Using a glass cutter on an intact window

[Hawkeye]

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[odin_dax]

Any right way to do this?

hXXp://chestofbooks.com/home-improvement/woodworking/Handicraft-For-Boys/How-to-Cut-Glass.html

hXXp://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/article/0,,636058,00.html

Hope that helps get you started.

[Æhµ]

glass cutters are just like tile cutters. It scores a straight line, then you snap the glass/tile off (gently).

You'll never cut a circular opening like they do in the movies, unless you use a high-speed glass drill bit. And being a bit, you can only get them up to a certain size.

[Hawkeye]

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[Æhµ]

Being that cutting an opening in glass would be no different than breaking it, I suppose a home owner would just smash the window pane out and open the window, and pay to replace it. Since noise or the chance of getting caught are not factors it shouldn't matter how they remove the glass.

However, if stealth is required (after all you wouldn't want to wake "your" neighbors) then try some alternatives to breaking/cutting glass:

Search the garden/flower beds for fake rocks or hidden key holders.
Learn to pick locks, residences generally use 5pin tumbler locks like Slage and are fairly easy to pick.
Make a door jamb spreader out of an old jack, this will push open the door jamb just wide enough so the lockset is clear of the jamb and the door can swing open.

Just use caution when opening doors or windows as alarms use reed switches to detect their opening. And where theres a reed switch you'll also find PIRs or motion detectors.

[crazy white guy]

That's gay

No. Its not

Theres a way to do this but It sounds like more work than its worth. Its the only way I've seen work. The MythBusters tried to do it but they failed quite miserably

You would have to cut two sets of parallel lines that make a square the size that your trying to make a hole from. That square is then cut from corner to corner, diagonally. Then multiple vertical and horizontal cuts (works better if its an odd number and the same number of both vertical and horizontal.) you then find the point 1/4 of the square from the bottom right and cut to the same 1/4 from the top left. Do this all the way around until you've made 4 cuts. At this point you should see a square in the middle with lines going out in 12 directions. You use a small hard hammer to tap this point. the smaller inner square should break into 12 peices. you then break off pairs of pieces by hitting them in the inside (towards the hole) corner until the whole hole is accessible.

If you want a drawing, I can if theres any sort of demand for it. I didn't develop the method but the geometry of the method above is mine rather than the original (which is difficult as hett for the layman to understand or do.)

[Æhµ]

As cheap as a glass cutter is, buy it and practice.

There's no point in making the hole round - the cutter is only good for scoring straight lines. So make a triangle instead - scribe out a triangle, then score a line from the vertex of each side to the opposite side. Place some duct tape around the edges and across the middle. Rap it with something solid and the glass should give way without too much noise. The tape will keep it from falling to the floor inside. I assume this is too allow you to reach your hand inside to unlatch the window. Just don't open it without checking for reed switches.

[crazy white guy]

Thats the same method I just posted but with a different base shape. Any polygon shape would work. I think a square would be most effective seeing as when cut into 4's or 6's the shapes made are closer to 90 degrees. Anyone that has worked with glass knows that a 90 degree cut is a lot easier to snap off than an acute angle cut.

[Hawkeye]

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