How to drill A Hole In A Ceramic Bottle
How to Drill Hole in Glass or Ceramic
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hey guys it's tresh them with upcycle
stuff you know the funny thing is once
people learn about you and who you are
and all the fun stuff you can do with
power tools they start bringing you all
their projects that they wanted to do
and never got around to so today that's
what I'm doing I've had a neighbor ask
me to drill a hole in this ceramic vase
so that she can turn it into a lamp and
then mom wants drainage holes drilled in
this old pot that she has and it's
chipped and everything but she really
likes it so I have to drill some holes
in that I also have a craft show coming
up and I do a lot of booze bottle bird
feeders so I drill holes in old liquor
bottles wine bottles and that sort of
thing so the process that I use today
for drilling holes in glass can also be
used in ceramic it's the same process so
let me show you some of the tools you'll
need obviously you'll need your your
glass vessel whatever it is you want to
drill a hole in you'll need a bucket
with water and you want the water to
just barely cover so if you were to
submerge this on its side you want the
water even this looks a little bit high
but once it fills up the water level
will come down a little bit but you want
the water level to be just above the
place where you'll be drilling once it's
in the water
so a bucket with cold water you'll need
so there's two different kinds of drill
bits you can use you can use these
they're called glass and tile bits I
don't recommend them they take forever
they're okay and ceramic but once you
start doing glass it just it takes so
long so you can use these if you want to
if you just have one hole you want to
drill and you want to save some money
because there I think I got this whole
set of four for like ten or twelve
dollars I think don't quote me I use a
diamond bit it's encrusted with diamonds
along the top here I think this one is a
5/8 inch I'm looking in the bright
bright Sun and I can't read yeah this is
a 5/8 inch and I have my drill press
already set up with a half inch diamond
bit and I don't usually go more than 5/8
inch but anyway I'm off topic this is
what you need a diamond bit
these run between 20 and 25 dollars so
if you're only doing one project with
one hole and you don't think you'll ever
use it again then go ahead give these a
try but if you're doing more than one I
highly suggest getting a diamond bit
it'll be worth it in the end
so of course you'll need something to
drill with so you can use a regular hand
drill which does take a little bit
longer but I'll show you both methods
with that and then also with a drill
press so again if you're only doing one
hole and you all you have is a hand
drill great use it if you plan on doing
a lot of these like you want to start
your own little shop or something and
you're going to be drilling hole in
glass I highly recommend a drill press
this skill drill press that I have I
think I got it Lowe's for one hundred
and thirty dollars and there's nothing
wrong with buying one use okay so we'll
get started with this funny shaped vase
it doesn't really fit into any bucket
that I have to be able to submerge it so
I'm going to take just a little bit of
water and I'm going to pour it inside
that lip of the vase on the bottom
because this is where it's a member it's
a drainage hole so I'm gonna just plop
it right in the center there and every
now and again I'm gonna just keep adding
more water the purpose of the water is
to keep the glass cool because if you
are the ceramic because if it gets too
hot it will just shatter everywhere and
you know one important thing I forgot to
tell y'all now that I've just said the
glass will shatter you really need to
have eye protection okay high protection
what's going on alright when you're
starting with when you're using a hand
drill if this is the part that's
different from using a drill press when
you go in and start your hole you're
going to go in at about a 45 degree
angle and you're gonna spin it kind of
slowly until you make like a divot in
your ceramic and then you'll slowly
start raising it up until you have it
straight up and down okay this is so
that it catches otherwise you end up
with this sort of ice skating rink
effect where your drill bit sort of
bounces all over the place until it
shaves off enough of the glaze on your
pot to catch on and it'll look really
messy so let's get started add a little
more water
and I usually start a little bit slower
with my drill until it catches and then
I'll speed up a little bit so in at a 45
degree angle and you want to start your
drill before you hit your ceramic
moving a little bit too fast you can see
how it kind of skipped a little bit I'm
getting a little bit of a divot which I
