How To Cut Front Surface Mirrors

Cutting a front surface mirror, also known as a first surface mirror, is tricky because of the protective laminate. Knowing the specific techniques for cutting and handling it will save you a ton of wasted time and materials. 0:00 Introduction 0:30 Glass Cutting Safety 1:07 Glass Cutting Tools 1:25 Morton Glass Cutting System Waffle Grid 2:00 Front Surface Mirror 2:48 Scoring Front Surface Mirror 3:11 Breaking Glass 3:44 Hand Sanding Glass 4:14 Glass Measuring Tools 4:37 Digital Caliper 5:01 Glass Cleaning 6:18 Pre-Cote #33 Protective Glass Covering 6:49 Removing laminate For additional information, check our our website at: https://www.twowaymirrors.com/first-s... Section 1: Safety Tools Before you start cutting you will need some critical safety gear.[hold it up while talking about it] I’m going to share with you my favorites - tried and tested in our facility. For safety gloves we use the brand ‘MaxiFlex’! The advantage of using these gloves is that they are much more flexible than other safety gloves, which allows easier handling of the glass and tools. Section 2: Cutting Tools In a perfect world, we’d all have a CNC machine at our fingertips to cut glass. Obviously, this isn’t realistic unless you have an unlimited budget and space. I’m going to go over inexpensive alternatives which provide a high level of precision. The Morton Glass Cutting System is a compact waffle grid which allows you to easily place the guides, and allowing easy measuring and accurate repeat cutting. The glass cutting pieces can simply snap on and off the grid so the first thing you will want to do is to create a straight line with these pieces as you can see here. Then take another piece and put it along the same line as the other piece. Now take this piece this is the piece that helps adjust the piece to a certain length, this piece also pops in and out from the grid of the appropriate position. Now I will show you the front surface mirror, typically on the front surface mirror you will want to cut on the laminate side, that way you can get a clean cut. An easy way to measure the line is for you to take a pen and draw a line then simply line up the line for the cut with your glass tool, one of the important things to keep in mind is that with your glass tool, the glass score wheel has a bit of a gap between the head and the edge of the tool. Next, you will want to line it up and then you will take this piece and then have it come out to the appropriate length then screw it into the table, this is very useful when doing repetitive cuts. You will want to cut the front surface mirror, to cut a first surface mirror, you will want to hold the glass tool like this so that way the longer the angle the longer the edge is towards you. You will want to angle the pen then lightly grasp the glass so that way it does not move so first start from the very edge of the glass and apply firm pressure to where you hear a glass scoring sound to where it reminds you of nails on a chalkboard. A digital caliper is ideal for measuring the glass! Select inches or millimeters, zero it out because that calibrates, then simply slide it over to size it up to measure the glass, width and length. wouldn't want to take a wipe because then you would be dragging that material straight across your optics which would cause damage to it. Dusting tip! One thing to not do with the duster is that you don't want to angle it too much! You will want to take the mirror and angle it perpendicular. What usually causes optic mirrors to get dirty is oil from especially fingerprints! Now to easily clean fingerprints off your mirror you will want to use isopropyl alcohol, the brand we like to use is ‘Zeiss’ which is considered a highly trusted brand. You can also use glass lens cleaner (usually labeled 50% isopropyl on the backside) from your local hardware or grocery store. So just spray the cleaner onto the glass surface, next you will want to use a microfiber wipe or even use ‘Kimtech’ wipes which are disposable. This is important because when using a microfiber wipe you would have to end up cleaning it afterwards because you don't want to get old dirt and bacteria onto the mirror, but with ‘Kimtech’ disposable wipes you can easily dispose of it and start new. Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE for our latest videos on two way mirrors and smart mirrors.    / @twowaymirrors   ____________________________________________________________ Glass Tools: Handheld glass cutter: - https://amzn.to/3tunUpl Handheld Glass breakers - https://amzn.to/2PZN7cT Sanding block - https://amzn.to/3tpZ0ar Hand glass polisher - https://amzn.to/3vxm3BZ Microfiber cloths: https://amzn.to/3bSkmr3 Safety glasses: https://amzn.to/38MxuMr Safety Gloves: https://amzn.to/3bPvapU Glass Cleaner - https://amzn.to/38M1gB5 KimTech Wipes - https://amzn.to/3llpUO1