#18
But I did use the lathe to make some nice Christmas presents, and it involves beer. Despite the absence of wood, I knew you would ALL be interested. Here's a little tute:

1) Buy your favorite beer and drink it. Or wine. Haven't tried this with hard liquor, YMMV depending on bottle shape.

2) If necessary, pause to sober up. Safety first!

3) Remove any paper labels. Goo-Gone is good for this.

4) Cut the bottle and remove the top. I used one called the Kinkajou, worked pretty slick. There are lots of videos on the internet that demonstrate how to do this, so I won't go into detail. Now you've figured out that we are making water or juice glasses. Beer bottles make juice glasses, wine bottles for water glasses.




5)Now comes the part where the lathe comes into play. I used it to sand and polish the glass rims. I used a 4" diamond lapping plate to sand the top flat and round the outside edge, 240 and 500 grit. Since it was a wet sanding system, I rigged up a shroud from a water bottle and attached it to the lathe headstock with rare earth magnets.






Here's a bunch after sanding the rim flat and rounding the outside edge.




Sanding the inside edge with 120 grit little drum sander. I wore gloves, dust mask and face mask on every operation. Didn't want to be wearing glass in case of a catch.




Finally, polishing the rim with a buff and buffing compound. I also did one with a wire wheel on a grinder, but that didn't seem very safe.




And the end result.

True power makes no noise - Albert Schweitzer.       It's obvious he was referring to hand tools
Reply

#19
Well, now. That's pretty cool.
Still Learning,

Allan Hill
Reply
#20
Pretty neat little project.

Is that just one days of drinking?

Arlin
As of this time I am not teaching vets to turn. Also please do not send any items to me without prior notification.  Thank You Everyone.

It is always the right time, to do the right thing.
Reply
#21
I've been looking at that bottle cutter. Glad to see it works well. May have to buy one
Reply
#22
Nice job on the glasses!
I remember when I got a " Bottle and Jug Cutter" as a kid. Made all kinds of things with it.
Ripple and Pinch bottles were somewhat difficult
VH07V  
Reply
#23
Love the wet sanding setup! Very clever.

Gonna have to look into one of those bottle cutters - opens up a whole new avenue for creative ideas.
---------------------------
Czarcastic (Steven)

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
Reply
#24
Fantastic idea, would make a great gift. Well done.

Mel
ABC(Anything But Crapsman)club member
Reply
#25
Cool idea. Steam Whistle is one of my favorites although it is tough to find here on the east coast.
Reply

#26
Donovan78 said:


Cool idea. Steam Whistle is one of my favorites although it is tough to find here on the east coast.



It is a good beer, and my son/son-in-laws like it as well. So I figure they will like a gift of glasses with the bottle emblem on them. I recently saw Steam Whistle profiled on one of those food shows. Like many small breweries, they only have 4 ingredients: water, barley, yeast, & hops (Czech and Bavarian, I think), no preservatives or chemicals. The bottles are re-used by the brewery, so they are nice and thick - make great glasses. Corona, on the other hand, has very thin glass, don't recommend them.
True power makes no noise - Albert Schweitzer.       It's obvious he was referring to hand tools
Reply
#27
Very neat- I wonder what you'd need to flame polish instead of using abrasives- I'm guessing oxy acetylene would do the trick?
Reply
Not Really Woodturning.....


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)

Product Recommendations

Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.