Quote Originally Posted by FlyMeHigh
ya i've drilled myself a bong before too, heres what to do:

get a glass drill bit
use water to reduce friction
don't apply to much forward pressure
and tape can be used if desired, but it is not essential

also an alternative to drilling that works very well and gets you a perfectly smooth hole is burning through... if you have thin glass and a real small hot torch, you can concetrate the flame in one area to burn through (this would be very hard for thick glass) you might want to research this if you try it, but its a possiblilty... good luck
I did some research on the two methods, drilling and spot heating. For the spot heating, a glassblower told me to heat a suitable size spot where you want the hole, with a high-temperature flame, like oxy-propane (not air-propane). When the spot starts to turn red, stopper the opening with a tube through the stopper and blow (you have to hold the stopper from popping out) until the hot spot starts to form a small bubble. Stop growing the bubble when the opening at the spot looks good. Allow it to cool and then carefully break the bubble off, using a file to score the side of it first if you can fit it in there. Fire polish the edge to your liking.

The second method, which is FAR simpler and superior, is to get a "diamond core drill bit". These can be found on-line if you use the phrase just as I typed it. Don't get the fancy expensive (80 dollars and up) one, instead find a bonded one for around twenty buck. With proper water flow, you can drill 100-200 holes, which is more than I care to ever do. I tried one of these this weekend and the instructions said it would take about 30 minutes (I can deal with that, I HATED those spade things). I rigged up a table-top drill press (got lucky with that, it was loaned to me without hesitation...yay!) and stabilized the vase with whatever I could think up. It needs to be pretty secure. I eyeballed the point of contact and made it level (since this vase is essentially a sphere). My friend held a piece of tubing to supply continuous cold water. It started with a chirpy sound and quickly turned into a very smooth sound. I pressed as gently as I could without letting it stop. Breakthrough occurred in about 2 minutes. When I backed the bit out and inspected the whole, it was simply beautiful. We looked at each other in shock and I said, "Go get ALL of the vases and start marking where we want to drill!. We practiced on a couple of crappy ones, and learned that it is best to keep the drill bit as close to perpiducular to the glass as possible. Angling it in is okay but it makes the hole less circular and more oval. Circular holes make a grommet very cozy.

I'll check on this message from time to time if anyone wants to ask any questions.