Brilliant Cutting and their wheel sizes

[erik winkler]

Hello,
I have a question about the wheels used for brilliant cutting punties (cirkels).
In this picture I made there are two possibilities I was thinking about:

CUTTING WHEEL SIZES.jpg (95.65 KiB) Viewed 6038 times

The first one uses different thicknesses of wheels to get different sizes of punties.
The second uses the same wheel, but carves deeper if there is a bigger circle to be obtained.

Or is a different DIAMETER of the wheel the trick?

In this photo Dave Smith posted a while ago I can not really see which option is used to get te different sizes of punties.


Thank you,

Erik

[DAVE SMITH]

Hello Erik.
A puntie (circle) is made by shaping the very top of the wheel where you are placing the glass. Let's take an 8'' wheel draw round it on to a piece of card then slice off the card .Now keep a small part of that drawing which shows the curve of that wheel. You would then cut this shape out keeping the outside of the card, hope your following me on this (probably be easier to post a drawing) with this cut out you then place it over the wheel to form where you dress(shape) the top of the wheel to follow the shape of the card. This is what shapes the wheel to the correct circle to make a puntie.(the same circumference of the wheel) Now and again you need to go back and re-dress the wheel due to the shape changing due to use ,when this happens if you don't keep on top of dressing the wheel it will always give you an awkward shape to your cut and some times it will get that bad it will turn into an oval cut. To make the puntie wider and deeper you sit the glass there longer and work it to go wider. I have seen punties at 3'' inches and larger but this is down to the width of your stone. I occasionally make some punties wider by moving the stone around and forming the circle by eye if the stone is not dressed correctly, but this needs practice to get it right. Also remember you can only go so big depending on your glass thickness ,too big and you will go through the glass . Your drawing marked 1 is not possible Erik.
Dave

[erik winkler]

Thank you master Dave,

If my gluhwein (german hot christmas wine) is gone tomorrow in the morning I will reread this post, but you are right that it is a little difficult to follow
But the number one is not possible I understand so far haha
Still is fasinating stuff that brilliant cutting you do!

Thanks,
Erik

Reread it just now.. got it!
Thanks

[David Slade]

Master Dave,
I have done some spun designs on metal with oak and polishing compound chucked in a drill press. I had assumed punties were done the same way. VERY little pressure and lots of irrigation on the stone, I recon??
What kind of rpm range are you running?
What grit grades?

Thanks,
Novice Dave

[erik winkler]

Novice Dave,

Eventhough I haven't done zip in brilliant cutting i think i can answer your questions.
Yes just enough pressure and a constant flow of water otherwise you will burn the wheels.
RPM depends on the size of wheels you use: bigger wheels less rpm.
This is mostly personal trial and error due to the many different sorts of wheels available to cut glass.
Grit grades go in three to four steps ending with a seriumoxide-water slurie.

I am curious in what kind of type and brand machine master Dave works.

Erik

[Wayne Osborne]

I think you might be over- complicating things a bit Erik..I tried a bit of brilliant cutting down at "Master Daves", and the process is pretty simple.
.
.
.Its just mastering the skill that takes a lifetime .
.
Anyway- If Smiffy was born a couple centuries ago they'd of burned him as a witch

[Doug Bernhardt]

I dunno Wayne......they might try burning guys like him again in this day and age. He's definately a witch. I visited him quite a few years ago as he was starting this whole learning curve of cutting glass and saw some Smittys witchcraft in progress. Puntie wheels and all. The interest,talent and study (not to mention the time required) has to be there with mastering any craft......especially a "dead art". A quick quote from Bill Riedel, regarding hand lettering(which also applies here)....."You have to make the time not find the time" Am sure that Smitty's ability/accomplishment lies within an equal effort of ability and just plain hard work. Also thought I might add a couple favourites here.

[DAVE SMITH]

Old Cam Bortz called me a witch once and I turned him into an ugly frog so look out. I am the wicked witch of the west (south west) I,m a good witch.!
As for cutting and speeds Dave, 200 to 300rpm is what all the wheels are running at. I have a variable drive for some of the harder cuts but other than that i run them all around the same speed. Keeping them dressed and true is important, grit sizes vary slightly on different stones, I use 220 and sometimes 180 but one grit seems good enough for all the cutting. Like Doug and Wayne has stated time seems to be the big factor for it really is all down to practice,practice and more practice. I wanted to learn the craft solely for adding highlights to glass signs but now on occasions I do get some nice work that is just Brilliant Cutting, to get really good at this you would need to be making panels everyday I know of 4 glass cutters who are time served and mostly all there lives they have cut glass and you can see this in there work. I have attached a glass panel made by Stuart Norton from Newcastle. Stuart has been a big help in my cutting work, I used to phone him and still do for advice, just the other day I was stuck making 1/2 '' lines through a panel and was told I was doing it with the wrong width stone for panel lines, he told me to dress up a stone at 1/4 '' and then to work one side of the line and then go up the other side so that the outer edge touched each other then go back down through the centre to smooth out the cut.I was going up and down using the wider wheel which was making life hard and giving me not as nice a cut as the 1/4'' wheel. Now I know! A few other name that deserve a mention also are . James w itchel another Brilliant Cutter who has helped me and still does ,very clever cutter , Rich Samsuel in California who's work is just amazing and clinical, seen some of his work recently in Las Vegas ,he had cut over 300 wall light mirrors in both the Wynn and Ballagio casinos some large panels also.
Andreas Leahman in Oakland California some incredible work from this man also. They have all kindly given me advice on what to achieve with brilliant cutting but the main thing they all said was practice. If I can help anyone I will try,it's all about sharing...
This photo is of Steven Stuarts son holding a door panel Stuart made a few days ago. He said it was heavy.
Also attached a link from Stuart to another site talking about cut glass.
http://www.cuttingedgesandcarving.com/f ... 11832&st=0

Erik I see you found this site before all of us, I hope to see some cutting now coming out of Amsterdam. now get practicing!

[erik winkler]

I love to read this stuff.
Makes me respect the work even more.

[Wayne Osborne]

WOW- what that panel does'nt show you is all the work that that takes,,, all the standing- twisting, turning, and its all got to be "first time " stuff, and it doesn't go fast either.

Dave.. you gonna do any cutting in your classes?- that would be cool to combine a puntie cut in a workshop panel..
( as if theres not enough to do in them smiffy courses )

Actually-it would make a nice a workshop on its own

[erik winkler]

Yes I wish Dave could teach me as well after I learned the first basics in the Czech Republic.