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drill into mirror?

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Mike:
I drilled through the glass covering my monitor no problem. It took a few minutes to do. You just have to buy the drill bit designed for glass. There is a special one. I also used a hand drill to do it. Though this was just 4 small holes to put a screw through. For a control panel your talking holes larger than an inch. That is going to be tough and I don't know if they make a drill bit large enough. Also another problem with the mirror is that if you've never seen it mirrors with edges that aren't polished don't look very good.

planetjay:
You really should just have the edges beveled.  ;)

kamakazi:
I also recommend not using glass, especially since the "shiny" on the back of the mirror will probably flake a bunch around your holes, but drilling glass, even large holes is no big deal.  All it takes is time.  I have personally seen 10 inch holes cut in half inch plate glass with no special tools, other than a drill press.

For smaller holes a normal carbide masonry bit works fine.  You make a ring of plumbers putty on you glass around the hole, and pour some kerosene init, so you are actually drilling in  puddle of kerosene.  Run the drill slowly, and use light pressure, and make sure the glass is well supported underneath.  The kerosene accelerates the crack propagation as the glass fractures off.  

For bigger holes you need to construct a hole saw.  My dad did his 10 inch holes (actually he was making 10 inch disks)  with a circle cut out of plywood, around which he nailed a strip of sheet metal, and which he attached to a small faceplate, basically a flat metal circle with an axle attached so he could put it in the drill press.  Then you put a little water and some abrasive powder on the glass, and once again using a slow drill speed, but this time more pressure because it is a ring not a point you are pressing on, just take your time, adding just enough water to hold the abrasive where it belongs, and adding a little abrasive now and then.  Al that fancy diamond bit stuff is only needed if you intnd to do it on a regular basis, and your tools need to last.  If you only need to put a dozen or so holes in a control panel it's a lot cheaper to make do.

kamakazi

kamakazi:
'nother thought, just a normal hole saw would work, just take out the pilot drill, and knock the teeth off with a file or grinder....hmm, I'm starting to like this idea, it would be tough, wouldn't scratch easy like plexi or lexan, would be cheaper than plexi or lexan, the button bezels would hold the glass down and cover any chipping around holes (abrasive cutting leaves a nice ground glass edge anyway, no smoothing needed)

dude, can I borrow your idea?

kamakazi

KeithD:
How about sandblasting?
Cover the mirror with something so it doesn't get messed up, tape a washer with the size hole in it that you want to drill (or a piece of metal with the right size hole in it) aim the sandblaster at the hole and blast til its through.
I haven't tried this one, but I heard it a while back someplace else.

You might want to do it with plain glass and have it soilvered after though because of hte bad luck thing.... :)

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