BOTTLE CUTTER – DIY

After trying for some time to get to a bottle cutter through online trade sites without much luck, (they were either not shipping to India or were expensive) I decided to make one myself. I came across lots of help and instructions with photos to make a DIY bottle cutter while scanning the internet. Most of them were really simple with either a wooden or a metallic base and many where of really good finish.

I used a wooden base to assemble my makeshift bottle cutter with the below that was available locally. If you can use a heavy wooden base then there is no need to use the clamps to hold the set to a table.

3 plastic rollers

Few plastic bushes (to support the bottle base)

2   L” shaped clamps 

An elongated screw with a wing nut and metal fasteners

1 Vise Pliers

2 grounding clamps

1 Glass cutter (detach the cutter segment)

The set up is pretty straight forward and simple. Attach the rollers to the base board. I used 2 small wooden pieces on top of the base board to match the screw size.

The recycling process for glass bottles will have 3 steps

1. Scoring the bottle ( marking a perfect round line across the bottle with a glass cutter)

      2.  Getting the bottle to separate at the score line ( through rapid hot cold temp change)

3    3. Grinding of the edges and polishing to finish

     The pics below will give you a clue as to how the set up is done, to get a perfect score line across the bottle. I used a beer bottle for my first score line. It didn’t quite work well as i applied less pressure for fear of breaking the glass.

In the picture on the right you can see the score lines towards the top of the bottle. I ended up having two as the first one wasn't a straight line.

Whether you roll the bottle away from you or towards you- make sure you hold it firmly and you go the same direction. There is a crunch sound that you hear as you roll the bottle and that is the cutter scoring the glass    :) 

Be happy to start with some random bottle that you are ready to discard before you can get to some level of expertise. Generally after the first bottle you are ON!

On the right check the glass cutter touching the bottle and the score line.Press the bottle towards the cutter's edge as you roll.

The work is half done if you can get a good score line.Once you have that done use a candle to heat up the bottle along the score line evenly( as even as possible- judge by your eyes).

The tricky part is heating and the subsequent quick immersion in cold water or holding it under a cold water tap till the bottle snaps through the score line.

Be ready to see some uneven lines if you are doing it for the first time, maybe it was the score line not being clean or the heat wasn't sufficient. ( i don't have a video of the bottle separation- search for a video @ youtube, there are plenty)

Once the bottle is separated, use some sand paper of varying smoothness to get to a nice finish.

My first bottle didn't have a nice finish, second attempt was better and did some sanding to smoothen the edges.

I used sand paper grades starting from 80 and going up through 120 and 220 for the final finish.

Safety Points- 

Use just enough pressure while scoring the bottle.

Use only a candle light to heat up the scored area.

Put a thick wet cloth at the sink base when pouring tap water on heated glass.

Happy Re cYCliNG

drink glass/flower pots/hanging lights/candle holder/