DIY glass bottle cutter heater

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 10:45:05 +0800

Getting the Heat Right: Silk-Screening and Glass Tempering

When you try to mix silk-screen printing with tempering, you’re basically fighting a battle. You need enough heat to bake the ink in, but not so much that you ruin the glass or make your crisp patterns look like a blurry mess. To nail this, we lean on shortwave infrared (IR) lamps. They’re the secret to hitting that tiny window of “just right.”

The Trick to Surface Heat

The goal is to get the surface hot, and fast. Shortwave IR is great because it punches right through the ink and the top layer of glass without heating up the whole slab too early. Here’s the thing: if you ramp up the temperature too slowly, the ink starts to bleed or “bloom.” It’s frustrating to see a perfect pattern go fuzzy right at the end. That’s why we spend so much time tweaking the lamp wattage and the distance—we want that ink cured before the glass even thinks about softening.

DIY on The Infrared Heat Group

DIY glass bottle cutter heater

Getting the Heat Right: Silk-Screening and Glass Tempering

The Trick to Surface Heat