Cutting wine bottles??

[ladyciel]

Has anyone had any experience with cutting wine bottles? Goofy question, I know, but I came up with a centerpiece idea based on the possibility. Everything I''ve found online is for cutting them straight across, but I want to do it at an angle. See https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/feldgling-centerpiece-idea.60545/ for the centerpieces and a photo of what I want to do. Getting reality and imagination to align shouldn''t be so tricky.

 

[sumbride]

Hmmm... I love the idea but it doesn''t seem particularly easy or cost effective.

Do you want to cut them because you must use wine bottles? or is it because you want a blue vase that has an angle opening?

 

[ladyciel]

I like the idea of using the wine bottles, and it'd be easy to cut them to different heights for variety across tables. The price I quoted in the last thread was off - I can actually get 24 blue bottles for 30 bucks or so. Clear bottles cost slightly less. I don't know how many tables I have to do yet.

The idea would be to do all the cutting and etching myself, since I enjoy making/crafting things. One thing I might do is look and see how much it would cost to rent a wet saw (like for cutting ceramic tile) for a few hours from Home Depot or the like.

I'm thinking I could use the custom vases, particularly the ones etched w/ our initials and wedding dates, as gifts for special guests.

 

[sumbride]

I think the shatter factor is important to consider when cutting at an angle. It seems dangerous. But if you''ve done glass cutting before, maybe not so much. How are you going to grind down the cut edge?

 

[ladyciel]

I can smooth the sharp edges using a rinding stone like you use for a pocket knife, as well as wet sandpaper designed for the purpose. That''s not the part i''m worried about

 

[partyjewels]

I saw your other thread about your centerpiece idea and I think it''s lovely! You got me curious to find an answer to your problem but all I could find for the actual cutters were the same as you. There were a bunch of pages I found though that tells you how to cut glass without a glass cutter (as well as all sorts on etching and reverse painting on glass, etc. that I didn''t really look at), but they don''t seem particularly safe if you''ve never done it before (or maybe I''m just too cautious, hehe) and it seems like it would take a long time. Since you might have to rent something from home depot, maybe ask them if they have any ideas other than that? Sorry I''m not much help.

 

[ladyciel]

YAY!!! I DID IT!!!

Old fashioned works best, I think. I got a regular old glass cutter from Ace Hardware for 4 bucks, and bent a wire hanger with some pliers to turn the end of the hook into my tapper. I was able to score a decent freehand line around the wine bottle where I wanted to cut it, and then put the tapper inside the bottle to tap around behind the scored line. Takes some patience to get a crack going, but once you get one you lead it around the bottle by tapping the scored line ahead of it a bit. It will take some practice to get good at getting the angle I want scored smoothly around the bottle, but we''ll drink plenty of wine between now and centerpiece making for me to have bottles to practice with! That, and lines that aren''t quite right can either be smoothed out w/ a second cut or ground down when I smooth the edges.

I''m so excited that this idea has a chance of working!!! I''ll put up a pic eventually after I get a good one.

 

[sumbride]

YAY!!!! Just no cutting glass right after you finish the bottle, ok?

Can''t wait to see the pics! I love blue glass! They will be awesome!

 

[akw94]

Your idea sounds really neat and I''m glad you found a reasonable way to accomplish it! Looking fwd to seeing the pics!