Beer Bottle Opener With Magnetic Top Catcher

by Stevens Workshop

12K14216

Intro: Beer Bottle Opener With Magnetic Top Catcher

My brother in law inspired this project, he has a bottle opener on the wall in his kitchen but every time you open a bottle you have to quickly catch the top or pick it up off the floor. I decided to make something a little better.

STEP 1: Selecting the Wood

I have a number of bits of wood lying around my workshop and selected this piece of oak and a couple of strips of western red cedar.

STEP 2: Layup, Plane and Level

To add a little bit of detail I decided to rip the piece of oak lengthwise and insert the two western red cedar strips. This was glued with Titebond wood glue clamped and left to dry overnight.

Once the glue was dry I ran the finished piece through my thicknesser to get to a nice flat surfaces and then across the jointer to square of the edges.

STEP 3: Cut the Parts

With the piece now level and square I chopped it to length for the individual openers, I was able to get five parts out of the length of oak I had. These were each 270 mm long.

I cut the corners off each piece to give it a bit of interest and not have it quite so Square. I ran a 45° bevel around the top and bottom going a little bit deeper on the top.

I also cut a couple of screw slots in the back to enable it to be hung on the wall. This was routed out using a Trend screw slot bit.

STEP 4: Start of the Finishing

Because the grain of the wood I had used what's so beautiful I decided I wanted to enhance it rather than hide it.

This I did using three coats of Danish oil, each coat was left to dry for approximately 3 to 4 hours and then any excess oil was wiped off, between each coat a very light sanding using 240 grit sandpaper was also done. The final coat was left to fully dry overnight.

STEP 5: Final Finish

To give the openers a bit of a protective finish I decided to add a few coats of polyurethane varnish. They are after all probably going to have beer spilled on them.

I had never applied at polyurethane varnish on top of a Danish oil finish so decided to try it out on a piece of scrap plywood that I'd also put oil on and the back of one of the openers.

I'm very pleased to report that the varnish took just fine, seems to have a fairly good at adhesion without any bubbles or other problems.

STEP 6: Polyurethane Varnish

The varnish was applied using a 30 mm wide brush.

It has a satin finish which when dried looks beautiful.

I applied four coats of varnish leaving 4 to 5 hours between each coat, between each coat I knocked off any dust particles and bubbles that appeared in the finish using a 1200 grit sandpaper.

STEP 7: Fitting the Magnet and Opener

Once the final coat of varnish had fully dried (over night) I routed out a hole in the back of the wood to take the rare earth magnet. The magnet is a 40 x 20 x 5 mm, neodymium, N52 type bought from First4Magnets. I took great care at this stage to make sure that I didn't burst through the front of the piece leaving approximately 5 mm of wood.

The magnet is held in place with a generous helping of hot glue.

I then flipped each piece over and screwed on the bottle opener using stainless steel pan head screws.

As you can see from the video the magnet grabs the tops very easily. It's an incredibly strong magnet and I think it will probably hold 20 to 30 bottle tops.

16 Comments

mpulliam1 7 years ago

Simple, functional, and Voted. Great job!

I have a buddy that likes to buy old bottle openers from closed down bars and/or garage sales, then he uses old barn wood and makes a similar item. He can then call them "antique".

Stevens Workshop 7 years ago

Matt, it's a shame how many pubs are shutting down ? I've never thought of them as a source of parts ? I'll be looking out in the future.
Thanks for the vote

slackpat 7 years ago

I stuck a flexible fridge magnet below my opener and a cup so that the caps always end in the cup

Mad Props 7 years ago

You are a genius and a true craftsman.

You have just make the world a better better place!

bsharpstick 7 years ago

A good source of those magnets is old hard drives. The magnets are glued(?) to metal frames and can be removed by clamping the frame edge in a vise and bending the other side of the frame away with pliers.

katerlyn 7 years ago

thank you! I also will make key chains from ram cards when I take my pld pcs apart.

Thanks for this instructable, I will be adding a magnet to my kitchen Coke opener.

Stevens Workshop 7 years ago

Stick a magnet on it, a great little addition. I look forward to seeing pictures.

clazman 7 years ago

The absolute height of crazy

Mans only limit to ...

rustybender 7 years ago

Very nice. I've made a few of these as gifts but I shaped mine to look like beer bottles. Mine were made out of a single piece of wood, but I really like the accent wood strips you put in there. I may need to incorporate that feature the next time I make some.

The other thing I did different was I used a couple extra magnets on the back to make the whole thing magnetic. Instead of mounting it on the wall, mine just stick on the door of the refrigerator.

Stevens Workshop 7 years ago

Hi Rusty,

Thank you, yes the accent wood really works as a visual detail ?
I had seen this fixing method in some of the research it did for the project but I knew that at least three of the people who would be receiving these as gifts had in built refrigerators with an external wooden door.
I might stick an extra magnet or two in the next ones I do as I've been asked to make a few more ?

rustybender 7 years ago

I'll probably be adding keyhole slots to any more I make so the recipient has the option of wall or magnetic mounting. I've got the keyhole bit, I might as well use it!

Stevens Workshop 7 years ago

If you've got the bit already, you might as well add a couple of slots ?

Stevens Workshop 7 years ago

Thanks Jason, I'm very pleased with my first Instructable