# How To Pierce Glass Bottles?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pierce-glass-bottles/219022>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 15, 2003, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pierce-glass-bottles/219022 "2003-12-15T00:08:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![bbeaty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c0e974/32.png) [@bbeaty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbeaty)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-pierce-glass-bottles/219022/21 "2003-12-15T08:07:25Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by zabrain \*  
> \*\*While I’m looking for an appropriate drill bit, what about heating up the glass and punching something through. Or maybe, heating up the tool and shoving it in. \*\*

I just melted holes in several bottles using a microwave oven. All of them cracked (even shattered) within a couple of minutes of cooling. The glass shrinks upon cooling and the internal stresses are too much for it. For normal bottle-glass, to avoid cracking you’d have to treat the bottle in a glassblower’s annealing oven after melting a hole in the side. That, or use a Pyrex bottle. Pyrex shrinks so little upon cooling that it usually needs no annealing. I’d stick with the copper tube, drill press, and wet sapphire paste.

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