Cutting Mirrors

[tri4sale]

I need to cut some mirrors to fit into a design, a searched the forums but didn't find any advise (might have missed it if someone knows the link to any other messages on how to do)

Any advise on cutting mirrors with the shop bot? Can it cut thru mirror / glass or will I just be scoring and then break by hand?

[Brady Watson]

If it can be acrylic - they make it mirrored.

If it has to be glass - it's a job for a waterjet or pro glass shop.

-B

[tri4sale]

If it can be acrylic - they make it mirrored.

If it has to be glass - it's a job for a waterjet or pro glass shop.

-B

Never seen (that I know of) acrylic mirror. How does it compare to glass mirror?

[rb99]

I wonder if you could use a drag knife modified to hold a glass cutting wheel. If it worked it would only score the glass...

[Burkhardt]

You can use a diamond drag bit to score the glass. If the cut is a straight line and with some practice you have a fighting chance (but no guarantee) to break it along that line.
But if the cut is curved, forget it. As Brady mentioned there is professional equipment with skilled operators for that kind of job.

[tri4sale]

You can use a diamond drag bit to score the glass. If the cut is a straight line and with some practice you have a fighting chance (but no guarantee) to break it along that line.
But if the cut is curved, forget it. As Brady mentioned there is professional equipment with skilled operators for that kind of job.

Yeah, it has curves, so the scoring isn't going to work out. Will head out to glass shop on Monday to see what costs are involved in having them cut the mirror to shape.

[jerry_stanek]

I have had some success cutting mirrors with curves using a diamond drag bit from widgetworks.

[Brady Watson]

Never seen (that I know of) acrylic mirror. How does it compare to glass mirror?

I've worked with the Acrylite stuff before. It must be kept flat when installed or it will 'funhouse/circus mirror' on you. So large panels need a backer. I'd use DiBond. Smaller stuff no problem. I think it comes 1/8" and up. It wasn't that much more than regular cast acrylic.

Yes, you can kinda sorta scribe glass on the table. If you have ever cut glass before by hand, you know that the ideal amount of pressure will cause the cutting wheel to 'sing' across the glass. This is hard to do via CNC without messing with a bunch of pressure spring rates and getting the table uber flat etc. Even so, that doesn't account for skillful snapping of the material.

There is no money to be saved cutting mirrored glass yourself...the mirrored plex offers some options for the curvy stuff. It's really a budget thing. You can get real glass mirror cut in any shape as well, but you have to pay for those 80hp+ intensifier pumps on the waterjet to be run. So there is a narrow window for how useful it really is to cut mirrored acrylic on the Bot - unless you are doing something DIY like snowflakes...

-B

[jerry_stanek]

also cutting old mirrors is a lot harder then new glass. Even regular glass does this. We had a 1.5 acre greenhouse when I was growing up and I cut lots of glass

[bob_dodd]

This is mirrored acrylic , that was cut on the bot , left paper coating on front and cut from back with small end mill , vacuum hold down used