http://www.instructables.com/id/easy-glass-bottle-cutter-made-up-of-common-parts/

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easy glass bottle cutter made up of common partsby andrea biffi on December 2, 2013

Table of Contents

easy glass bottle cutter made up of common parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Intro:   Easy glass bottle cutter made up of common parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 1:   The sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 2:   The components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Step 3:   First holes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Step 4:   Let's make the joint... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Step 5:   ...and the arm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Step 6:   Let's assemble the cutter mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Step 7:   Glue the beams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Step 8:   The rollers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Step 9:   Rail and rubber feet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Step 10:   Some finishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Step 11:   The bottle stop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Step 12:   Test it! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Step 13:   Solve issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Step 14:   What's missing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

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http://www.instructables.com/id/easy-glass-bottle-cutter-made-up-of-common-parts/

Author:andrea biffi    www.andreabiffi.comI'm a freelance engineer, graphic designer and photographer. I also love electronics, robotics, and everything that could be disassembled and hacked. I lovetravel by bicycle and shooting spherical and gigapixel panoramas. I wish to have enough time to turn into instructables every my brainchild ;-) I'll do my best.

Intro:  Easy glass bottle cutter made up of common partsIt's interesting to know that you can make a glass from a bottle, engraving a cut all around the circumference and splitting it in two with a few tricks. If you plan to makemany glasses and if you wish to obtain a perfect flat cut, you can preferably build your own cutting device. I will explain here how to make it from common and cheapobjects.

Step 1: The sketchAfter measuring some bottles, I planned to leave about 12 cm between supports, with the possibility to increase this distance to 17 cm. This is enough to cut the standardlittle beer bottles and also the 1 liter ones.My design is very simple. my intent was to build a jointed arm which could also shift along the axial direction, and sturdy enough to maintain the position while you pushthe cutting blade into the glass.So I decided to use what I already had in my house, and the device took gradually shape.

http://www.instructables.com/id/easy-glass-bottle-cutter-made-up-of-common-parts/

Step 2: The componentsThe wood base is a salami cutter board about 14 x 25 cm, so it's perfect for my project. The other main parts are, other than the essential cutting blade, four furniturewheels, a piece of electrical conduit and some wood beams.The wheels diameter has to be not more than 4 cm, and it should be cool find wheels with a rubber surface.The wood beams are:

one piece about 25 x 4 x 2 cm (length, high, width)one piece 11 x 4 x 2 cmabout 25 cm total length of a 1 x 2 cm section beam

The conduit is wide and long the same as the bigger beam (25 cm long and 2 cm wide in my case) and it has to be the type with a detachable cover.Then you need only some glue, different types of screws, a bolt and four rubber feet.

Step 3: First holesAll the holes on this device are made by hand, but you could better use a column drill to obtain perfect perpendicularity.I added a new hole in the bottom part of the wire conduit, so a total of three holes cover the full length, but you can also add two more holes, since they will hang betterthe "rail" on the wood board.Then I also made four little holes in the top cover, which is 8 cm long. These holes are not centered on the shorter side, to avoid interference between horizontal andvertical screws.

http://www.instructables.com/id/easy-glass-bottle-cutter-made-up-of-common-parts/

Step 4: Let's make the joint...A pair of long screws acts as joint of the wood arm. So cut a couple of wood pieces 3 x 2 x 1 cm and, about 7 mm from the border, drill an hole in the direction of thelonger axis. Dispose the pieces on a flat surface, and mark the holes position from the conduit cover. Then drill the four holes for the screws.

