Mayhems Glass Cutter
ONE OF THE PERKS of being in this industry is that you get to get hands on with a lot of kit early. Tons of engineering samples and concept ideas typically head our way before they go into production. It’s kind of something companies do, especially the smaller ones, to get our insight into things and see how they can improve stuff before pitching and selling products to the public. It’s cool, because obviously this is new stuff that we’re trying for the first time, but the flip-side is that sometimes (not in this case) you come up against things that don’t quite have the same durability, or warranty, or quality as something that’s manufactured and ready to go.
So when Mayhems offered me the opportunity to take a look at its Glass Cutting Tube Kit prototype I reluctantly, after much pressuring, said yes. So what exactly is it? Well in liquidcooling you get two types of tubing: Hard and soft. Soft is typically flexible rubber, or a polyethylene substitute. And hard tubing covers a wider range, including everything from acrylic and PETG, to copper, brass, carbon, and even glass.
Excluding PETG and acrylic, the latter lot are quite problematic to deal with. They’re difficult to work and challenging to create bends with, if not impossible in some cases. However, they’re also at the very cutting edge of premium. And in a world where custom liquid-cooling is getting more and more accessible, and the adept are becoming more skilled, trying to find something to stand out from the crowd becomes ever more appealing.
Borosilicate glass tubing has by far the highest clarity level, and is more resistant to corrosion and color leaching than any other type of tubing, and to that end it is very attractive to use. You can even buy it in pre-bent 90-degree angles to get back those bends ( otherwise you’re using a blowtorch to do it). However, traditionally the only way to cut it is by using a Dremel and a cutting wheel attachment to slice the tubing in half. Because of the nature of the particles you’re spitting out by doing that, you also need to wear a filtered dust mask to minimize exposure to the silica, which can cause silicosis and long-term lung damage in the form of fibrosis. Once cut, you then wet-sand your tubing,to bevel off the edges, ready for fitment.
Mayhems’ Glass Cutting Tube kit helps you effectively cut the tubing in half without using a Dremel or producing excess levels of silica dust. Simply put, it uses a small cutting edge, pressure, a touch of cutting oil, and the force of your hand to score the tube at the point in which you wish to make your cut. Once scored enough, you take the tube out, and with two hands carefully put pressure on either side of the score with your thumbs and push away from you. The tube splits perfectly down the score, and requires a minimal amount of sanding. It’s a flatpack design, constructed from plastic, and is capable of functioning with 12, 13, and 16mm glass tubing.
It makes glass tubing far easier to work with, but there’s some trepidation for firsttime users like myself. Snapping a glass tube is still quite intimidating, and making sure your measurements are perfectly accurate is also daunting. With acrylic you can take a little bit more off if you make a mistake, but with glass the options are far more limited. However, if you do want to push yourself into the boundaries of supreme liquid-cooled tubing, this might just be the perfect solution for you. –ZS $31.62, www.mayhems.net