Re: [ATM] cutting a big piece of plate glass into mirror or tool

[James Lerch <jlerch1@tampabay.rr.com>]

Having cut a fair amount of thick glass into circles, if I had to do it 
again starting over from nothing, I'd do it as follows.

#1 Cut thick glass into rough squares using glass cutter, hammer, and 
chisel like this:
    http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm/Projects/Glass_Work/cut_glass/

#2 Fabricate slow speed rotating turn table with wood top.   Here's how 
I built my last one, but I'd do the next one with non-wood materials, 
but this one worked fine for several months.
    http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm/Projects/Glass_mill_Med/

#3 Get a cheap angle grinder with diamond wheel (4 or 5 inch) and attach 
it to an arm (or something) that allows you to move it up and down. 

#4 Using pitch, attach glass to thin plywood or something (needs to be 
kinda flexible so you can pop the glass of later)

#5 Put glass pitched to thin plywood on turntable, center glass, screw 
thin plywood in place.  Rotate turn table at approx 60rpm (slow) lower 
angle grinder onto glass while flooding it with water.  (wear proper 
safety gear)  End result may look like this: (video on last page)
    http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm/Projects/Glass_mill_Med/First_Cut/

For bonus points, add computer position control to angle grinder to make 
a very noisy curve generator, which produces results like this:
    http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm/Projects/Glass_Work/10_Concave/
    http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm/Projects/Glass_Work/16_Concave/
    http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm/Projects/Glass_Work/10_inch_tools/

-- 
Take Care,
James Lerch
http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm (My telescope construction,testing, and coating site)
http://lerch.no-ip.com/ChangFa_Gen (My 15KW generator project)

"Anything that can happen, will happen" -Stephen Pollock from:
"Particle Physics for Non-Physicists: A Tour of the Microcosmos"

" Press on: nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.  Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. " 

_______________________________________________
ATM mailing list http://www.atmlist.net/