Wheeled glass cutters are essential for creating glass mosaics. I make use of it to cut and form vitreous glass and stained glass. That can even be used to reduce smalti. The wheeled blades make cleaner cuts than tile nippers. The two carbide wheels (or stainlesss steel, if you buy cheap cutters) are fixed in position. Instead of scoring and breaking, the wheels apply even pressure to the top and bottom edges 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 steering wheel is held in place by a setscrew (usually an Allen screw). Because your cuts become substantially less clean than when the cutters were new, use an Allen wrench tool to loosen the screws, 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 take a long time and many cuts to use the complete circumference of the wheels, especially when they're carbide.
When the wheels finally do that is become boring, I suggest buying a complete new tool. The wheels make up the bulk of the tool's cost, so you won't save much by simply buying replacement wheels. Having a brand new tool, not only are the wheels sharp, nevertheless the rubber manage grips are new and clean (the rubber dons down and becomes dirty) and the spring is secured in-place. Every now and then, the springtime breaks free from my cutters. The tool still works with a loose spring, but annoying to keep the handles from spreading too far aside. When that happens, the spring falls off. Is actually quite annoying to drop 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 buy a new tool, the spring constantly falls off. Another reason to get a new tool instead of just replacement wheels is, if you fall the tool, it's possible to knock the tires out of alignment. So , after several projects when you think the rims need replacing, I suggest buying a whole new tool.
Once your new tool arrives, use an Allen wrench to tighten the 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 little tick mark on the side of each wheel where it variations the glass when slicing (the two tick scars should be aligned reverse each other). I personally use an engraving tool to make 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 become full circle showing that it's time to replace the tool (or just the wheels, if you prefer).
Don't be surprised if the wheels rotate independently. No make a difference how hard I crank down on those screws, it apparently isn't tight enough because the rims slowly rotate by themselves from stress exerted during the cutting action. After several days and many cuts, I spot the tick marks are no extended aligned directly opposite each other, signifies the tires have rotated slightly. Might be 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, i quickly don't have to personally do it.
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