I’d get a professional to tackle it - but even then, you need to face the slight risk that it may go wrong.
Concur. Drilling tempered glass is almost exactly like untying one end of a hammock - there’s little reason to expect it to remain in place.
Tempered glass can be cut with a water jet.
I use a diamond encrusted hole saw to cut holes in liquor bottles. I stuff them with led Christmas string lights, they look pretty cool when done. The trick is to use a drill press with light pressure and some type of coolant/lube. I just use water in a putty ring as mentioned before. I do however break some bottles so there is no promise that it will work every time. If you just need a small hole to pass a cord through you can buy a drill bit instead of a hole saw, most hardware stores sell bits for drilling ceramic/glass tiles.
Where did you hear this bit of nonsense? I hate people who ask for a cite, but I am going to be that guy today.
If you want a hole in tempered glass, you cut the hole and then temper the glass.
Tempering glass involves treating the glass with heat or chemicals. What happens is that the outside skin or layer of glass is shrunk just a little. This holds the interior under pressure so that any breach of the tempered skin causes the interior glass to crumble under the released pressure.
Tempered glass is up to 7 times stronger than untreated glass on the surface but any flaw on the edges, like setting the pane down on even a small piece of gravel that will puncture the skin will cause the whole thing to explode/crumble into bits.
This is why emergency window breaking tools for cars are just little sharp punches that disrupt the hardened skin of the window.
I don’t think that’s true.
Liquor bottles aren’t made of tempered glass. :dubious:
Might not be the best cite, but here is a youtube video of a waterjet cutting a windshield, Windshield waterjet cutting for Italian replica on Fiero - YouTube . Here’s one of a guy using a rotozip, Windshield cutting with Pete Hagan haganauto.com - YouTube . Where do you think the windshields come from on most of the hot rods that are chopped? It’s just a moderate skill that pretty much anybody can do with a little practice, just need some old windows from the junkyard that you can practice on.
ETA: The last sentence refers to using a rotozip.
The OP did not mean tempered glass, he thought that tea cups were tempered, I was telling him what I use to cut glass for things I make.
Just for the sake of clarity, windshields are made of safety glass (a piece of clear laminate sandwiched between 2 pieces of float glass), not tempered glass. Tempered glass would be much more likely to shatter when struck at high speed by a rock or other road debris. With saftey glass the outer layer may crack, but the laminate and inner layer keep it from shattering.
Tempered glass is used for side and rear windows, where road debris is much less likely to hit.
Another minor zombie alert!
I’ve published an Instructable for my tea light and you can see plenty of pictures there. If any of you are Instructables members and are so inclined I’d appreciate a vote for the Make It Glow contest.
Oh, my. What a lovely result! 