Cutting my rods ~ will my bandsaw work?

[Just Nancy]

I'm finally going to cut my glass stock (I think). I've been happy keeping it whole and burning it in half when I'm ready to use it, till now.

I'm thinking I should cut it in half. Should I use my bandsaw or do it all manually?

Nancy

[IF-Designs]

do it by hand, its gonna bust all over if you try to do it with your band saw.

[Rebekah]

And quite possibly give you a rod to the gut. Scary.

Get those rod nippers ready to work, baby!

[Just Nancy]

You guys are bumming me out. (Not really, I'd rather be safe than sorry.)

How come it cuts sheet glass then?

Oh rod nippers, duh. That'll work.

[IF-Designs]

if you want to do them one at a time on your stained glass saw you might be ok but I wouldnt do more than one and seriously I use my scoring tool I got from todd and I can do 4-5 rods at a time with that sucker.

[Rebekah]

It's not that it wouldn't work, it's just that you might end up with a glass rod through your spleen. The speed of the blade, I would think, would make it pretty darned likely that the rod will go shooting out of your hands at worst. At best, you'd probably need to be holding on tight.

Bek

[MikeAurelius]

If your bandsaw has a diamond blade and uses coolant, then go for it. You won't have to deal with flying chips of glass.

If it's a dry cutter, then use the nippers.

edit to add: we use a diamond saw all the time to cut rod and tubing, and I don't see a diamond bladed band saw as being any different.

[bclogan]

Originally Posted by IF-Designs

I use my scoring tool I got from todd and I can do 4-5 rods at a time with that sucker.

Scoring Tool...????? What's that? I'm intrigued. I hate the nippers, I wind up with glass slivers all over the place.

[MikeAurelius]

If you have an industrial supply company in town, look for a triangular or square piece of solid carbide, about 2" long (they are usually about 1/4" or 1/2" square/triangular). Drill a hole in a short piece of doweling and gently tap the carbide piece into it and seal with some epoxy.

You can also use a lathe cutting tool, which is a smaller piece of carbide sintered to a piece of soft iron/steel.

[crystalflipz]

My DH taught me how to cut rods, the same way he used to cut stirring rods for Chemistry lab in college. Get a glass scorer/cutter from the local hardware store (usually less than $5). Score the rod once or twice where you want it to break. Place the scored mark on a raised area - a pencil works great - and press gently down, the rod should break along the scored mark. This goes really quickly once you get into a rhythm. Hope this helps.
Carol

[IF-Designs]

Barb it looks almost like a box cutter but the blade is thick with a nice glass cutting edge it scores your glass then you t ap it on the edge of a table to break it at the score its nifty!

[Wonker]

OOOOOOooooorrrrr....you can put a score on it (metal file, glass scorer, whatever) put a little water on the score.... and then heat up a clear rod until it's nice and melted....hit the score and voila.....

[Just Nancy]

OK guys, the mind boggles. I'll probably end up trying them all to see what I like best. I have pounds of glass I've always kept hole.

It was my diamond tech (or something) diamond covered water cooled type glass saw. I might try that, but the vision of being impaled may keep it down the list. Not that it would happen, just if it could, it would happen to me.

I've got probably 18 glass cutters so I may try either of the scoring/breaking methods. Same with 2 pairs of nippers, but I usually get glass chips every where with them.

Karin I've bought the same tool from Todd. Helpful man that he is. (Actually from Chris, yeah Chris!) But I didn't ask how to use it. So I'd score and try to break it with my hands. (I think that's how I saw Todd use it.) I don't have much hand strength and it hurt my delicate fingers. I survived. but didn't want to do that through all the glass I need to cut.

I'm getting ready for new storage (yeah!) and need to get working on this.

Thanks everyone.

[Chuckie]

If your bandsaw is a glass saw, you can do several rods at a time. Just bundle them up and put four rubber bands around them, two slightly spaced apart at each end with a gap in the middle.

If you only use one band per end, your cut rods may start wiggling all over the place before you cut through the last rod.

Char

[Curly Irish Girl]

Just use a tile nipper....and of course eye safety goggles.

[kbinkster]

I think you'll be just fine cutting them the way Char described, just don't get the bundle very thick. Your saw is designed to cut glass, use it to cut glass. If you hold the rods with both hands and have them securely bundled together, they should do just fine. I've cut boro rods and tubes with mine. I had problems with the tubing being uneven at the very last bit to go through the saw, but the rods were easy.

[Chuckie]

Originally Posted by kbinkster

just don't get the bundle very thick.

Good point, I should have mentioned that. And yes, you can do it without bundling with rubber bands, just make sure you have a good grip on the glass using more than just one finger and a thumb around the glass.

Another thing to mention, if you use a saw on your transparents, the first bit of glass introduced to the flame will often fizz and you'll have to pick off the scum. If you use glass nippers, the only place that fizzes is the tiny part where the nipper initially dug into the glass. The rest of the break shouldn't scum like it does at the score mark or the rough surface of the saw marks.

Char

[Just Nancy]

Thanks everyone. Sounds like nippers for the transparent. I think I have less of that to cut so it won't be a big deal, or scoring it one of the alternate ways.

I may give the saw a whirl on the opaques.