DIY...or not

A while back I bought a a little something with grand plans for wedding DIY projects. After feeling the pressure to perform, I finally gave in, opened the box and decided it was time to at least give it a shot. Can I tell you that I was a bit frightened with the prospect of tackling this project? For months now I’ve found reasons to avoid it.

(source) The ever elusive bottle cutter

Yes folks, it’s the bottle cutter. I talked a big game back when I bought it and now I’m here to tell the good, the bad and the ugly about this larger than life project I decided to take on.

First I read through the directions and researched the crap out of it online. Then I made a list of additional stuff I would need (WD-40, extra newspapers, candle, ice cubes) and created a little workspace out on the patio in our backyard.

Before I could really get to the adventure, I had quite a bit of prep to do. After drinking large quantities a bottle or two of wine, I needed to clean them out thoroughly and get the labels off. This sounds simple enough and eventually I got the hang of it but it does take time…and I’m not the most patient. The best system I found was:

Fill a large bowl with hot tap water and a few drops of dish soap. Fill the clean wine bottle about half way with hot water (to keep it from floating). Place the wine bottle label-side down in the water and soak for 15-25 minutes. And if you could have multiple empty bottles in the background that would be great for my self esteem.

Meanwhile, set-up a towel nearby with a bottle of rubbing alcohol (anything with a high amount of isopropyl alcohol), a scrap rag – preferably a dirty looking one like mine and a razor blade.

Scrape off as much of the label as possible. The longer the bottle soaks, the easier it will be to remove the label. I may or may not have learned this the hard way…

Once you reach the point of label stick-grossness, use the scrap rag to dab with rubbing alcohol and rub over the areas with label. You shouldn’t have to scrub very hard, I found it to be fairly easy. After you have everything off, make sure you wash with soap to remove any residue from the rubbing alcohol and you are set to go.

Now position your bottle cutter on the edge of the table and place the etching tool at the height you want on the bottle. Do your best to not give up and go lay in the hammock.

Take a blurry picture of your etching in action. And as a note, the directions say that it needs very little pressure…they are dirty liars. I pushed pretty hard and it still proved to be difficult to get a proper etch. Once you have made your way around the entire bottle, you are ready to move onto the next phase – a little hot and cold. Light a candle and hold the bottle over the flame rotating slowly to heat the etch. Once you feel like the etch is pretty hot, grab an ice cube and rub along the etch line to shock the bottle into submission. You will most likely need to do this cycle multiple times – it was 2-3 for me. But then…

Pretend that this is the same bottle I’ve been showing the whole time, kthanks. And let me just say, the bottle will literally just separate over the flame – you will be amazed. After you have your glass, you need to sand down the edges so it’s not sharp for when you drink out of it. I didn’t have any carbide polishing powder (which is recommended) so I just used sandpaper (which the kit came with) and it worked well enough:

Technically you should use something a bit more sturdy than a flimsy little plastic paint tray but that’s all I had…anyway, fill the bottom of the tray with about 1/8 inch of water to slightly wet the sand paper. Place the glass on top of the sand paper and rotate in circles to smooth the edges. It helps if your fiance volunteers for this part – loved that.

After just a minute or so of sanding, we have nice smooth edges.

After all is said and done, I would definitely try this again…however, it’s much more complicated and time consuming than I had ever thought it would be. At one point I had thought this could be a fun element for our favors or as gifts for bridal party members but I now realize that I would have had to have started this project a year ago to have the time to perfect it (being the admitted type A that I am).

So for now I’ll just toss this project up to the DIY Gods and hopefully find time in the future to work on it and perhaps I’ll figure it out in time for the holidays. That’s right, friends and family, you know what you’re getting in your stockings this year. If they are ugly as all get out, prepare your fake smiles.

Do you have any DIY projects that turned out to be a lot more work than you had anticipated? Any DIYs that you decided weren’t going to be a fit for the wedding after all?