,340.0.html

In 2006  several drillers and cutters shared their practices at the B&B forum  Very good ideas. More details than we've collected at R&T's site so far. I personally like the little drill press that sells with the dremel. Some flex shaft users like a drill press that works with the hand piece too. Here's the link to the archive of the 2006 information:
http://cs.beadandbutton.com/beadingforumarchive/forums/t/24096.aspx

And a recent thread with a little more info:
http://cs.beadandbutton.com/bnbcs/forums/p/2778/13368.aspx#13368

http://lapidaryjournal.com/stepbystep/mar04.cfm

http://www.briolettes.com/b_ultrasonic.htm

[Russ Nobbs]

A recent google search for drilling sea glass came up with new (to me) resources for drilling glass, drilling rocks, drilling beads.

http://seaglassartists.ning.com/   a forum and info site especially for sea glass collectors and sea glass jewelry makers

http://www.naturalseaglass.com/howtomakeseaglassjewelry.html

http://sleepycathollow.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/so-how-do-you-drill-holes-in-the-bloody-sea-glass/

http://www.ehow.com/how_5223356_drill-sea-glass-beach-pebbles.html

http://articles.getacoder.com/Drilling_Sea_Glass_779228x1195454425.htm

If you click on google videos and enter "drilling sea glass" you can fins several helpful videos posted on this subject.

[Luann Udell]

I've had good luck enlarging holes in pearls and glass beads with a small jeweler's drill, but how do you create a starter hole for drilling?  When I try to drill in things without a pre-made hole, the drill bit just strays all over.

I read somewhere that you can use some sort of "tap" tool to create a small indent first, but it sounds like that only works with metal objects.....??

Whoops--should I read the resources first?     I guess that would help.
Luann

[Rose Queen]

I use a Sharpie to mark where I want my hole, rather than masking tape. Luann, you can't use a center punch tool or nail to make a starter hole in glass, as you could in some other materials, so start drilling your hole with the bit at a slight angle, like around 70 degrees, running the drill slowly, and slowly bring the bit up to where it's perpendicular (90 degrees) to the piece you're drilling before you increase the speed and pressure. Thanks to Nina Bagley for teaching me this tip!

As Russ said above, too, it's important to move the bit up and down so the water can touch the bit and take the heat from the bit; this also helps clear debris from the hole. If you do a lot of this at one time, you'll need to change the water in the dish several times because the debris clouds the water so that you can't see clearly what you're doing. I find those plastic sandwich containers work well because they're square and give your hands enough room to position and hold your glass while you're drilling, but not so generous that you have lots of water sloshing around.

[Metalman]

I have a variety of diamond sintered bits [I got a bunch that were sterilized from my dentist, some from R&T and then other tool suppliers] Amongst those I have a group of ball burrs [various sizes of round bits] I use those to start my holes. I use the one that is closest to the final hole diameter and make a little divot in the glass than change to my drilling bit [although much of the time I can 'drill' the hole with the ball burr]
Depending on the size and number of pieces I need to drill - I frequently set up my drill press [got it cheap at a garage sale]for drilling glass. I like to use the drill press because the major reason for breakage when drilling glass is twisting or torquing the bit in the glass. This can easily happen when using a flex-shaft or dremel type tool. The bit is much more stable in a drill press. Depending on the size of your pieces - you may have to devise a moat or a container for the water.