Mirror edges: euro-edge and its types, home method of polishing the perimeter

Share on social media networks:

Glass is a very fragile material, but many useful and beautiful things can be made from it. Besides, you can’t do without it: it’s in the windows, dishes are made from it, and much more. How is it made? If you don’t know yet, we will reveal how glass processing is done at home, because it consists of several stages. With the help of the information in this article, you can try your hand at this by creating decorative items for your home.

Tools for work

At home, this material is usually sanded and polished. To carry out these steps efficiently, you should acquire the following tools:

• Drill.
• Glass cutter.
• With pliers.
• With a file.
• Grinder with the ability to change the rotation speed. This is very important, as it is necessary that the fragile material does not overheat.
• An attachment with Velcro, which will be used to secure the grinding wheels.
• Grinding wheels of different grain sizes. Their surface should be sandable and resistant to moisture.

Important! Glass is not only expensive, but also an unsafe material. To avoid injury, wear protective goggles over your eyes and cotton gloves on your hands.

Glass processing at home

Share on social media networks:

Glass is a very fragile material, but many useful and beautiful things can be made from it. Besides, you can’t do without it: it’s in the windows, dishes are made from it, and much more. How is it made? If you don’t know yet, we will reveal how glass processing is done at home, because it consists of several stages. With the help of the information in this article, you can try your hand at this by creating decorative items for your home.

First stage of processing

When the initial rough processing of the edge of the glass is performed, it will become not only smooth, but also safe. However, the surface still remains quite rough.

Do-it-yourself processing of the glass edge is done using ordinary pliers or the side recess of a glass cutter:

• The glass should be grabbed in small sections, breaking off pieces two to three millimeters in size.
• Use pliers to remove smaller projections. In this case, you need to firmly grasp the material and gently squeeze the tool.

Mirror edges: bevel processing

What is bevel processing for a mirror? This is a technology in which sharp edges are removed from the edge of glass. How does this happen? Three ways:

• dulling the edge with a special high-quality abrasive tool;
• grinding the edge, but with a coarse-grained abrasive and until a certain matte cut surface is obtained;
• polishing the edge, but with a fine-grained abrasive, until a transparent surface is obtained, called "optical clarity".

The processing of the mirror edge is carried out using specially prepared equipment, but you can process the glass edge yourself. Industrially, different profiles are produced, for example:

rectangular section;

trapezoidal section;

under a pencil.

Grinding edges and polishing mirror blanks is simply necessary in the production of furniture fittings, in the production of commercial equipment for halls, in the design of various themes of exhibition stands and where designers use glass, and with an unclosed edge.

Finishing the edge

The choice of finishing method depends on the required profile. It can be flat, shaped, trapezoidal, etc.

Important! Using the straight-line method, it becomes possible to set the desired angle up to 45 degrees. Thanks to the curvilinear method, the edge is given a shaped profile.

How to process the edge of glass at home?

• Initially, a file is used for finishing. If the glass is thin, use velvet glass.
• You can also use sharpening stones. They can be carborundum and emery. To make the process easier and faster, kerosene or turpentine is used to wet the tool.
• Smooth movements are used to file glass, especially thin glass.
• If possible, the surface to be treated is placed under a water jet.
• If a straight edge is desired, the material must be placed vertically and then moved back and forth along the sharpening stone.

Glass processing at home

Many people are wary of working with glass and limit themselves to simple operations like repairing a broken window. But glass is an amazing material, and not all craftsmen know that at home it can be processed no worse than in production. Oleg Abramov shares his secrets.

The molecular structure of glass allows it to be cut, sawed, drilled, sanded, glued, engraved, bent, and even drawn into threads!

A glass cutter is required to cut glass. Roller glass cutters are most often used.

A - glass cutters with such a handle were produced forty years ago. Their advantage is a heavy head, which is convenient for tapping the cutting line.

B and C are cheap Chinese glass cutters. Sold under the brands Jobo, Kraftool, Stayer. They are difficult to use for cutting glass due to the poor quality of the rollers and glass cutter head. On Kraftool, the damaged teeth of the head are clearly visible after breaking off the glass.

D - professional roller glass cutter Silberschnitt. My favorite model. A universal and reliable tool.

