1.5" Glass Cutting Hole Saw Bit in Victoria?

[Canadian]

Anyone have a 1.5" glass cutting hole saw bit in Victoria? I know I can get one for around $22 but I don't exactly plan on drilling a lot of tanks. So if someone in Victoria has one they'd be willing to rent me to cut a few holes in 1/4" glass I'd really appreciate it.

I called H20 Aquarium and they wanted $50 to drill the hole so I've decided to do it myself. I recently had some baffles cut and drilled by a local glass company and they created some pretty nasty chip-out when they drilled the holes so I figure I can't be any worse ;)

[Werbo]

Canadian - I may need a 1.5 hole drilled for my sump. I'll throw in the $$$'s to differ the costs. Practice on your tank first..... K

[Canadian]

Tyler I think I'll just get one from Island Saw and Tool and practice on a couple pieces of 1/4" glass. It doesn't look too difficult and I have a drill with an adjustable clutch so I expect it to go without a hitch. I'll pick one up on Saturday and give it a go over the weekend.

[StirCrazy]

Tyler I think I'll just get one from Island Saw and Tool and practice on a couple pieces of 1/4" glass. It doesn't look too difficult and I have a drill with an adjustable clutch so I expect it to go without a hitch. I'll pick one up on Saturday and give it a go over the weekend.

I have a couple chunks of scrap 1/4" if you want them, they are about 12" x 18"

Steve

[Canadian]

Thanks for the offer Steve. I have a couple pieces of 9 x 12 1/4" glass kicking around to test things on but if it turns out I'm a total spazz I might end up having to take you up on that offer ;)

[StirCrazy]

ok, don't wait to long as I am cleaning out the garage and hauling things to the dump, oh I checked, I have 1 chunk, about 12 x 24 and it has a 1" notch out of one edge where I was practicing notching for an external overflow.

Steve

[Canadian]

Steve,

Do you have any recommendations for who in town is good with glass cutting? In the past I've gone to the Glass Smith on Tennyson to get pieces of glass cut and holes drilled in tanks. Last week I went to B&E Glass to have some pieces of glass cut (one of which with a hole drilled in it) and they were some of the worst cuts I've ever seen - almost nothing was actually square.

I need to have some 1/4" pieces (again, one of which will have holes drilled in it) cut to build my external overflow. I'm considering just having the pieces cut at Glass Smith & Co based on the good experiences I've had with them in the past and then drilling the pieces I need myself. But is there someone else in town who would do a better job? I'm inclined to believe that some place like Speedy Glass has to have better means of making a square cut than B&E Glass.

[Borderjumper]

Ive had Speedy Auto Glass ( Pandora ) cut all the glass for my baffles and every piece was perfect. Ask them to sand the edges.

[Canadian]

Thanks Shelly.

I'll phone them Saturday and have them cut some pieces up for me.

[StirCrazy]

I get glass smith all the time now, I have used speedy, a place behind glenoak ford, and a few others, but I like glass smith the best as they are on par for the lowest cost and they are fast. Just make sure you stress that any dimensions you give them are final dimensions and are important (guess this goes for any glass shop)

Steve

[Johnny Reefer]

... a place behind glenoak ford, ...
The place behind Glenoak Ford is Victoria Glass. That's where I've always gone. I vaguely recall having a problem with one cut, once, but that's it. They've generally always been good.

[StirCrazy]

The place behind Glenoak Ford is Victoria Glass. That's where I've always gone. I vaguely recall having a problem with one cut, once, but that's it. They've generally always been good.

thats them, I found them pretty expensive so I never went back.

Steve

[Canadian]

I went with Speedy Glass out here in good 'ol Langford/Colwood for the cut pieces of glass and they did a superb job - I begged them to make the cuts square and sand the edges after having a bad experience with "another glass place".

I picked up a hole saw bit yesterday and will run a couple (maybe just one) trials on my scrap glass and then get to work on drilling the sump and three holes for my external overflow box before I silicone it together (still waiting for the tank to be finished by Seastar before I can silicone it to the back of the tank).

[e46er]

i recently drilled glass for the first time with a buddy its not difficult just go slow very slow weight on the drill is more than enough we used the dam method and constant running water method both worked the same as far as i could tell.
for a time frame it took 20 min to drill a 1 1/4" hole in 3/8 glass........ we had virtually zero blowout

[Canadian]

I ended up drilling 4 holes over the weekend. All went well and was relatively uneventful (although my hole in the sump could have been better). I'll have to wet test my bulkhead connections when I pick up the tank this week. I was originally thinking the gasket should always go on the water side but the more I looked into it I found the recommendation was that the gasket should always go on the flange side regardless of whether or not the nut is on the water or dry side.

I also siliconed my external overflow together and afterwards realized that I was using an expired tube of GE RTV black adhesive (the black silicone Seastar/H2O uses on their tanks). The other thing I did was fail to buff the edges of the glass (if that makes sense without a picture . . .). Normally when you look at a tank constructed with black silicone all you see is a 1/2" black seam but you shouldn't actually see the butted-up glass edge through the silicone. So now I'm considering cutting it apart to buff the edges to ensure that I have an appropriate seam because I don't know if I'll ever sleep well worrying that the external overflow I made might either leak or fall apart/blow out due to poor construction on my part or the use of expired silicone.