Drilling Glass

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movet22

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Good day everyone!

I have 3 six gallon glass carboys but am sick of having to clean through the small hole and siphon, so I am going to be moving to the Speidel wide-top PET for primary's and something like the deep woods 7 gal SS for a secondary.

That being said, I don't want to totally scrap my glass carboys, as they are perfectly functional as they stand. I'd think about keeping them, but I LOATHE racking with a siphon. My question is simple, is it completely reckless of me to try and drill a small hole into my carboys? Will it just shatter?

I am thinking something about big enough to somehow (haven't gotten this far yet) rack form a spigot... or something... somehow.

Am I living a pipe dream? should I just hold onto them for emergency need? should I just sell them? OR... should I wear elbow length protection, say a prayer and give this crazy idea a whirl?

Condemning comments commence in 3, 2, 1-GO!
 
Just an FYI, I have read the other threads here about this, and I am not really expecting this to be an option, but just wanted to float it out there.
 
It can be done with a diamond bit. Drilling wouldn't be my main fear, I think it'd be much more vulnerable to breaking and I don't know how trying to clamp a spigot will hold up..
 
My racking will consist of spigots in the PET guys and valves in the SS one. I am just trying to find a quick-fix to the question of what to use my glass ones for now. Using co2 to get that flow going is something I'd be willing to try.

In an effort to follow up a dumb question with a worse one... what about cutting the glass? I don't know how, but I feel like that could be easier than drilling.

I'm really not as gung-ho about this as I seem, I just think it is interesteing conversation, and you know... god forbid someone comes up with a great idea...
 
RelaxDrilled.jpg


Yeah, it's doable with a diamond bit and some know how, but I would never handle a carboy again if I punched a hole in it. Drilling the hole creates all sorts of stress points and differences in strength, which will end up being a failure point in the carboy. Trade it for a better bottle if you want a racking port.
 
I am thinking something about big enough to somehow (haven't gotten this far yet) rack form a spigot... or something... somehow

Great idea but like others have said stress points and all. Not to mention how in the world are you going to get the nut on the other side of the spigot. Be kind of like a ship in a bottle I think
 
Well, it is good to learn new things, stress points in drilled glass are something new for today!
 
I have experience with glass as telescope mirrors. Glass is tricky stuff and you don't know how much stress the glass is under. You would need cross polarizers to check. You know the colors you see on rear windows with polarized glasses? That's stress.

Generally you don't drill glass, you grind it away. You risk chip out on the backside if you can't support the cut and that will be hard to do in a carboy. Also you have to hold the back nut on when installing the spigot. This will present a problem in cleaning also.

You might find it overall more of a pain to deal with in the long run trying to keep the back sides clean.
 
Take it to a glass blower and see if they can come up with something. They might be able to attach a short piece of glass that you can use a tri clamp on.
 
The glass carboys are not stressed like tempered glass would be.
So there is a chance one could be drilled without breaking it.
The usual recommendation for novices drilling glass is to use
a diamond bit and put the piece underwater (for cooling).

For large pieces you can put a clay dam around the area to hold water.
So at least one side is in contact with coolant.

I suspect it can be done, but it might take a few tries (and few broken)
carboys to get the procedure down.

What you really want for this is a water jet.
But getting time on one is expensive.

Still it is a good question, even if it is possible to drill a hole without
breaking the carboy immediately, is the structural integrity compromised.
Considering the downsides of a carboy full of beer breaking, I would
not try it.

A glass blower cannot help. At least not by attaching a short piece of glass.
A new piece of glass will have a different coefficient of expansion and
the weld would fail as it cooled down.

Although if the glass blower had an annealing kiln large enough for
the carboy (the ones with the big furnaces would) they could
re-anneal the carboy before and after drilling the hole.
Anneal before drilling to remove stress so the drilling does not break it.
Anneal after drilling to remove stress caused by the drilling.

But I still wouldn't try it.
 
So I'm not understanding the need to drill it in the first place? And i'm not understanding what the problem is with a siphon. I use glass carboys all the time. An auto siphon does the trick. Then a soak in PBW and most of the time a carboy brush never is needed.

If none of that works for you, I'd sell the carboys on CL before drilling them. But, as much as those SS fermenters are shiny, I couldn't justify the price. Especially when cleaning a carboy is so easy.
 

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