Monday, July 9, 2012

3d printer beds - cutting glass















I've been making some glass beds for the various printers that I've been building (200mm x 214mm). Some one threw out a whole pile of glass at the studio, so of course I grabbed it. I got out my glass cutter (picked up at a rummage sale) and set to work marking off the glass with a sharpie. Then I laid my straight edge down, so the side of the glass cutter could ride along the ruler and use it as a "fence" to guide it down my drawn line. I then firmly pushed it again the glass as I ran it down the sharpie line, making sure to apply even pressure at the starting edge as well as the ending edge of the glass sheet. Then I placed my heavy machining vise on the glass sheet and oriented the scribed edge along the edge of a table that has a straight and square edge. Then I tapped the scribed edge lightly with the end of my glass cutter working my way from one end to the other (almost like tapping a pencil on a tabletop to the beat of a song). Then I put on a pair of leather work gloves and firmly pushed down on the glass. It broke evenly and neatly along the scribed edge. Then I remeasured for the other length and repeated. I made a few of these as it only takes a few minutes to do and I figure I'll probably break one of my beds eventually. Now all I need to do is add my kapton tape and I'm ready to print. 





No comments:

Followers