Generating wonderful glass mosaic floor tile art is easy! Let me explain to you how.

Wheeled glass cutters are essential for creating glass mosaics. I make use of it to cut and condition vitreous glass and stained glass. This can even be used to reduce smalti. The wheeled cutters make cleaner cuts than tile nippers. The two carbide wheels (or steel, if you buy cheap cutters) are fixed in position. Rather than scoring and breaking, the wheels apply even pressure to the top and bottom attributes of the glass, leading to it to fracture together the line of the wheels.

The wheels are replaceable and eventually go dull, but not before several thousand cuts. Each wheel is held in place by a setscrew (usually an Allen screw). Because your cuts become noticeably less clean than when the cutters were new, use an Allen wrench to loosen the anchoring screws, that is rotate each wheel about 1/8-inch, and then re-tighten the screws. By transforming the location of where each wheel touches the glass, you have, in effect, replaced the cutting blades. It'll have a long time and many cuts to use the complete circumference of the wheels, especially when they may carbide.

When the tires finally do become dull, I suggest buying a entire new tool. The rims make up the bulk of the tool's cost, therefore you won't save much by just buying replacement wheels. Using a brand new tool, not only are the tires sharp, but the rubber manage grips are new and clean (the rubber wears down and becomes dirty) and the spring is secured in-place. Every now and then, the spring breaks free from my cutters. The tool still works with a free spring, but irritating to keep the handles from spreading too far aside. When that happens, the spring falls off. Is actually quite annoying to fall the spring, watch it bounce out of achieve, and then have to get out of my chair to retrieve it. I tried soldering it permanently in place, but it didn't work because I couldn't get the metal hot enough. Therefore, until I purchase a new tool, the spring constantly falls off. Another reason to purchase a new tool instead of just replacement wheels is, if you decline the tool, it's possible to knock the tires out of alignment. Therefore , after several projects when you think the tires need replacing, I suggest buying a whole new tool.

Once your new tool arrives, how to use Allen wrench to tighten the anchoring screws as tight as possible. Then, use an engraver, paint, felt-tip marker (or whatever you have that makes a permanent mark) to make a small mark mark quietly of each wheel where it touches the glass when trimming (the two tick signifies should be aligned reverse each other). I personally use an engraving tool for making the tick marks so I don't have to worry about paint or ink eventually rubbing off. After a few hundred cuts, release the screws, turn each wheel slightly, and then re tighten the anchoring screws. After several of these adjustments, the tick marks have gone full circle showing that it's time to replace the tool (or just the wheels, if you prefer).

Don't be surprised if the tires rotate by themselves. No matter how hard I turn down on those screws, it apparently isn't limited enough because the rims slowly rotate by on their own from the pressure exerted during the cutting action. Following several days and many cuts, I notice the beat marks are no longer aligned directly opposite each other, which indicates the wheels have rotated slightly. Maybe I'm a weakling, but I just can't get the screws tight enough to keep them static. Yet , that's okay with me because, if they turn by themselves, then I don't have to by hand do it.