# Cutting Tempered glass - anybody successful with this?



## ksskss (Sep 12, 2009)

I need to cut some tempered glass, but so far, no luck.

It cuts, but the whole piece shatters, looking like a dry river bed.


Are there any tricks to do this successfully?

---
Ken


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

Ken,

I don't think you are able to cut tempered glass. If you did, you only got lucky. The nature of tempered glass doesn't allow it to be altered. So how is it "cut" in the first place?_ Before _it's actually tempered. I asked my glass guy if there is any way to cut it. Well there is. First, you have to anneal it....untemper if you will. That is a big process in itself. Then there's the question of how to temper again. It sounds like too big of a project so I never even asked about that part.

I have seen floating around on the internet something about laser cutting tempered glass. :sad:

Bottom line, I wouldn't count on being able to cut it with any traditional means.


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## Mike Finley (Apr 28, 2004)

ksskss said:


> Are there any tricks to do this successfully?
> 
> ---
> Ken


Tempered glass is cut before it is tempered, that's the trick.


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## ksskss (Sep 12, 2009)

Thanks, guys. Kind of what I thought. I'm probably doomed on this one. The situation is that there is a piece of tempered glass already glued to this stone, so if I could cut through both and not shatter the glass, it would be a big plus. As is, I have to cut the shattered glass off of the back of the stone and it's a tricky cut I'd like to avoid. Sounds like there's little hope to avoid this one. I couldn't untemper the glass without shattering the stone so that's not an option either.

---
Ken


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