P3D Re: Cutting front surface mirrors

[Larry Berlin <lberlin@xxxxxxxxx>]

> Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 
> From: David.Clark@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> .........
> How do you cut these without messing up the surface?
> 
> David


****  Carefully!

Actually not all front surface mirrors are alike. I've worked with the
thin stuff, but have seen examples that are 1/4 inch thick. The thin
stuff is hard to cut. It had a special coating on it to prevent surface
corrosion. It was cut by scoring on the back, being pure glass there and
not coated with either mirror or protectants. 

Put the piece you're cutting on a fresh clean piece of layered paper for
EVERY attempt at scoring, (solid but not too hard nor too soft) with the
mirrored side down. You can tell by looking at the cutting wheel in
contact with the surface. If it looks like it's floating above the
reflection, you're on the glass side. If it looks like it's actually
touching it's reflection, you're on the mirrored side.

The glass cutter you use is important too. Not all of them have the same
angle on the cutting wheel, nor the same hardness factor. It's been
awhile, but I think the best cutter was the ordinary hardware store
variety. I believe I tried using my more expensive professional tool
first and it wouldn't score the material at all, no matter how hard I
pressed! If you have problems, try different cutting wheels just to see
which works better.

Plan on losing a few pieces in practice, so get more material than you
need.
-- 
Larry Berlin

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