How to Make a Bottle Opener With a Magnetic Cap Catcher

In this tutorial I will show you how to make the coolest bottle opener EVER!

It may not look like much at first glance but your friends will be amazed once you start popping those bottles. Not only does this bottle opener stick to any magnetic surface, it will also catch all of those bottle caps as they fall, up to 60 of them!

Make one of these bad boys and give it out as a gift or make one for yourself and show off your new creation.

COMPONENTS USED IN THIS BUILD:

Lumber (I used Alder but you can use what ever you have available)

Wall Mounted Bottle Opener

Cordless Drill

-------> BEER! <-------

Enjoy!

P.S.

It seems that when viewing this page from a mobile device, the embedded video doesn't work. So here is a link to my YouTube video for your reference.

WATCH VIDEO HERE

Step 1: Step 1: Select Your Material and Cut to Final Dimensions

For this project I chose a nice piece of Red Alder Hardwood, mostly because I had a nice piece of it in my lumber rack already, but also because it is fairly lightweight and very beautiful.

After making several different variations of these in the past, I decided that 4" x 10" was a great size for these bottle openers.

For this step I used my table saw to clean up the edges of the lumber. Next I set the fence of my table saw to 4" then ran the piece of lumber through the saw which produced 2 - 4" strips of lumber that are about 27" long. Once you have your lumber ripped to 4" you will need to cross cut the lumber at 10". To do this I used my cross cut sled on my table saw. I measured out from the blade 10" and set a stop block which helps to achieve very nice uniform cuts.

Out of this scrap piece of lumber I was able to get 4 - 4"x10" pieces.

SEE DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS IN VIDEO HERE:

Step 2: Step 2: Time to Get Fancy

This step can be considered optional (except for sanding, you always have to sand), because you could literally keep your lines nice and straight and go with the rectangle as is.

I however chose to give my bottle opener a little fancy edge which softens the corners and looks more professional I think.

To do this I used my router table and I loaded a 1/2" round over bit into my router. I slowly ran all 4 edges of the board across the blade which produced a nice finished edge.

And of course finished it off with some good old sanding. I used a random orbit sander and a mouse finish sander.

SEE DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS IN VIDEO HERE:

Step 3: Step 3: Drill Holes for Magnets

Now it is time to drill the holes in the back for the super strong rare earth magnets.

The size of your holes will depend on the size of magnets you have but I used 2 - 3/4" round N52 Neodymium magnets for the cap catcher an 4 - 1/4" N35 neodymium magnets for the four corners which help the bottle opener mount to the fridge or other magnetic surface.

I used my drill press with a 3/4" forstner bit and a 1/4" standard drill bit for my holes. If you don't have a drill press you could use a handheld drill and achieve the same result.

SEE DETAILS IN VIDEO HERE:

Step 4: Step 4: Installing the Magnets

Once you have your holes drilled, you will need to use some sort of adhesive to permanently fix the magnets in the holes, I used some super glue.

Simply apply some glue in each cavity and place the magnets in the holes. I also added some more glue on top of the magnets for extra grip

SEE DETAILED VIDEO HERE:

Step 5: Step 5: Finishing Touch

There are many ways to finish or condition wood, in this project I used some Minwax spray high gloss polyurethane.

I applied 2 coats to the back because it will not be visible but I still wanted to protect it at least a little. On the front, I applied 4 coats after letting it dry for about 20 - 30 mins in between coats. Simply follow the directions on the can of what ever product you chose to use.

SEE DETAILED VIDEO HERE:

Step 6: Step 6: Attach the Bottle Opener

Now that the board is all shaped and finished, it is time to turn this fancy piece of wood into an actual bottle opener.

To do this, I placed the wall mounted bottle opener near the top of the board making sure it was centered, and marked the screw holes with a pencil.

Next I pre-drilled where I marked with a drill bit that was slightly smaller than the diameter of the screws.

Lastly, I placed the bottle opener back on the board and used a screwdriver to hand screw the mounting screws into the board. I like to use a screwdriver instead of a power drill so that I can assure not to over tighten and strip the screws.