The professional oil glass cutter Touo TS-17 is good for curved cuts. If you need to regularly cut glass, you shouldn’t skimp on a glass cutter. Although professional glass cutters are not cheap, it will cost more to damage glass. And the most expensive part in a professional glass cutter is the roller.

The rollers are made of alloyed stainless steel. They vary in sharpening angle, usually 130-165 degrees. Rollers with a sharpening angle of 130 degrees are used for cutting glass with a thickness of 1 to 3 mm, and those sharpened at an angle of 140-150 degrees are used for cutting glass with a thickness of 4-10 mm. For glass thicker than 10 mm, use a glass cutter with a 155-165 degree roller.

This is how glass is cut. The cutting table must be level and stable. The surface is covered with thin insulation, but ideally a thin carpet or felt is glued onto the table. This makes cutting more convenient, and the underside of the glass will not be scratched by fragments that inevitably form during cutting. The glass is placed on the table surface, marked, and a ruler is pressed against it.

The glazier's true friends are a ruler, kerosene and a hammer.

A ruler for cutting glass is a ruler with a strip of thin rubber glued to the bottom so that the ruler does not move when cutting. Or it is a special ruler with suction cups embedded in it. You can make this yourself.

So, we draw a cutting line with a glass cutter. Important! This line cannot be interrupted and re-drawn. It must be drawn in one pass.

Then we move the glass from the table and carefully tap the cutting line with a small hammer - here is another faithful friend of the glazier. Next, we lay the glass along the cutting line on the edge of the table and break it off, pressing it with a board using clamps. Clamps are especially important if the glass is thick.

With some skill, you can stretch the cut line with your fingers, especially if the glass is thin.

So, we learned how to cut straight lines. What about curves? To do this, first, instead of a ruler, we cut out a pattern - for example, from thick linoleum. The remaining operations are similar.

You can even cut a circle out of glass. To do this, you will need a circular glass cutter or a round template of a suitable diameter. If you have a compass, then attach a suction cup to the glass and draw a circle. Of course, without interrupting the cutting line.

Glass polishing

Thanks to glass grinding, the surface becomes more perfect, the product becomes not only more beautiful, but also safer. The edge turns into a matte, slightly rough, greenish tint. Nevertheless, its appearance remains not very attractive, in addition, microcracks and small scratches may appear. To eliminate all irregularities, the edges are polished.

We already know how to polish glass at home, but polishing differs from this process, but only slightly. The most important thing is that not abrasive materials, but soft fibers are used to process the edges. As a result, the edge turns smooth and transparent, and the glass looks very aesthetically pleasing.

Solid glass products always have a polished edge to make the design even more vibrant. In addition, polishing is also carried out if the glass is to be tempered, since it is then impossible to process the material.

Important! Remember that glass is a very fragile material that does not withstand overheating. Therefore, when working, you should not rush, you need to perform all actions carefully.

Polishing is done after sanding, using the finest abrasive. This must be done, since the polishing tape will not be able to remove large defects.

Important! Once you learn how to sharpen glass at home, you will notice that residual stress on the surface is minimized. That is why during transportation the risk that the glass will be damaged will be significantly reduced.

Mirror edge: beauty and safety

Glass for our mirrors is a ready-made material, which, of course, must be processed so that in everyday life it does not cause harm to the objects and people around it. Existing standards for flat sheet glass for creating special elements do not always accept one form or another for the interior. But we will now resolve this issue: mirrors are cut on special machines, the processing of their reverse side is changed, thereby obtaining a mirror made of reinforced, laminated, tempered and other types of glass.

Glass cutting is done with a diamond tool - a glass cutter. This household and fairly simple tool consists of a handle-holder and a diamond roller secured to it. To cut circular glass, you will need a compass tool, but it is best to buy a cutting table with a full automatic mode and carries out work with an accuracy of half a millimeter.

After cutting the mirror, you will need to grind its edges and then polish them.

Let's understand the process of grinding an edge with a coarse-grained material, which results in a rather rough surface with a matte finish. It’s ugly, of course, to hang such a mirror on the wall, especially since a processing angle of forty-five and even ninety degrees turns the product into a rough blank.

Roughness is removed by polishing, and this process is carried out on glass of both curved and rectilinear shapes. At the same time, the processing angle remains the same, but a fine-grained image is put to work. Step by step, the perimeter of the mirror is polished, and the work is done until the sides of the product become transparent.

