How to cut thick glass?

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gorak

gorak

Dovii
MFK Member
Dec 9, 2013
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I have a 180gal tall rimless that is apart and it has thick glass. I was thinking of cutting it down and making a smaller tank for a community I have. I have cut .25" glass before but how would one cut that thicker glass?

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Anyone?

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If glass is tempered, and it should be, you cant cut it. Should also be 1/2 in thick or better, hardware store glass cutter wont do that either. Local glass/window shop should be able to cut it for you if its just standard plate glass.
 
Glass cutting is pretty much the same no matter the thickness.

Brace your piece well, score it on one single pass the length of the piece with a decent glass cutter.. pull the piece to the edge of the table and weight down the piece at the score mark on the table side (with a piece of wood or something) and then push down on the over hanging piece with some leather gloves.
 
suprd71 said:
If glass is tempered, and it should be, you cant cut it.
Click to expand...

Glass for a tank should not be tempered, especially not in a home aquarium situation. There is no need for it, it raises the cost and does very little for the strength of the tank. All it does is remove the glass's flexibility making it more likely to crack.

But I agree with Spiff, it is exactly the same as thinner glass. Be sure to only use one pass when scoring it, I've seen way too many people make multiple passes thinking that would help
 
The bottom panel of Marineland tanks are tempered.

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That they are, as well as the sides on some of their 55's. Completely unneeded. THey do it so they can get away with using thinner glass, not really a safe practice.

As for OP's tank, a 180 tall, rimless tank is not a standard tank, someone custom built that, it is highly unlikely they would have used tempered on it.
 
you can use a wet tile saw too!
 
Used glass is harder to cut than new glass. It has to be clean before you even try to cut it. You need a good glass cutter, some lubricant, and some glass running pliers. Better off taking it to a glass shop and have them cut it to size.
 
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