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Glass cutting problems (or, What did I do wrong?)
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When I worked for a plate glass company years ago, I had absolutely no problem learning to cut glass successfully, and could do it day in and day out without any difficulty. When I got home and had to cut an inch off a pane of glass to make a window repair, however, evil spirits seemed to intervene, and the glass broke somewhere other than where I wanted it to. It just seems that being surrounded by stacks and stacks of glass did something for my confidence, but when I was ready to cut the only piece of glass I owned that was large enough for the piece I needed, my confidence waned. So you are not alone, if this happens to you. It has happened to all of us. The only thing you can do to help prevent it is to look at some of the reasons that a cut fails, and try to correct the action which caused it.
1.) The glass was not scored.
The cutter will make a characteristic "hissing" sound when it is scoring the glass. The cutter will not score the glass if:
a.) YOU DID NOT USE sufficient pressure on the cutter . I have found that with a new cutter, on cathedral glass, a pressure of about ten pounds will score the glass. I determined this by actually using weights. I experimented by using sugar or flour bags. Remember to have the weight bearing down vertically on your hand.
b.) The cutter was slanted too much so that the pressure was wasted--it was not applied to the glass.
c.) The cutter was dull. Cutters will last for hundreds of cuts if handled properly. The duller they get, however, the more pressure is required.
d.) The cutter skips. This occurs when the wheel or the axle becomes damaged. Discard the cutter.
e.) The cut was made on the rough side of the glass.
2). The glass was not "broken out" properly.
The glass was bent upward toward the cut side instead of away from it when the glass was being broken.
Grozing and Grinding Glass << Previous Next >> Cutting Glass with Patterns
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