Bottle Squeezer

by rog8811

3.9K3711

Intro: Bottle Squeezer

My elderly mother has started to use eye drops, turns out she is struggling to squeeze the bottle. 30 minutes after she told me about it I had fixed the problem for her, I know I could have gone online and had a plastic squeezy thing, to put around the dropper bottle, delivered the next day but here is how I went about it.

STEP 1: The Design

The design was drawn out on a scrap piece of 18mm marine plywood, the drawing (which I drew up when I had finished took longer than it took me to make the squeezer) shows the basic dimensions.

I had a slight complication in that mother has 2 different drops in different size bottles, I sized the hole for a snug fit on the bigger bottle.

STEP 2: Make It!

I drilled out the hole first with a step drill then the rest of the shape was cut on my bandsaw and the whole lot smoothed off with some sand paper.

The only other part was a strip of 1mm plastic which goes inside the hole when the smaller bottle is used.

STEP 3: Make It Again!

A friend saw my squeezer and said "could I have one for my mother please?" Of course she can, only a different design this time as the bottle isn't round.

I marked around the bottle onto a scrap piece of 18mm marine ply, I then drilled a 10mm hole off the end of the bottle outline. This will be the hinge so that the movement presses on the 2 flat sides rather than all round.

Then on to the bandsaw to cut the shape out.

STEP 4: Easy Peazy Bottle Squeezy!



So there it is, easy to hold and use, problem fixed!

A post script on this, my mother is absolutely delighted with this device, she says it so easy to hold the bottle in the right place, turns out she was ending up with more drips on her face than in her eyes as she struggled to squeeze the bottle!

I have yet to get the new one to my friend but hopefully it will help her and her mother as much as it helped mine :)

10 Comments

Stevens Workshop 2 years ago

Brilliant solution to problem that I'm sure loads of people have.
So much better than jumping online and buying a 'plastic squeezy thing'.

pemazzei 3 years ago

Very nice! Good idea, especially for the people with arthritis in their
fingers and hands! Good contribution to them. Paulo, from Brazil

shalnachywyt 3 years ago

My Tai Chi teacher suggested glucosamine for my arthritic right knee. Within 24 hours the pain went away and hasn't returned. That was 15 years ago. I've had arthritis since I was 10 years old and that was the only thing that tackled the pain.

pemazzei 3 years ago

Hello, nice to know that glucosamine can help. I will check if we have
similar medicine here in Brazil. I have in the hands and fingers, and the
doctors says it is "rizartrose" (don´t know the English name). I
think that is very important to develop tools to make ease the life of people
with such disease.

shalnachywyt 3 years ago

Apparently "rizartose" is the Brasilian Portugese name for arthritis.

DirtGrader 3 years ago

Eye drop bottles are hard to open especially when opening for the first time with there Safety/Security Cap.. thanks

shalnachywyt 3 years ago

A looonnngg time ago I bought a metal jar opener that helps with taking caps off and the smallest one opens small bottles like eye drops etc.
Does your Mom have the ability to squeeze the handles?

rog8811 3 years ago

The day after I gave the squeezer to my mother she told me that getting the drops in the right place is so easy now she does it at the fridge, where she stores the dropper bottles rather than bringing it back to her chair and sitting down to do it.
She has no problem at all squeezing the handles and controlling it to one drop.