Cutting Holes in Glass Tanks

[cmondo]

I had posted on here and NJ Reefers a while back asking for a place to get my tank drilled. After looking around a while I found one place, but it was expensive and there was no guarantee. I bought my 40b(s) at Petco during a dollar/gallon sale so they were cheap and I decided to go for it myself.

I attached a picture of the setup I used, which was pretty simplistic, but did the job. The items I used were a reservoir, aqualifter, 18v drill, plastic suction guide and a ¾" diamond bit hole saw.

The process took 5-10min per hole and included:
1. Place suction guide in desired location;
2. Setup aqualifter to keep area cool;
3. Begin drilling.

For me the hardest parts were keeping the bit straight as it went in so that one side of the hole didn't cut faster than the other and maintaining the right amount of pressure at the end to avoid chipping.
Hope this helps someone out there.

Chris

 

[triggreef]

All you really need is the bit and a hose. Theres a ton of videos on youtube showing how to do it. And if you start the bit at an angle and as it cuts in you slowly straighten it out that helps.

Also glass-holes.com has all that is needed

 

[Gordonious]

Use caution that the gasket sits well on smooth flat un-chipped glass. You may read posts saying the gasket goes on the inside of the tank however this is wrong, the gasket sits where the flange is on the bulkhead and that could be flipped around either way.

Doesn't look as if it was that bad though, just eye it up with the bulkhead in place with out the nut and make sure the gasket has plenty of smooth glass to sit on.

To prevent chipping when the bit gets to the other side taping and/or putting a board clamped on the other side to give the bit something else to go into. Very similar to drilling into a second scrap piece of board to prevent splintering.

 

[cmondo]

Agreed, it was a lot easier than I had anticipated.

Good point on the piece of material behind the glass. Also I never thought about flipping the bulkhead to have the flange on the outside. I will take a look at all the holes to see if there are any where I might want to flip because of chipping.

 

[downbeach]

If it's a glass holes kit, it will have a gasket for both sides.

 

[Gordonious]

I have never seen a bulkhead with two gaskets. In this case the bulkhead on the flange(which is attached to the "bulkhead" part in this image) is the one that actually holds the water and should be the one you want to be careful with it's placement. The one on the opposite side does not hold water(It will, but the water can still go through the lines on the threading). This second gasket(not included in 99% of bulkheads sold in the hobby) may help evenly spread pressure put on the tank from the nut.