With modern equipment, any polishing of a mirror is done using grinding wheels, but they have a diamond coating. The latest grinding machines not only work according to a given program, but are also ready to create contours such as a flower, a butterfly, a curved trapezoid, and so on. If you are familiar with the cascade mirror, then you now understand what we are talking about. Grinding of such products is carried out on a modernized washer machine. How? It’s simple: a mirror is placed on a disk rotating in a horizontal plane, and a stream of water is applied to its edge under pressure, to which either a formative powder or sand of a certain grain size and composition is mixed.

But mirrors are brought into proper condition on tape machines. Here the edges of the mirrors fall into the power of rotating rollers mounted on a special tape. To protect the glass from overheating, the edge is also cooled with water and abrasive powder. Such a machine produces only straight-line products, allowing you to significantly reduce its cost.

Processing the ends of both glass and mirrors allows the manufacturer to reduce residual stress on the product, sending products that are safe for living beings to the retail counter. In addition, the above procedure is always carried out before tempering any glass. Now not only is the edge quite strong, but the whole mirror is too.

Mirror polishing, like its grinding, is visible on display shelves, numerous counters, coffee and dining tables, aquariums, terrariums, bathroom shelves, and so on. Ordinary glass is polished more easily, using rotating grass brushes, which are pre-impregnated with pumice-water emulsion.

There is another way of polishing, for example, by dipping into a composition of two acids - sulfuric and hydrofluoric, and then into clean water. The number of such dips depends on the technological requirements for the product in its final stage and the degree of gloss of the edges.

Preventing scratches

Some tips and recommendations so that you don’t have to get rid of scratches on glass in the future.

Do not use rags made of coarse fabrics when cleaning glass surfaces.

It is not recommended to clean glass with newspaper. Printed paper is typically hard and the ink contains rough particles that can scratch the glass.

Cleaning glass surfaces with abrasives results in new scratches. Use special glass cleaners.

Do not place glasses on the table with the lenses down; use a case.

The screens of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets can be protected with a special film, which can be easily replaced rather than removing scratches from the screen. When setting a glass table, use coasters and napkins - this will make it last longer.

Recommendations:

• When you do finishing work, it is better to use old tools, as their surface deteriorates greatly.
• Instead of a whetstone, you can use a block of wood with sandpaper attached to it.
• Initially, tools with a coarse-grained surface are used, then they switch to a fine-grained one.
• Do not rush, as slipping of the tool may cause deep scratches on the surface.

Prices

Frosty pattern on glass

In a bathroom or hallway, you can create an intimate atmosphere with a layer of glass that reduces exposure to strong sunlight. This effect is achieved by painting a “frosty” pattern on glass with spray paint. To create a decorative pattern, paint is sprayed onto a stencil glued to the glass, then the stencil is removed. You can also remove the annoying pattern itself using a glaze thinner or a razor blade.

A simplified version of “frosty” patterns can be made using a cut out snowflake stencil of any shape and diluted white toothpaste, without colored stripes. After removing the stencil, it turns out that the finer the splashes, the more the pattern on the glass will look “frosty.” In spring, such patterns can be removed much easier than paint designs.

Stained glass decorative patterns on glass

A narrative or ornamental decorative composition in a window or door made of glass that transmits light is stained glass. On solid glass you can make a multi-color pattern that will look very decorative.

To work you will need graphite powder, a cocktail tube, a small plastic bottle, oil varnish and nitro varnish. The pattern is first applied to paper the same size as the glass. Then the glass is laid horizontally, and a drawing on paper is placed under it. Nitrovarnish is mixed with graphite powder so that a mass is obtained that can be easily squeezed out of the bottle through a tube inserted into the cork. But at the same time, the mass should not spread on the glass.

The composition from the bottle is squeezed onto the glass along the contour of the pattern - this will be an imitation of a metal frame. Leave the glass to dry completely in a horizontal position. Oil paints for glass are diluted with oil varnish, and the resulting transparent multi-colored composition is applied to the glass with a pipette. The work should be done carefully, trying to ensure that the varnish spreads evenly over the glass. Sometimes it is necessary to prevent mixing of paints; in this case, complex elements of the design are painted over one by one. Lastly, paint the background of the picture.