How do you make a hole?

[Donna T.]

I know people have said to use a tungsten pick but how? I've tried really heating the glass and/or the pick and poking thru but I'm not doing something right. I can't get it to go all the way thru and it distorts the pendant too.

[Otter's Flame]

Donna,
Are you using boro or soft glass? You can use a tungsten pick for either but heat control is a little more critical in soft glass.

The technique I use... and there are about as many techniques as flame workers so everyone is a little different.... anyway, I heat up the area I am going to place the hole. I pinch it with Peter's Tweezers or something similar to get the indent marked the same on either side. I rock the pendant back and forth and pinch down on the tweezers with a little force at this point to get a good solid indent. Sometimes this actually gets the hole all the way through but it is small.

Next I put the tip of the tungsten pick inside one of the indentations against the glass. I hold the tungsten pick just barely in the top of the flame and rotate the pick in a drilling type action while just using a small amount (SMALL) amount of forward pressure with the pick. You are not trying to muscle the pick through the glass. This amount of pressure can be critical in soft glass so as not to distort the pendant. I am not really holding the glass in the flame at this point.... just barely at the top of the flame. My pick is getting heated..... BUT NOT BURNING.

Sometimes, especially if the Peter's Tweezers broke through all the way initially, I can drill the hole all the way through from one side. If not, I turn the pendant over and do the exact same process from the opposite side. Remember to place the tip of the pick into the indentation so you will not be starting a different hole.

After you drill through from the opposite side, enlarge your hole if you want, clean up / flame polish the edges of the hole with a small flame and there you have it.

Otter

[Wonker]

Another part of the "trick" to drilling the hole is.... heat the piece so that it's moving and you know it's hot. Then let the outside cool before you start drilling....you are trying to let a skin form on the surface to keep the pendant from deforming while leaving the center still warm so that the pick can pass through it....that's how you keep the pendant from deforming so much while you're drilling the hole. hope this helps some.

[laserglass]

put a sharpened tungsten pick into a dremel moto tool. heat the glass up in the flame, but not molten hot, so it is still stiff. but heat the hell out of the tip of the tungsten pick and touch the pick on the glass where you want the hole to be. keep the tip as hot as you can without getting the glass molten.

another method i have used it to cold drill a hole using a diamond bit and water.

[Otter's Flame]

hmmmmmmm I wonder if I can plug just one more thing into my studio outlets..... dremel sounds like the way to go ;)

Thanks Mark

[simvet02]

LOL, I was thinking the same thing Otter, I have a power strip under the table but I'm afraid that if I plug one more thing into it the circuit is going to blow.....LOL Time for another outlet, unfortunately they are as much to have added as I paid for the darn kiln. (Why didn't I marry an electrician?)

[Renee]

How about a rechargable Dremel? Mine's got lots of rpm's!

But in thinking about it, can the tungsten get hot enough to damage the chock?

[aks141]

I use the Bail Biter by RuskinDesigns. I chose it because it looked like the handles and the jaws were sturdy enough to easily manipulate the glass, and it does. I pinch it togeter where I want the hole, wait a moment for the glass to firm up and then twist it a bit to break though the glass completely.
http://www.lampworketc.com/ppc/showproduct.php?product=171&cat=1

[Kalera]

With practice, you can easily put a hole in hot glass with a tungsten pick by hand, and it's by far the cheapest route! Just as Otter said, you want the glass hot, but not soft. hold it just behind the flame as you heat the tungsten to glowing (barely... don't let it fume!) in the flame. I spin the pick against the glass until it's almost through, with a tiny bump on the other side to mark where the tip was about to break through. Then I flip the piece over, reheat it a bit, and do the same thing from the other side. With a bit of practice, you can do this in under a minute.

[pam]

The very easiest way to make a hole to me is by using this tool:http://arrowsprings.com/html/rake_poke_tools.html

I love it and have used it for years. It makes a small hole and then all I have to do is enlarge it, if I so desire.

[HWCGlass]

Fastest easiest way to teach yourself to effectively use the tungsten pick:

1) gather down a small ball on the end of a color rod

2) pick a hole in it (perpendicular to the rod, a pendant bail)

3) rip it off, do it again

Takes less then 2 minutes to make an attempt.

I make 1,000's of beads every year - every single one with the tungsten pick; it is an incredibly versatile little tool the TP, a small and simple technique that is the mandrel of non-mandrel beads.

[Donna T.]

Thanks for the tips everyone. I was sorta going at it right. I'll give your tips a try today. Thanks again.