Step 5: ...and the armLet's refine the arm head so that it could keep handy the cutter. I tried to use the cutter as it is, avoiding to drill it. A big screw keeps it steady into a groove engraved inthe wood. Since I made some upgrades to improve the operation of the tool, I also replaced the screw with a bolt, and I tilted more the cutter, as you can see in the firstpicture of the next step.

http://www.instructables.com/id/easy-glass-bottle-cutter-made-up-of-common-parts/

Step 6: Let's assemble the cutter mechanismMy first attempt was to screw the two little wood blocks directly on the conduit cover. This doesn't work, because the two-parts pivot (the two long horizontal screws) hasmore play than a single pivot, the plastic cover isn't rigid enough, and the arm was not very steady. So I added an additional wood beam to reinforce the device.After screwing the horizontal pieces together insert the arm and insert the long screws in the holes so to mark the position where to drill the hole in the arm.

http://www.instructables.com/id/easy-glass-bottle-cutter-made-up-of-common-parts/

Step 7: Glue the beamsPlace the "rail" over the bigger wood beam and mark the positions of the holes. Drill the holes but wait to glue the pieces to screw the rail in.Put two wheels on the board to have the exact position where to glue the big beam. I used two-elements glue to be faster, but you can also use normal wood-glue.

http://www.instructables.com/id/easy-glass-bottle-cutter-made-up-of-common-parts/

Step 8: The rollersMeanwhile the longer beam fastens you can drill the holes for the rollers. I used very short screws so the don't exit out on the board bottom side. The last two rows ofholes are to shift two wheels so that a larger bottle could be held.

Step 9: Rail and rubber feetNow assemble all the four wheels, screw the rail in place, add four rubber feet, clean the surfaces... the main piece is almost ready.

http://www.instructables.com/id/easy-glass-bottle-cutter-made-up-of-common-parts/

Step 10: Some finishingSince the cover moves loosely along the rail I decided to glue two nylon stripes inside the longer edges.Use cyanoacrylate glue, and to be sure the stripes are kept pressed during the drying, apply the cover on the rail as soon as applied the glue.This solution works great, and you can set up the resistance of the movement simply moving fast the "trolley" to and fro, since the heat will consume a bit the plastic,mitigating the opposition force.

Image Notes1. you can see nylon stripes

Step 11: The bottle stopGlue the last wood beam so that it will act as stop for the bottle. Check that it's high enough to reach also the biggest bottles.

Step 12: Test it!Time to try the device. I engrave a big Barbera bottle, and a smaller Birra Moretti one (both typical Italian drinks).Unfortunately there were a couple of mistakes in my design:

as I explained before the arm joint was not very sturdy1.the cutter's blade wasn't reaching the glass of biggest bottle, because the steel frame touched at first2.blade route was a bit misaligned with the circumference, and it drifted out of it3.

http://www.instructables.com/id/easy-glass-bottle-cutter-made-up-of-common-parts/

Step 13: Solve issuesSolving the issues was not hard:

I added the 8 cm wood beam between conduit cover and wood blocks, that makes the joint stronger1.I re-designed the arm with a tilted groove2.I filed the groove surface with more attention to alignment, and I added a more reliable bolt as connection for the blade3.

These improvements are already included in the previous steps, but you can see more detailed pictures of the arm here.

http://www.instructables.com/id/easy-glass-bottle-cutter-made-up-of-common-parts/

Step 14: What's missing?Glasses? Yeah, you're right... since I'm not very skilled in this technique, despite the perfect groove, I've broken all the bottles I've at home!You've to wait some time, that I'll drink more beers and I'll try again... meanwhile you can look the many good step-to-step and video instructables about this same topic .

http://www.instructables.com/id/easy-glass-bottle-cutter-made-up-of-common-parts/

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Want to cutwine bottles?Build this jig! bygrammers

