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bottle slides.

Hi all.

I have cut a few bottle necks and ground them smooth (slowly) on a belt sander with a standard 120 grit belt and then by hand just using carborandum paper. That has taken off the sharp edges and has been reasonably successful but as you know if there are any flaws in the glass at all, you hear it in the palying. I am wondering if any one has an alternative method of grinding them smooth and then to a high polish.

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Permalink Reply by Yankee Dog on October 14, 2013 at 2:56am

I cut mine with a dremel and a lot of patience. I find a few twists with a bit of steel wool takes the sharp edges off.

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Permalink Reply by Wade on October 14, 2013 at 2:31pm

Some bottles are just smoother than others. I go for bottles that are super smooth without rough seams.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Woods on October 16, 2013 at 7:09am

I use a wedge shaped diamond grinder from HF on my drill press. Make a cut straight into the side staying on the same spot, once it gets nearly through the outer wall it breaks quite smoothly, if not exactly perpendicular. Some Wet/Dry 220, 320, 500 & 1000 on the edges makes them very smooth without all the chipping you get with the coarser grit. It is kind of neat that you see a "grain" of the break in the glass.

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Permalink Reply by jeff Cadzow on March 4, 2014 at 12:34am

Some time ago I sought advice on cutting bottle necks, thanks to Yankee Dog,Wade and Jim woods for responses.

I dont know if I was refered to the site or whether I found it but there is video out there some where with a guy cutting bottles using a glass cutter and then hot and cold water. I have been using an old tungston wheel style cutter and it works a treat. The hardest part, particularly with my old glass cutters, is to score a neat line around the neck. I just clamped the bottle to the bench upsidedown and used an appropriate height block of wood to support the cutter but I'm sure there lots of ingenious jigs out there waiting to be adapted. Once thats done, boil the kettle. and gently pour some hot water over the scored line. follow that with cold water and then hot water and then cold and so on. The neck will drop off usually after 1 or 2 times.

Then with a two sided (fine and course) carborandum sharpening stone use the flat sides to to grind the ends of the bottle neck and then use the corner of the stone to grind a shamfer on the inside of the neck. If you only have one sharpening stone you better go out and buy another because it does knock the stone around even with oil but it does work quite well and reasonably quickly even when the cut is uneven.

regards Jeff

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Permalink Reply by Groucho on March 4, 2014 at 4:58am

I have used the same technique before to make glass slides, except I just sandpaper the rough edges smooth. And yes, scoring the bottle in a straight line around the neck is the toughest part.

On occasion while going from hot to cold water, I've had the slide end up breaking apart from the temperature change. If that happens you just need to chug another bottle of wine and start over again.

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on March 4, 2014 at 7:42am

I have a 1970's vintage kit similar to what's used here:

http://diamondtechcrafts.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/7-simple-tips-to-...

Turns out you can still buy these . . . they work great.

and, not I'm not as happy as that guy when cutting bottle necks... But, it works well, and the hot/cold shock method works great. My last abtch I went 12 for 13 on good cuts. I normally do them in batches, it goes pretty quickly.

a little 400 grit on the edges, and I'm good to go...

John