bottle cutting machine

This is my first instructable.  Let's see if I am any good at this. The project is basicly a fairly simple machine  intended to be used in cutting glass bottles to make :drinking glasses, rings, ashtrays and stuff i have not thought of yet.


 

Step 1 Materials and tools

In order to do this project you will need the following (most of which can be found in the trash)

MATERIALS
1 beat up old bike with a single piece crank
1 old tire
5 bolts, carriage bolts or similar.  These should be approxamatly as long as the radius of your crank
5 wingnuts sized and threaded to fit your bolts
10 washers sized to fit your bolts
5 compression springs large enough to fit around your bolts and as close to the bolt length as you can get them.
plywood
grease ( I like white lithium but your mileage may vary)
wood screws
2x4
pvc cement  or rubber cement

TOOLS

angle grinder
cutoff wheel
wire wheel
welder (optional)
wrenches and or rib joint pliers
dremel tool
screwdriver
vise (a pipe vise is also helpful)
saw
level
knife
utility knife or box cutter

razor knife

Comments

[brightled]

come on man,this is overkill ,look at some of the old bottlecutters for sale or better still buy a cheap one and examine what is really happening,why the bike crank and the welding ,come on man a few sticks of 1x1,a baseplate12x12 inches, and a elcheapo glass cutter makes a great cutter,think about it ....BRIGHTLED

[urbanpirate]

probably true but it was fun to build and it never hurts to get practice time with the welder

[handprints]

pretty neat! I love gears and cranks. Will you post a photo of a cut bottle?

[urbanpirate]

I plan to follow with several projects using this machine, a glass cutter and a torch as the main tools soon.

[matthew gowan]

Your next addition could be an adjustable toolhead to bring the cutter in contact with the bottle at a preset distance.