Cutting narrow strips and small pieces

[khudson553]

Hi all - this is my first post and what probably provoked me to finally join. Does anyone have any tips, techniques, advice on cutting small strips/pieces of sheet glass. Any suggestions will be appreciated!

Kathleen

[ewdb]

what did you need to find out? is there a particular problem u r having?

[Raven Wylder]

Glass cutter with one of the metal rulers with cork on the bottom. You could also use a strip cutter if you have lots and lots of strips to cut but with practice it's cheaper to use the ruler.

[squid]

One thing I remember that helped me was to break each piece of glass in half. Don't break thin strips off the edge. Say you have a 10" wide piece you want to cut into 1" strips. Score all of the lines and then go to the one in the middle and break the whole thing in half on the middle score line. Then go to roughly the middle of each piece you now have and break on the middle score, and so on. Glass will break better when it has roughly equal amounts of glass on each side of the score.

[lindag]

Are you looking for pieces for mosaic? There is the Morton system that makes strip cutting easy. Then if you want to break those into smaller pieces, I'd use a rotary (wheel?) nipper or maybe a tile nipper.

[playswithfire104]

I have "planishing pliers" (sp) I think that is what they are called. They do double duty - breaking glass on the score line and removing beads from the mandrel. The ends are covered with plastic.

[castaway]

If you want to cut thin strips, 5mm or so, First cut a 10 mm strip of glass from the edge of your sheet. I'm assuming you have "running pliers" and know how to use them, run your glass cutter down the middle of the 10mm strip and then use your running pliers to break the 10 mm strip into two 5mm strips which are great for lampworking. I usually cut strips from the 400mm width of sheet, this will then give you 5mm strips 4oomm long.
B