Interesting not heard of this process before. Thinking on what you noted if you were to cut the glass on both sides with a glass cutter as you said, would you be able to run a hot wire through the crack? possibly you may be able to gently pull the now cut glass to open up the crack, to allow the wire to fit between, same idea as they use for cutting polystyrene.

A long time ago I remember using very fine brass wire, for wire eroding high speed steel to make cutters. Can’t remember the diameter, but it was fractions of a millimetre.

If the laminate will melt could it be done with hot air forced into the crack?

Other than that, can you just grind through the lot (with extraction etc)

What an interesting problem.

Just a thought.

Chris

Would a diamond tipped core drill bit not work? 

According to Youtube enthusiasts, ethyl alcohol works just as well. The idea here is to soften up the plastic in the laminate whist maintaining a precise and clean cut.

I don't think that method would be appropriate in a production workshop setting though.

HFL Regs replaced by DSEAR. So you would need to do an assessment.

http://waterjets.org/archive/about-waterjets/overview-of-waterjets/

I worked in the flat glass industry for 4 years and my company used a water jet to cut all circles and shapes in all thicknesses of lami, they did use meths at one point but then switched to using the water jet.

A cheaper solution to cut a circle or shape is to make your initial cut into one side of the lami and then punch a hole into the middle of the circle and break out the glass to the cut. Turn the glass over and repeat on the other side and then remove the interlayer, this of course is a longer process and at much greater risk of damaging the glass.

Looking back at the responses to this thread I noted that some people are getting confused with methylated spirits, ethyl alcohol and (I think) methanol.

Ethyl alcohol (ethanol) is the type of alcohol found in your drinks (most spirits eg vodka and whisky are about 40% ethanol).  As you are aware, this attracts duty which more of less doubles its price. Some users (eg university labs) are able to buy duty free ethanol (ethyl alcohol) but there are strict controls on how they store and use it.  Other industrial users who want to use ethanol as a solvent or a cleaner can buy denatured alcohol. This ethyl alcohol which something added to it to render it undrinkable, typically this has been 5% methanol hence industrial methylated spirits as an alternative name for denatured alcohol.  Methanol by itself is a nasty toxic substance and should be treated with care. I would not use it as general cleaning agent for example. (I once found someone in a lab doing just that, spraying it over the lab benches. They had mixed it up with industrial methylated spirit)