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Circular saw with a metal blade. Either of your choices will work, but the jigsaw will give a wavey cut line. Done it with a sawzall too!
Al
I turn, therefore I am!
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I've cut a smaller hole in the metal with just a flat knife and a hammer. It was a foam door.
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Yea grinder with a cutoff disc, and safety glasses.
Those little hot metal particles flying around are a beyotch
Steve
Mo.
I miss the days of using my dinghy with a girlfriend too. Zack Butler-4/18/24
The Revos apparently are designed to clamp railroad ties and pull together horrifically prepared joints
WaterlooMark 02/9/2020
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Drill a hole in each corner. Connect the holes with a Sharpie. Then use a thin wheel on an angle grinder.
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..
Steve
Mo.
I miss the days of using my dinghy with a girlfriend too. Zack Butler-4/18/24
The Revos apparently are designed to clamp railroad ties and pull together horrifically prepared joints
WaterlooMark 02/9/2020
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I assume you are going to use some molding to trim out the opening. If you saw it with a sawzall or a jig saw I think the waviness will be apparent even with the trim in place. I would use a circular saw.
I would drill a hole through both skins of the door at each corner. With the circular saw you will have to saw from both sides to finish off the cut. The holes will tell you where to stop.
Also, remember that you have to use tempered glass or safety glass. And although wired glass is legal, it has been shown to be more dangerous than plain glass and it should be avoided. Acrylic is OK too.
The glass should be far enough away from the lock set that a burglar won't be able to smash the glass and reach in and open the door.
You will have to special order the tempered glass. It has to be tempered after cutting.
No animals were injured or killed in the production of this post.
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The regulations for door glass varies from region to region. My neighbor told me that in our area it is limited to 9 square inches. I don't know how accurate that is.
You can get acrylic in thicknesses to 1". Not only is that size highly resistant to intrusion it is bullet proof (the distributor will state what caliber it is bullet proof to). If it is a robust steel door of 16 gauge steel or thicker, then I would go with the acrylic to maintain the strength throughout.
No animals were injured or killed in the production of this post.
