How do you cut safety glass?

PlymouthDad

Mornin 'all,

I have bought some coloured 140 high splashback/upstands in 1m lengths. Is there a trick to cutting them to size? All I'm thinking at the moment in a small grinder but being on clear view it needs to be a nice clean cut.

chaddythebear

Don't think that you will be able to cut them.....

You can't cut toughened glass, it gets cut then goes through the toughening process

But if it's laminated, which I'm pretty sure it won't be, it can be cut.

Laminated looking at it edge on has three layers, toughened is just the one piece

DirectDebacle

Agree with chaddy. toughened will smash into thousands of tiny pieces. Laminated can be cut but if you are not familiar with glass cutting better to take it to a glazier to be cut to size.

You can grind it but you will need a wet diamond grinder or more readily available an electric diamond tile cutter. I used one like this to cut a few glass wall tiles which were about 6mm thick.

Wear eye protection if you are going to DIY the cuts.

PlymouthDad

Thanks for the replies, I should have been a bit clearer, we have a 900 wide by 750 Toughened glass splashback for the oven, but the 140 upstands are advertised as safety glass that is able to be cut, I do have a tile cutter as shown though it didnt give me great results in terms of a crisp cut line when I did the tiles so guessing the glass wont be much better.

I'll give it a go on the length I dont need.

DirectDebacle

If you have a glass cutter try scoring along the cut line (as if you were going to do a normal glass cut) then use the electric cutter(new cutting disc recommended).

This may give you a crisper edge, much like scoring through the laminate of laminated board before sawing through it. Slow feed through the electric cutter. Don't force it.

Mankysteve

You can't cut after its been treated.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toughened_glass