Make a GlassBottle Cutter &How to CutWine Bottles forCups (video) byartsman23

Cutting GlassBottles byProRock

Beer BottleLamps byfabulouswailer

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Comments

30 comments Add Comment

 Raitis says:  Dec 4, 2013. 11:56 PM  REPLYI've cut a plenty of glass bottles this way and still do that if I need a straight cut since the cut is so much cleaner than on tile cutter. For getting them splitnicely I prefer using a butane torch type lighter and a steady hand for turning the bottle, or, when I need it all perfect an old turntable to turn the bottle for me.Just make sure, that you don't apply too much heat too fast (like a few revolutions of bigger distance warm up is enough), and if you're working on a thinnerglass, don't remove the heat immediately too.As for using cold water, ice cubes and all that stuff - it speeds up the crack occurring, but increases the risk of cracking the wrong way too, so I'm not usingthis method anymore, unless there is a stubborn bottle like some of champagne ones, where the glass is thick and it just doesn't seem to crack. In that caseapply thin stream of water over the heated score line (or towards the side you can afford to crack) while holding the bottle horizontally. That way water goesall around the score to the bottom and does the trick where it's needed.Sorry for the over-explanation, I think I should just write an instructable on all of these glass related things...

 Raitis says:  Dec 5, 2013. 12:00 AM  REPLYOh, and the instructable itself is excellent!

 andrea biffi says:  Dec 5, 2013. 10:56 AM  REPLYThanks for the over-explanations, it has been appreciated :-)

 Andsetinn says:  Dec 5, 2013. 7:10 AM  REPLYNicely done.

I would've made the bottom support adjustable. If you make the bottom of the wood arm wider the cut should be steadier.When I break bottles I use very slight pressure on the cutter, only enough so I can just barely see the scratch. Then I use hot running water toexpand/contract the bottle until it breaks. Just put the bottle under running water, let it heat up and then remove and let it cool, repeat as necessary until youhear it break. I was amazed how little effort it took.

http://www.instructables.com/id/easy-glass-bottle-cutter-made-up-of-common-parts/

 andrea biffi says:  Dec 5, 2013. 10:55 AM  REPLYwow, that seems very simple, I'll give it a try!

 Mad inventor says:  Dec 5, 2013. 5:32 AM  REPLYWhat a nice model!

I was needing to make one of these, and I wasn't shure about what kind of bearings to use, but now I'll use the same type of wheels that you did. Thanks forsharing!

 andrea biffi says:  Dec 5, 2013. 10:54 AM  REPLYyou're welcome :-)

 Rohit.Agrawal says:  Dec 5, 2013. 4:34 AM  REPLYHI Andrea,

Good work!

The only flaw I can see in this and reason why you could not get perfect cut is the placement of your cutter.

Instead of placing your cutter on the top of the bottle, if you would place your cutter at the bottom and keep some space and then put bottle on the cutterinstead of cutter on the bottle.

This way the pressure on bottle would work and the base of your model would give a strong base to your cutter. Adjust some place between cutter and thebottle placement and you see it would work like charm.

Hope my suggestion would help you.

ThanksRohit

 andrea biffi says:  Dec 5, 2013. 10:53 AM  REPLYWoow Rohit, this is an awesome idea... it really needs to be designed completely different, and there are some hard challenge to beat, but I think thatshould be a winning project.

 valasoft says:  Dec 5, 2013. 4:07 AM  REPLYvery lovely project

 unclelar says:  Dec 4, 2013. 2:46 PM  REPLYI made something like this 30 years ago and used a piece of nichrome wire to heat the score made with the glass cutter,popped apart very easily.Neverbroke a glass.If you try this make sure to wear eye protection in case it should pop off small glass chips.It did this on some of the bottles I did but not all ofthem.Made about 6 sets of 12 glasses and gave as Christmas gifts,people never saw this before and really liked them.

 Raitis says:  Dec 4, 2013. 11:44 PM  REPLYDo you mean that you hooked up a nichrome wire to a standard power outlet? Did it work?

 andrea biffi says:  Dec 4, 2013. 11:27 PM  REPLYHow did you heat the wire? That's interesting...

 unclelar says:  Dec 5, 2013. 5:00 AM  REPLYI used a transformer,it was a long time ago but I think it was 36v.I got the nichrome from work where it used to heat parts prior to being pressed overanother sleeve that was frozen to make it smaller.

 dimtick says:  Dec 4, 2013. 1:31 PM  REPLYone thought that I had is to have the cutter mounted at a fixed position and instead have the bottle stop being adjustable - with some sort of clamp to lock it inplace. lot less stress on the stop than on the arm. would require a little rethink but may work a little better.very nice instructable! clear instructions and great photos! nice job!

