And Now for My Next Act.... How to Cut Glass at Home

Most of my friends know that I’m pretty good at breaking glass.  (Sorry about that Mack).  Unfortunately, I find cutting glass into an actual shape is not as easy.   

Now you’re probably wondering why I would want to cut glass.  Well, that’s because  I'm a hoarder and want to put my leftover moldings from the sliding door project to good use by making some picture frames.  So I must cut glass to fit my picture frames.

Now I’m sure you’re also wondering why I would cut the glass to fit the frame rather than making the frame to fit the glass -  you know that standard size picture frame glass that is commonly sold in stores. 

Well Mr. Smartypants, now that would certainly be the easy and logical way to do it.   But if I did things the easy, logical way, I wouldn’t have anything to write about! 

Also, most of my molding scraps are too small to be used to make a standard size frame.

Now the main reason I decided to cut my own glass is that there are all these crazy people on-line who make it look so easy!  According to the internet experts, all you need is  a tiny little glass cutting tool.   Its basically a stick with a little wheel on the end that you use to score the glass.  Then all you have to do is apply a little pressure to snap the glass along the scored line. 

Seriously, check out this this guy.  He doesn't even use gloves!

FromWikiHow

And we all know that everything you find on the internet is true.

 So how could this go wrong???

It's just a flesh wound! 

My grandfather taught me to always always expect the worst, then you can only be pleasantly surprised.  He was a wealth of little gems like that. 

My first few attempts were not pleasantly surprising.  Instead, they were just about what I expected. 

Results from my first (and second and third and fourth and fifth and sixth and....) attempts

Minor cut, the other result from my first several attempts

Just as I was about to lose all faith in the absolute truth of everything said on the internet, I finally got a clean cut. It seems the trick is to only lightly score the line rather than attempting to cut a deep line.  I also found it easier to break the glass on the edge of the table rather than just snapping it in my hands. 

Glass I cut for my frames

Now aren't you impressed?  Look at all those straightish lines!  

Unfortunately it took me an entire sheet of 11 x 14 inch glass to come up with two 4 x4 squares and those other random sized pieces.   

So yes, I wasted over half of the sheet of glass I bought to avoid wasting my scraps of leftover molding. 

Oh well.  You can't win 'em all.