Seaming (Smoothing) Cut Glass

[PokerG]

How do you seam a piece of glass that you have cut yourself? How difficult is it to cut 12mm glass yourself? What equipment do you guys use to make your own aquariums?

I basically wanted to cut and polish my own aquariums from glass sheets but speaking to a glass supplier on the phone he seems to suggest that I am barking mad to try it myself. He may be right. What is everyone elses experience with this?

Thanks,

Gary

[chipmaker]

I don;t know why he would assume that. It may be a lot of work for the average individual to polish the edges, but its certainly doable if you have the time....YOu can pretty well knock off and round off edges on glass with the typical sharpening stone , and follow up with various grades of finer grit wet or dry silicone carbide sand paper with a block of rubber or wood for a backing pad. If you have one of those belt sander / grinders its pretty fast and eay, as you can buy silicone carbide grit belts and save a heap of hand work. They can be gotten with extremely fine grit which puts a great finish on the edges......You can get those 1" x 30" belt grinders pretty darn cheap and they work just fine.

[PokerG]

At least I don't feel as stupid now, but what about cutting 12mm (1/2 inch) glass, isthis fairly simple?

G

[robmacy]

what about having glass cut on a commercial cutter like a Fletcher-Terr 3000. I've seen extremely clean edges off these machines.

[cerreta]

You can easily cut glass with a good scorer and special pliars like these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8254849643&fromMakeTrack=true

You will be amazed how well this works, even for 1/2" glass

[mpomfret]

I had a response to one of my posts from coralguy1. He said he's a glazier and works with glass every day. Maybe he has some advice he can share.

Matt

[windsor-aquatic]

Cutting 12mm glass is no different to cutting 6mm; a decent glass cutter, a drop of thin oil and a straightedge is all you need. I think your glass supplier was probably referring to the cost element rather than the difficulty involved. It would be probably as cheap to purchase a ready-made tank to your requirements, simply because the manufacturers buy glass at trade prices, as opposed to yourself purchasing at retail.

[Pyrojon]

Have the guy you buy the glass from cut it for you. He can probably make a better cut then you can due to his experiance. Saving you the time and hassle of cutting and then polishing it yourself. Then all you have to do is glue the pieces together.

I agree with Windsor though, unless you want some crazy non-standard size or shape it's probably cheaper to buy a pre-made tank.

Good luck

[PokerG]

Cost isn't the issue, I am more interested in the challenge and fun of building my own tanks. I know I can buy small tanks of 6mm glass for -very- cheap (this is what I will start with), especially considering the time and effort to do it all myself. But my reason for going DIY is not for the saving of money, it's so I can say:

'I made this!'

Gary