Cut A Bottle With A String

So many great ideas out there.  So many "pretty" ways of doing things.  Sometimes it's a good idea to try them out and see if they really work.

Here's one that I did.

You've probably seen this one go around the net.  It's been on Youtube, Face Book, and I'm sure, although I haven't seen it yet... Instagram.

This one happens to be accompanied by "why" you would go to the trouble.  It makes sense.  You're having a BBQ and would like a little atmosphere.  But that darn wind keeps getting in the way.  The candles are getting blown out, or maybe they're just burning to fast.

Solution.... A beautiful recycled glass cover.  DIY style.

So here's the thing.  It works.  Not only that, but the flame on the candle doesn't suffocate from lack of oxygen.  I could go into all of the things that a fire needs to burn.... But that has already been done by someone else.

Once we new what to do, it took all of 5 minutes to break the glass.  I'd say it'll take about another 5 to grind the edge to get rid of the couple of sharp spots it has.  But for 10 minutes, and a new way to re-purpose old glass?  Worth it.

Picture 1 is basically steps 1 - 4.  Just like in the videos, we wrapped the yarn around the bottle, tied it, and cut off the extra string after the knot.  Then we pulled the yarn off of the bottle taking care not to un-wind it.  We soaked the yarn in its created shape, in fingernail polish remover and then re-placed it on the bottle. (This step is why it is important to not un-wind the yarn.) We did our best to make the yarn was as even or level as possible around the bottle.  A crooked string can mean a crooked break.

While you're soaking the yarn, fill your bucket or sink with COLD water.  We added ice just to make sure.

Once we were happy with the placement of the yarn we lit it.  While the yarn was burning we turned the bottle over and over until just before the fire began to burn out.  Once we could see that it was on the verge of burn out we dunked it into the sink full of water.

Immediately we heard, "SNAP", and the bottom of the bottle sank to the bottom of the sink.

Picture 2 shows the rough edge of the bottle.  It will need to be ground, or sanded down, but at this point it is just a matter of cleaning up the supplies and removing the yarn.

In Picture 3 you'll notice that the break line is well above the yarn.  If you look you can also see a fracture underneath the yarn line.  (The red arrow is pointing out the fracture.)  This tells me that the fracture line is right at the edge of the heat line.

And Finally in Picture 4 you can see the lit candle burning nicely.  While I write this post I have left the candle burning.  Currently it has been burning for more than an hour.  This could be because the bottom is un-even and allowing air flow to help feed the flame...  Or it could work just fine even with the edge flat to the table surface.  Once I get the new bottom cleaned up I can update this post and let you know.

I'm thinking I know a few people who might enjoy these as a house warming gift.

CHEERS!

***UPDATE:  One way that you can knock down the sharp edge after "cutting" the bottom of the bottle off is to carefully rub the cut end against cement.  I'd recommend cement that is as smooth as possible.  Rub the bottles cut edge against the cement in a circular motion.  This is a tedious process and needs to be done carefully.  This can produce vertical cracks in the bottle.  ***


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