Drilling glass?

[leuc11]

ok so i have a 20 high aquarium that im beggining to setup and i want to drill it for drainage. Im slightly aware on how to do this but i just dont if you can drill tanks with tempered glass of what I heard if they are tempered they cant really be drilled i dont know if its true or not but id like to know

[Pumilo]

I have run a glass business for the last 20 years. You can NOT cut or drill tempered glass. It will basically explode into a million pieces. How to Drill your glass

[leuc11]

do you know if aqueon glass is tempered? I think it is im not positive thought

[Pumilo]

Many tanks are only tempered on the bottom which allows you to drill the back panel, near the bottom, for a drain.
Aqueon tank charts for tempered glass

[leuc11]

yes now i can finally hook up a drainage system instead of syphoning everything out which gets really annoying thanks Doug

[jeeperrs]

Before you buy a tank be sure to look the company information up. They will tell you if they use tempered glass and where they use it. I had to special order my 90 gallon to find a company that did not use tempered glass on the bottom. You tend to have better luck with smaller tanks, as the weight load is much less than the larger ones.

[Scott Richardson]

Conventionally, the answer is no. you cannot drill tempered glass.

Can you put a hole in it? Yes.

To put a 1/2" hole in the bottom, you need to build a dam around where your hole will go with plumber's putty. and mix a LOT of jewelers rouge with water to make a paste. Fill the dam with water. apply alot of the paste to the end of the copper pipe, and with your drill press on the lowest speed, SLOWLY apply constant preasure. You aren't trying to drill a hole. You are basically sanding away layers under the circumference of the pipe to create a hole.

Take your time.

[Pumilo]

Originally Posted by Scott Richardson

Conventionally, the answer is no. you cannot drill tempered glass.

Can you put a hole in it? Yes.

To put a 1/2" hole in the bottom, you need to build a dam around where your hole will go with plumber's putty. and mix a LOT of jewelers rouge with water to make a paste. Fill the dam with water. apply alot of the paste to the end of the copper pipe, and with your drill press on the lowest speed, SLOWLY apply constant preasure. You aren't trying to drill a hole. You are basically sanding away layers under the circumference of the pipe to create a hole.

Take your time.

This is not true. I've been working with glass professionally for 20+ years. Here is a link with a bit about tempered and toughened glass. Toughened glass - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia If glass was properly tempered it cannot be drilled. It cannot be cut. It cannot even have the edge sanded more than perhaps a sixteenth of an inch before the entire pane will shatter into fingernail sized pieces.
Advising people to attempt to drill or cut tempered glass is irresponsible at best. If anyone thinks that they have drilled tempered glass then one of a few things happened:
1) they were misinformed and the tank was not tempered.
2) There was a mistake in manufacturing and the glass was not tempered.
3) The glass was labeled as tempered but was in reality, lightly toughened.
Even if the glass was toughened and you successfully drill it, you should be aware that the balance of the tensile stresses have now been interrupted. It may last for years or it may shatter into a thousand pieces at any time for no apparent reason whatsoever.
Do NOT attempt to drill tempered glass. It cannot be done reliably and consistently by anyone.

[Scott Richardson]

Well, It sure did work! My neighbor who just happens to own a glass company as well showed me how to do it. It wasn't cut, or drilled. It was slowly polished away. As he explained it, steel wool will scratch tempered glass, so he tried jeweler's rouge one day and it worked.

[Pumilo]

Then is was mislabeled, a mistake at the company, or was actually only slightly toughened rather than fully tempered. Toughened glass is usually labeled as tempered because no one has heard of toughened. If he drilled it, or polished a hole into it, or whatever you choose to call it, it was NOT fully tempered.
That's fine that your neighbor just happens to own a glass company. So do I.