cutting a hole in a floral former for a lamp

[jerry keller]

I have made a few lamps from floral formers, with artistically placed pieces of glass on a base layer of clear. I have tried drilling a starter hole on a drill press after the former was made, which is relatively successful. But my drill bit is 3/4", and the hole needed for an electrical source is 1 1/2". So it takes a bit of grinding to get it to the point of a large enough hole. But that can be done. Unfortunately, the risk of breaking the glass seems a possibility, which happened yesterday -= many pieces broke from the top in the process.

I've also cut a hole in the glass before firing it in a flat sheet. That hole became smaller when fired. Then when put on the former, the hole grew exponentially, and not evenly, so I was working to grind the oval that it became, to be a useable circle. I'm not sure if I had spent time to place the hole exactly in the center of the former, rather than eyeballing it if it would have grown evenly upon slumping.

I'm sure buying a 1 1/2" hole drill would be an answer, but I don't do enough of this work to justify the cost, unless there are some relatively inexpensive ones out there….

[Valerie Adams]

Jerry, check out this recent thread...
http://www.warmglass.com/phpBB/viewtopi ... =2&t=41239