Drilling Into The Laminate

[magicogar]

Not to long ago, a driver of an 18 wheeler hit a rail on the freeway and flew out through the windshield. He plunged down over the rail and into the lake.

[Jeremiahswindshieldrepair]

oh nm ....

[ChipMaster]

Hi guys this is my first reply,

Now I dont know about everyone else but, have you ever SMASHED a wind shield? you know the old ball pin hammer drop....lol or not...? i have and just because there is a hole in the laminate doesn't mean its weaker that stuff is just as strong at any angle damaged or not. Now i've been doing repairs going on five years now and each individual chip is different. """IN MY OWN OPINNION AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE"""" ive found that drilling to the lam is ,though not often, nessesary. Let me explain say you have one of those cut breaks you know the straight thin line with the impact point just a little off center. now that thing as you all im sure have come across,spirals outward like a thread on a screw. now lets say you just drilled a tiny bit and just reach the black. you pop the bridge on and do your thing however you do it and it seems filled ,then ya double and triple check your work and pop it off. now I dont know how well your vision is but I have found that there is usually a very very tiny spec of air still at the tip,i look at it very closely at all angles as i dothis i always notice that the tiny spec of air trying to ecape is running to the impact point along the absolute bottom of the break you know closest to the lam. any way it takes a little bit longer to fill (a min or two)and its not for sure there is absolutly no air left. thanks for reading everyone i some times bore myself!!! now to the point if you drill carefully and skillfully to the lam not through. then you are allowing the resin to flow all the way down and once it gets down it has no where to go but in the breaks or crack ASSURING that all has been hit and all air successfully removed . thats why i drill to the laminate. and i also feel that the cosmetic side of this can be improved with LOTS:) of practice every chip is a learning experience! thanks again for reading my babble.
Chip Master, out.

[StarQuest]

ChipMaster,

Nothing personally against your drilling techniques but anytime you drill far enough to reach the lami you'll chance bitting into it no matter how skilled you are. Have to remember where only talking about 2-4 mills thickness. I'm not sure why so many people find the need to drill this far or for that matter drill at all with 80% of repairs. I'll normally drill just to clean out loose glass from entry pit and then use air to blow out. If I incounter a stubborn fill....I'll simply take my probe out and just pop a mini which works almost everytime. Why chance hitting the laminate when it will leave a permanant scare and look just horrible (not to mention when you drill this far many times it will melt the vinyl and possibly close off access routes to some legs)?

I know you stated that you have 5 years experience in repairs and this works for you but is it possible you might open your mind up to try some alternative methods? Once again, not putting you down in anyway.....just asking you to experiment alittle. When I first started in repair I was a drill happy guy and wasted money on bits monthly. Today, I can honestly say 5-8 bits per year is normal. That in itself should tell you something about my need to drill;)

[Jeremiahswindshieldrepair]

I surface drill all of my chips and I have never to this day popped a bullseye in a chip .. never found a need to.

[GlassStarz]

I agree with Brian dont believe makeing a bigger break to fix one is condusive to quality repairs. If you let the injector do the work its designed for your results are consistantly better.
Brian it sounds like you use the drill to clean up the break rather than a probe and that explains what I was trying to figure out earlier when you said you drill all the time. I think some of the new guys mistake using the drill often for actually drilling a hole each time sounds like we do the same thing clean up the break to open the legs only you use the drill and I a probe for the same result. Probably my huge hands are the reason I prefer the probe (xxxl gloves)

[Jeremiahswindshieldrepair]

WOW you do have big hands .. I would think it would be hard to manipulate a machine for you? Anyhow, yes I do just surface drill a majority of the time... sometimes i find it neccessary to drill a deeper hole and on a rare occassion I have not been able to introduce resin to a chip and so I go back and drill further, possibly to the laminate. I have identified the style of chips that proccess is beneficial on and now I predrill so i don't have to hit the lam. But a vast majority of my chips are surface drills.

[haswade]

I am also new and my trainer always drilled to the lami i have tryed not drilling but find end results unsatisfactory also have purchased a kit and find that my training has me hooked on mirrors for viewing my new kit did not include the miiror and my new kit has a dark colored inj tip no mirrors,no white tip and unsure of drilling or not any thoughts or ideas ??

[repare-brise]

The need to drill is a function of the resin and the injector. If the resin is too thick it will have problems infiltrating the break(star break. a bulls eye will fill well with a thicker resin). If the injector is of lesser quality it will not produce sufficient vacumm or pressure to fill the star. I am aware of at least 1 person on this forum that does not even use an injector to fill a star, just a very thin resin and a little flexing of the glass, his results are excellent, his customers are happy, and he drives a new BMW, so he can't be doing too badly in the sales dept. All that to say that with the proper consistancy of resin the injector is secondary(I too have tried that method with good results, but I prefer to use the injector, it just looks better for the customer that you used a tool to do the job, and not just a drop of resin and a pen to charge him $50.)

Haswade, what equipment do you use? You can learn to repiar without a mirror. I would definatly try too get white seals for your injectors though.

Merci

[gold star wsr]

If all that was ever needed to do good repairs is thin resin and a probe, the equipment manufacturers would have been busted a long time ago for fleecing the unsuspecting public, and we would all be out of business because any fool can purchase resin, and a probe is anything with a point on it. I have no doubt that some repairs can be accomplished via this method, but I seriously doubt that it would work for the majority of times. There is a carwash chain in the city nearest me. The guys at the wsr booths at these places employ that method. I cannot tell you how many of their repairs I have been asked to rework because they ''didnt look right'' to the customer. It is bogus and irresponsible to assert that one can do good quality repairs without the proper equipment.