Bottle Neck Slides

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on April 25, 2012 at 9:10am

There are folks here that have done it successfully, but I have never been able to make it work, so I gave up.

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Permalink Reply by ED (Bad Finger) on April 25, 2012 at 9:29am

The trick is to make a relatively deep and narrow score line.  You want a lot of stress built up on a very small area for the relatively small change in temperature to have an effect.  The broader the stress region, the greater the difference in temperature will need to be and the lower the likelihood of a clean break.  I've tried a few with some success, but stopped mostly because most bottles won't be big enough diameter for my ring finger.

It helps to have a steady rest for the bottle and the cutter.  Screw a cleat down to a work surface so you can spin the barrel of the bottle relatively accurately.  Use the cleat as a steady rest for the glass cutter and you may get better results than free handing the job.

Expect low yield and don't worry about it since you're trying to get something for nothing.  Glass is a tricky material and beer bottles aren't exactly precision working stock.

Or purchase a slide if you want to get one right every time.  

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on April 25, 2012 at 11:15am

I have not had any luck either, but if you are going to do it try a wine bottle instead, the end result is a better slide than a beer bottle.

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Permalink Reply by John Davidson on April 25, 2012 at 12:47pm

I bought a glass vile slide over at cbgitty.com.

Discovered the label from those tiny little bottles of Jack Daniel's fit inside the vile and adds a bit of character.

 

The only problem is keeping it mine, everyone that sees it wants it.

John

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Permalink Reply by William McCauley on April 25, 2012 at 1:35pm

Bought a glass tube at Best Buy, in their guitar dep't.

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Permalink Reply by Maddog on April 25, 2012 at 2:53pm

I use a tile wet saw with a diamond blade and cut wine necks with it and works really good, now I know not everyone has a wetsaw but i'm not sure a 4 1/2 grinder with a diamond blade wouldn't work. Gets kinda pricey tho.

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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on April 25, 2012 at 3:28pm

I rarely cut glass slides these days...my buddy Ian at Diamond Bottlenecks does the job better, quicker and cheaper than I can (I buy mine off him 20 at time as it just takes so long to do it myself)...but when I do cut slides I use an angle grinder in a bench jig  with a diamond coated disc...score it about 1/2 way thru the thickness of the neck then snap it off..no messing with making a  a little scratch with a Dremel or glasscutter. The real hard work is flatting the cut down and polishing it.  To do this right involves a lot of experimentation, some brute horsepower, proper abrasives, a lot of elbow grease..and a lot of broken glass. Wine bottles (and some olive oil and sherry bottles) are the thing to use, beer bottles are generally too wide a taper and thin-walled.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on April 26, 2012 at 3:05pm

I have made slides out of beer, wine, and champagne bottles, utilizing both a hand-held glass cutter, and a Dremel tool with a diamond-impregnated cutoff wheel. The glass cutter requires a steady hand and eye, and seldom results in a single cut surface; I found it too unreliable. The Dremel takes longer to cut all the way through, but does work pretty effectively. I did not muck about with hot and cold water; I just made my cut until it cracked off. I then used a Dremel grinding stone to smooth out the edges. Beer bottles are very brittle, and require the most caution and finess. Champers and wine bottles are easier to get nearly perfectly circular, but you must take your time; don't rush.

I've also gotten extremely lucky just breaking a bottleneck off, with no pre-cutting. And I also own a Coricidin bottle, two chromed steel slides, and a number of other slides for specific tones, but my favorites are $1.37 copper plumbing tubing pieces.

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Permalink Reply by Maddog on April 26, 2012 at 5:13pm

If you gents are going to be making a lot of slides invest in a wet tile saw with a diamond blade, I think I spent like $175 for mine. I can make the 2 cuts on a wine bottle in about 10 seconds, clean cut every time. I smooth it out with a dremel and done. Now that being said you can use the saw for a number of other things, even cutting tile if ya choose.

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Permalink Reply by Mungo Park on April 26, 2012 at 10:40pm

Woozers, my Dad gave me a tile cutter, I didn't want it but took it to please him, now I am glad I did, thanks for the tip.

                            Cheers Ron

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on May 2, 2012 at 11:15am

Hmm, I think my mom has one she bought for tile cutting years ago. The bathroom is done so she may not miss it. 

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Permalink Reply by Cigarbox Triplestrings on April 30, 2012 at 7:13am

Got to, eBay for a good bottle neck cutter http://www.ebay.com/itm/STAINED-GLASS-SUPPLIES-BOTTLE-JAR-CUTTER-ST... 

This bottle cutter works fine provided you set it up as per instructions.

I've not had a failure using this cutter, although to be fair some necks I've had to do a bit of extra grinding because I haven't got an absolutely clean cut. Tungsten carbide tips seem to work best....you only need to do a fine score line, and don't overlap the cut....one complete circle around the bottle neck only. Don't worry if you can't see the score line, If you have a good cutter, you can hear it doing its job rather than see it. Then use the hot/cold water method....might take a couple of goes alternating between hot & cold, but I've not had any difficulty. I use aluminum oxide sandpaper to smooth the edges after cutting. Also dip the glasscutter tip in metho before cutting, for lubrication. If the slide is too big for your finger after cutting, use some of the softer (loop) side of velcro, glued around the rim of the slide on the inside to reduce the width and give a bit of grip.

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