 andrea biffi says:  Dec 4, 2013. 11:29 PM  REPLYYou're right, but with my solution the tool is much more compact, and I don't need to add more wheels or to move them.

http://www.instructables.com/id/easy-glass-bottle-cutter-made-up-of-common-parts/

 Mr.Sanchez says:  Dec 4, 2013. 2:50 PM  REPLYFinnally someone that show this in an easy way, thnks sooo much.

 andrea biffi says:  Dec 4, 2013. 11:24 PM  REPLYtoo kind

 mwojtylko says:  Dec 4, 2013. 4:09 PM  REPLYPerhaps extend the arm bar (though leaving the cutter where it is), then attach some form of cord to the end of it and a hook (of sorts) on the bottom boardin line with the arm. Doing this would allow you to position it, tie it off and not worry about the arm moving about. Only spot you'd need to hold onto (otherthan the bottle) should be where the arm is in the track. Just an idea.

 andrea biffi says:  Dec 4, 2013. 11:23 PM  REPLYthis will work but only if cord is very tighten and the blade is perfectly aligned with the circumference..

 Ludvic says:  Dec 4, 2013. 6:12 PM  REPLYcomplimenti sei un grande :D very good man, you are amazing (sorry for my bad english)

 andrea biffi says:  Dec 4, 2013. 11:19 PM  REPLYahah grazie!

 Deeg says:  Dec 4, 2013. 7:57 PM  REPLYNice quality build. I've done something similar to you except that mine is much more crude but it works pretty well. I've found that having two sets of wheelsmakes it really hard to get the blade to cut a perfect circle--as you noted the bottle tends to travels a little bit as it rotates and the cut doesn't line up. Theframe probably needs to hold the bottle steady while it rotates. I'm gonna guess that the arm holding the cutter is also flexing too much.

 andrea biffi says:  Dec 4, 2013. 11:19 PM  REPLYHi, your instructable is nice!Wheels work good in my tool, the cut was at beginning not straight because the blade was not good-aligned. But you're guessing right about the arm,now it works well but maybe something more firm will work better (maybe a steel joint).

 ironsmiter says:  Dec 4, 2013. 8:17 PM  REPLYSpeed clamp the slide in place, to make sure your score is straight(no slipping).Then use alternating boiling water and ice cubes.I have done string with lighter fluid(nailpolish, rubbing alcohol, etc.) nichrome, Ring Saws, wet tile saws... even a diamond blade on a hacksaw frame. Boilingwater(pour slowly straight from the tea kettle) and ice cubes, alternating... the best method to date. It doesn't take a BIG temperature differential to form thecrack, and the lower the temp difference, the less likely the crack will wander.

Just remember, ONCE around the bottle, with a steady pressure( should make a Zzzsssiiiitttt sound as you go). then STOP. if you go over the score asecond time, you make it worse. A few drops of oil( motor oil works great. vegetable oil works OK also) right on the scoring wheel, and you should be golden.You are in control, but it is literally, as easy as breaking glass.

 andrea biffi says:  Dec 4, 2013. 11:13 PM  REPLYThanks for your advice, I'll try again soon

 Matt2 Silver says:  Dec 4, 2013. 2:20 PM  REPLYReally smart build, I built something similar to this a while back but I my design didn't incorperate the ability to adjust the position of the cutter. Well done, myonly thought is that it might be nice to be able to lock the cutter into place. Thanks for sharing your project!!

 andrea biffi says:  Dec 4, 2013. 1:26 PM  REPLYThanks guys, I wish I had been able to make a glass... maybe next try.

 r-philp says:  Dec 4, 2013. 1:02 PM  REPLYThat's an exemplary instructable! The device is well thought out, the parts are simple, and the steps and photos are excellent! I plan on trying this onemyself.Excellent job!

 laxap says:  Dec 4, 2013. 12:24 PM  REPLYVery well done !