But you can make original glasses yourself, which will delight and surprise both your family and friends. Moreover, this does not require special skills or large expenses.
Wash the bottles selected for cutting thoroughly, remove all stickers, labels, film, decorations and traces of glue.
Will need
You won't have to buy almost anything for materials. Some of them are in the house, others can be picked up on the street, found in a workshop or garage:
- two bottles - round and square;
- rectangular wooden board;
- two wooden blocks of different lengths;
- long and short self-tapping screws;
- reciprocal part of the latch;
- plastic bucket with water;
- plastic bottle;
- drink (Coca-Cola, lemonade, etc.).
For successful work you need the simplest tools and means: glass cutter, Phillips screwdriver, hair dryer, moisture-resistant sandpaper P240 and P1000, as well as abrasive paste for grinding valves.
Manufacturing process of glass bottle cutter
For convenience and accuracy in work, we will assemble a simple device, the basis of which will be a wooden board rectangular in plan. It should be slightly larger than the height of the largest bottle.
We fasten a large wooden block along its long side with two screws. Close to it along the smaller adjacent side of the base we also strengthen a smaller block with screws. The internal angle between them should be 90 degrees.
We securely fasten the glass cutter to a long block using the mating part of the latch and two screws, stepping back from the edge of the smaller block at a distance equal to the height of the glasses. That is, by changing the place where the glass cutter is attached, you can adjust the height of the created dishes. The cutting element of the glass cutter should only protrude slightly beyond the edge of the long bar.
The process of making glasses from glass bottles
The bottles are cleaned and washed, the device is assembled, you can start cutting bottles. This is very easy to do if the bottle is round. Let's start with it.
Making a glass from a round bottle
We place the dishes on the base of the device, resting the bottom against the smaller block. Then, press the bottle against the glass cutter and rotate it so that the glass cutter roller forms a circular line on the bottle. When cutting correctly, a continuous characteristic crack of glass can be heard.
Having finished the cut, we make sure that the ends of the line drawn by the glass cutter meet perfectly, which is also a sign of the quality of the process.
We remove the device and place a bucket of cold water. We warm up the cut line on the bottle with a hair dryer, rotating it for about 40-60 seconds in front of the nozzle of the heat device.
Then quickly lower the dish into the water so that the cutting line is under water.Soon we will hear the clear sound of cracking glass. We take the bottle out of the bucket and slightly provoke it to break, which occurs exactly along the cutting line without chips or nicks.
Making a glass from a square bottle
Working with a square bottle basically has the same scheme as with a round one, but with some nuances. They are mainly associated with its angularity and the impossibility of smooth rotation.
To get rid of this drawback, take a suitable plastic bottle, cut it in the right place and place the bottom part tightly on the bottom of the square bottle. After this, it will be easier to rotate it, resting against the crossbar.
Because of the additional bottom part, in order to keep the height of the glass the same, we move the glass cutter mount along the longitudinal bar to the appropriate distance to the neck of the bottle.
Further actions, in principle, do not differ from working with a round bottle: we make a circular cut, heat it with a hairdryer, lower it into the water and after a characteristic sound, take it out of the water and lightly hit the end of the bucket with different edges. After separating the parts, you can see that the cut turned out smooth.
The process of polishing the top of a glass
Place a sheet of P240 sandpaper on a wooden base and begin to make circular movements, lightly pressing the top of the glass against the surface of the sandpaper.
To make grinding faster, we moisten the sandpaper with water, or better yet, apply an abrasive paste to it for grinding the valves.
After the main grinding, we process the outer edges, pressing the glass to the abrasive surface at an angle of 45 degrees.
We sand the inner edges with a narrow strip of sandpaper folded in half, making longitudinal and transverse movements along the entire perimeter of the glass.
Sanding takes about 40 minutes (of which 10 are sanding the edges), one sheet of sandpaper and a few grams of lapping paste. After finishing sanding, remove any remaining abrasive material, wash with water and detergent, rinse and wipe dry with dry cloths.
Visually make sure that the glasses turned out great.
The thickened bottom and matte surface of the upper part give them a special originality. If you sand the top with P1000 sandpaper, it will become transparent.
It is worthy to pour not only Coca-Cola, but also champagne into such glasses to celebrate any celebration (housewarming, anniversary, state award, career advancement, etc.).
