Wine Bottle Accent Light

When you're finished with this project, you will have a low-cost accent light made with commonly available materials. The project is simple and produces great-looking results. If you want to do this with a bottle that has sentimental value to you, I recommend that you practice first because glass is a hard, brittle material and you need to get a feel for the process to increase the likelihood of success.

This instructable is easily adapted to assembly-line processes... Once you have all the jjgs built and materials together, you can whip out bottle after bottle. Total time per bottle is about 10 minutes.

Step 1: Equipment and Materials List

Here's the materials and equipment list:

Equipment
- Craftsman drill press or equivalent (you can do this project with a hand-held drill, but you'll have less control)
- Safety glasses
- Gloves
- Bottle and stopper jigs (See below for materials; instructions included)
- 1/2-inch diamond hole saw
- 5/16-inch drill bit
- 7/16-inch Forstner bit or standard drill bit the same size (the Forstner bit will work best, because it drills a flat-bottomed hole)
- A condiment bottle or other type of squeeze bottle
- A box knife or other sharp cutting tool
- Pliers

Materials
- Wine or liquor bottle, with cork or cap
- 12-inch section of wire coat hanger
- A 12-inch piece of 2x8 for the jig base
- 2 12-inch pieces of parting stop or similar material
- 6 1 1/2" wood screws
- 20-bulb string of white or multicolored Christmas lights
- #00 rubber stopper
- Modeling clay
- Goo-Gone brand adhesive removal product

Comments

[elgoetsch]

Just what I need!

[DIYAng83]

This was exactly what I was looking for. I just bought a ton of lights at 75% off! [I'm totally bragging because they were only 35 cents each!!] THANKS FOR THE DIY IDEA!

[cedmonds]

What an awesome Daryl project!

[purplemoss]

Looks great.....tho you might want to use the led lights instead. Incandescent bulbs put out alot of heat and they even state on the box not to run them for very long.

[KEUrban]

Thanks for the comment. Although I used standard bulbs in the example, you could use either LED or incandescent lamps. In practice, when using the incandescent bulbs the bottle only gets warm, not hot. This is because I specified a short (20-light) string. Of course, the LEDs would be a much greener choice. The key thing would be to get the LED lights with the small bulb and barrel; you have to go through a half-inch hole in the bottle.

[ChrysN]

They look great, nice way to use those wine bottles.

[foobear]

genius. looks really good

[canida]

Looks good! A nice, straightforward reuse project.

[sgsidekick]

This is a neat idea. Many wines come in bottles that you just don't want to toss, even after the wine is gone. Great way to save them!

[KEUrban]

Thanks for the comment. I started this because I have bottles that I wanted to save... I have made about 20 to date with no broken bottles, so it's worth a try if you want to preserve those bottles.