Drilling hole in glass carboy

Have any of you ever drilled a hole in a glass carboy?

I used to work in glass shops and we would occasionally be asked to drill holes in various tea jugs, bottles, and various "stuff" with carbide coated hole bits.

It's a risky prospect due to breakage and cracking. I would say 90% of the time it was a success.

Anyways I am just curious.

I never have, but I also haven't seen a need to. I'm sure it could be done in the same way that any glass containers are drilled.
Do you have any purpose in mind?

Spigot hole. Then again it would probably produce alot of wasted beer due to varying trub levels.

All in all this thread was just to satisfy my curiosity.

Even with backing some 'chip out' is inevitable. I am familiar with different techniques from making telescope mirrors. Also take into account that I doubt carboys are annealed. Read 'strain relieved'. This makes it an even trickier proposition.

A year ago someone wanted to PLUG a hole in a glass carboy...it was an interesting thread. Look below in the similar threads box....

And now that I think about it. Small chips around hole + large volume of liquid in glass carboy= recipe for disaster. Nevermind.

/thread.

You could actually finish out the hole with a small sander and reduce chipping that occurred, but I still don't think it would be a good idea.

Thanks for the linkage Revvy, twas interesting.

Funny, I figured you had the experience to do it since you were obviously doing it for people to put spigots on....

Revvy said:

Funny, I figured you had the experience to do it since you were obviously doing it for people to put spigots on....

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Yeah I have done it many a time, but just not for this particular field or application. IF I had a dollar for every time I did a hole in a bottle or tea jug, I would have at least 60 bucks. :cross:

Sorry pal I really just didn't think the points of failure of it through, to be honest.

Dkmount721 said:

Yeah I have done it many a time, but just not for this particular field or application. IF I had a dollar for every time I did a hole in a bottle or tea jug, I would have at least 60 bucks. :cross:

Sorry pal I really just didn't think the points of failure of it through, to be honest.

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Hmm.. Last post got lost in the ethers and I'm not going to do the whole thing over. Just a note of caution to those that think about trying this. When you relieve stress in glass it can shatter dramatically.

Hermit said:

Hmm.. Last post got lost in the ethers and I'm not going to do the whole thing over. Just a note of caution to those that think about trying this. When you relieve stress in glass it can shatter dramatically.

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Relieve stress in glass... I do it every time I pour a beer.

No seriously what do you mean by relieve stress?

Dkmount721 said:

Relieve stress in glass... I do it every time I pour a beer.

No seriously what do you mean by relieve stress?

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Ever see the 'pretty colors' on a car rear window when using polarized sun glasses? That is because safety glass is pretty stressed on purpose. You must bring the temperature down very slowly on glass (annealing) to keep it from being under stress/tension. I make telescope mirrors where tolerances are measured in wavelengths of light. Even with precision annealed glass cutting it after you have worked it normally results in a shape change. Carboys are probably cooled as quick as possible for financial reasons.

I worked at Owens glass plant a electrical expansion, pulled bier bottles off line just blown still deep yellow hot then twisted them and let cool. Bad mistake not running thru the oven annealing as 90% exploded before reaching room temp. Those that made the cooling process were dangerous any tap or chip they exploded under internal stresses.
Caught making art were grounds for dismissal due to safety reasons.

Don't know if this will work on a carboy but it might.. This was used on glass tail light lens for blue dots. Take a washer with the same size hole needed. Duck tape it to the carboy where the hole is needed several, several layers of tape over the edges of the washer and take it out several inches. Again several layers of tape. Take a sand blaster fine sand and blast in washer hole if the layers of tape start to thin add more layers.
The process has also been used on plate glass.


Hope this helps

God Bless
Swagman

Swag, the heat from blasting will expand and explode the glass if concentrated in a smal spot.
Trust me as I have a local blaster in the area that does glass blasting and has to water cool between short blasts.
Sticky back gum rubber 1/16" thick as a mask.

Ever see the 'pretty colors' on a car rear window when using polarized sun glasses? That is because safety glass is pretty stressed on purpose. You must bring the temperature down very slowly on glass (annealing) to keep it from being under stress/tension. I make telescope mirrors where tolerances are measured in wavelengths of light. Even with precision annealed glass cutting it after you have worked it normally results in a shape change. Carboys are probably cooled as quick as possible for financial reasons

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Gotcha. I understand the differences between annealing and tempering. So what you are saying is they anneal carboys quickly.

BrewBeemer said:

Swag, the heat from blasting will expand and explode the glass if concentrated in a smal spot.
Trust me as I have a local blaster in the area that does glass blasting and has to water cool between short blasts.
Sticky back gum rubber 1/16" thick as a mask.

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You might be right but I was thinking of a home rig, controlling the pressure and time factor. I know us old street rodders have blasted holes in glass Tail light lens and they are very brittle.


God Bless
Swagman

Dkmount721 said:

Gotcha. I understand the differences between annealing and tempering. So what you are saying is they anneal carboys quickly.

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I would say that they anneal them as quickly as financially feasible but that would just be a guess. Even with "precision" annealed glass, mirror makers have a hard time with chip out even when they have something blocking the back for support. Even a clean cut will reveal same amount of change in the mirror figure where the stress is released. Mind you it is a very small change but mirror figures are worked in the range of 1/10 wave of 5500 angstrom light.

Even if you could get a hole made how do you get inside the carboy to seal the spigot? I suppose a very long pliers to hold a nut and gasket.

zacster said:

Even if you could get a hole made how do you get inside the carboy to seal the spigot? I suppose a very long pliers to hold a nut and gasket.

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Thread the nut on the outside after pulling the bolt through

Ben, common sense is not so common these days with people solving simple problems, computer geek neighbor can't even change a flat tire funny as hell
as I used to scratch built stroker FE's.
This for Swagman also, I used a wood dowel in a variable speed drill motor, the end of the dowel banged against a slab of steel having a layer of industrial green diamond coating. Once a depression was established it only took 20 minutes to cut thru 1/4" glass making a smooth clean hole no chipped fragments when breaking thru the backside. Reapplying grit often required plus a water spray bottle keeping the heat down.
I saw this done on a wing window with safety glass years ago.

My carboy has one with a spigot. The owner of the store where I bought it sell them this way. It looks well made but I take very care of it.

DZello said:

My carboy has one with a spigot. The owner of the store where I bought it sell them this way. It looks well made but I take very care of it.

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Do you, or can you, take it apart for cleaning? I'd be interested to know what the surface of the hole is like. It might give us a clue on how it was formed.

Hermit said:

Do you, or can you, take it apart for cleaning? I'd be interested to know what the surface of the hole is like. It might give us a clue on how it was formed.

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I don't take it apart to clean it. The spigot is big enough to clean with a small brush. I'll try to ask him how he does it next time I pass by. I was surprised to see that there was no one on this forum with a carboy similar to mine. I was thinking this technique was much more popular.