Cadillac Dystopic Lamp

Step 5 Making the Shroud

This is the most frustrating step of the whole thing.  You need to learn how to bottle cut.

haventmadeabombyet's Practical Bottle Cutting

Ojuiceboy09's Bottle Cutting Instructable

Make's Bottle Cutting

If you don't like any of those you can try my instructions

1) Get the bottle you want
2) Put a hose clamp around the part you want to cut
3) Get a Plate Glass cutter
4) Trace one side of the hose clamp with the plate glass cutter until you have a deep, straight groove.
5) Heat the groove up with a candle or very carefully with your blowtorch
6) Plunge the bottle into ice cold water
7) Repeat steps 5 and 6 till bottle is cut
8) Sand sharp edges

This skill is an art.  The deeper and straighter your cut the better your bottle will break.

Cut the ends off of two bottles that you want to use for the lamp

Tape the end of the bottle up with electrical tape

Put it into the clamps on the tower of the lamp

Move to the next step

Comments

[berekleonard]

I have found the best way to cut glass is with a diamond cutting wheel for a dremel tool. http://www.coroflot.com/public/individual_file.asp?from_url=true&portfolio_id=1321221&individual_id=180478
(Second best, nichrome wire heating)  Score the bottle as you would and, under a trickle of water, make several passes around that line until the cut is complete. Water is messy and electrically dangerous but it quells the glass dust and keeps the cut cool. This method has opened my possible materials to everything from projection tv CRT's to large HID bulbs for my lamp making.

[PopEye42]

I think I'm going to check that out...have you ever done Nichrome wire heating?

[berekleonard]

I did after I researched how CRTs are recycled. Hot wire glass cutting is really good for oddly shaped cuts and works the best out of all thermal-shock methods but still leaves a jagged edge. It's a little bit more involved than the candle method but basically you're heating up a wire to 1200+ deg F within a few seconds on a very isolated area. Check out the nichrome wire article on wikipedia for the approximate amps needed per wire size and temperature required.   

[PopEye42]

Thanks alot man...those bottles have no straight sides at all.  My usually clamp and glass cutter method didn't work all that well.  Nicrome Wire sounds like a pretty good way to do it.

[Bowtie41]

There are also several videos on youtube that show how to tie a string soaked in lighter fluid,it also works well for bottles

[PopEye42]

I've tried that before.  I can't get it to work.  The diamond cutting wheel sounds pretty promising to me