can line right back up again
all right and then when you're done
should have a nice little hole in the
bottom of your piece and that'll be
perfect for drainage when it's finished
you'll have this little piece of a
little plug of ceramic that was once in
the bottom of your pot again um I think
I'm going to probably speed this up
about 16 times so you'll probably miss
the number of times that I put water on
the bottom of the vase so I probably
added water about a dozen times and this
took me between I don't know when to
start a clock book but at four or five
minutes to drill that one hole with my
hand drill so I'm going to go ahead for
the sake of comparison and I'll do my
other piece of ceramic on the drill
press so that you can see the difference
okay so I want to show you my little DIY
platform and by DIY I mean whatever was
handy I grabbed and shoved underneath
the drill press I needed a bigger
platform to fit my bucket on so that it
would not tip over while I was drilling
so I just took an old fruit crate I took
off one of the slats up here right there
so that the original drill press plate
would fit inside the box and that just
gives me a little more support on the
other end so this is how I have it set
up on me I'm get the camera set up so
that you can actually see the hole being
drilled so I'm all set up I have water
the water level just above the top of my
base I'm going to go ahead and start off
this one here and have to worry about
going in an angle that's not possible
with this machine but you're going to go
in slow and don't apply too much
pressure because you'll end up with a
snapped and split piece of work so
fingers crossed because this is a
neighbor's so and I've had it on my
workbench for a while so let's get it
done
okay so I'm going to just show you that
we're almost all the way there when
you're working with a round bottle Plus
this one has some texture on it it's
keeping the whole drill bit from hitting
the surface so I don't know if you could
hear the difference but as I was
lowering my drill bit I was kind of
moving it up and down ever so slightly
just to not keep a constant pressure on
the piece of ceramic because I really
don't want it to crack and you'll notice
that there's this white stuff underneath
the water when you're doing this and it
looks like smoke almost into the water
and it's just the dust from your ceramic
bit it happens with Blast two and yeah
so don't worry about that it'll make
your water murky you'll have to change
it pretty often but
voila I have a hole just like I was
supposed to now this took me about half
the time maybe slightly more than half
the time I did with the hand drill but
I'm going to be honest I was really
afraid of breaking it you know if I
break a booze bottle that I got from a
restaurant
well boohoo I can't just recycle it but
this is the only one that I have of this
it's the only one that she had I'm sure
she could get another one but I didn't
want to be responsible for that so I was
going really slow so um it's beautiful
though isn't it so I'm gonna go ahead
and just drill a couple of glass bottles
if you want to hang around and watch
that so I'd be happy to have you
otherwise thanks for watching ahh
textured glass something I didn't touch
on this one I usually do okay with the
Midori but the really pretty gosh Crown
Royal bottles that have this really
pretty texture on them I can't do more
than one hole without splitting so I've
split the whole bottoms off the bottles
and I haven't had that problem with any
other bottle it's just those and it's a
shame cuz they're really pretty
anyway I use my bottles for making bird
feeders and I need to make three to four
holes in each bottle so I've been pretty
unsuccessful using those so here we go
with a liquor bottle again process is
the same just have it lined up I try not
to hit too far on or hit right on any
major curves in the bottle just because
then it cuts uneven but here we go
you
I wasn't paying attention sometimes it's
good to screw up right you learn from
your mistakes hmm I get really bored so
you're punching holes be drilled in
glass so I don't know if you can see it
but I didn't realize I was coming up to
the end and you can usually feel a
difference in you're in the way the
drill bit is going through sometimes
you'll see bubbles
if you especially if your hole is being
drilled unevenly you'll see bubbles
where it's starting to cut through the
glass but there's still more glass
attached all the way around the circle I
didn't feel any of that but again I
wasn't paying attention so now I have a
little crack in my bottle so don't learn
for my mistake pay attention to what
you're doing it actually is only on the
inside I can't feel it on the outside so
this is something that I would
definitely use in my own garden it's not
something I would use for a product
though
