While we don’t promote drinking here at the Red Ferret, there are plenty of instances where one can encounter a glass bottle. My favorite root beer actually comes in brown bottles. So what does one do when they’ve finished their drink? Or perhaps you’ve collected bottles by the side of the road. Sending them off to a recycling center is much better than dumping it in the trash, but you can also re-purpose them at home.
The video below will walk you through the necessary steps needed to turn your average glass bottle into a nice drinking cup. You’ll just need a Bottle Cutting Kit, a candle and some ice. In just a few minutes, you can turn that piece of garbage into something you wouldn’t mind sitting in your kitchen.
Turn an old bottle into an ordinary drinking glass
While we don’t promote drinking here at the Red Ferret, there are plenty of instances where one can encounter a glass bottle. My favorite root beer actually comes in brown bottles. So what does one do when they’ve finished their drink? Or perhaps you’ve collected bottles by the side of the road. Sending them off to a recycling center is much better than dumping it in the trash, but you can also re-purpose them at home.
The video below will walk you through the necessary steps needed to turn your average glass bottle into a nice drinking cup. You’ll just need a Bottle Cutting Kit, a candle and some ice. In just a few minutes, you can turn that piece of garbage into something you wouldn’t mind sitting in your kitchen.
http://www.ephremsbottleworks.com/order/
This is incredibly dangerous. If the bottle is left unannealed (annealing requires placing it in a kiln, and slowly bringing the glass up to the temperature right below where it would begin to slump, then allowing to slowly cool again) after you do this, the glass will be left with all kinds of stress in it, and will at some point shatter, probably at the absolute worst time.
Also, the way he grinds this is an excellent way to start yourself off on the road to silicosis (like black lung, but with silica instead of carbon).
Seriously, don't do this.
I should note, the grinding he does on the plate glass is the right way to do it (if you don't have a lapidary grinder), as the glass particles that would come off would be trapped by the water. It's the sand paper method he does to finish the lip of the glasses that makes me cringe and worry for your lungs (and eyes, be sure to wash your hands after doing this).
Either way, this is very dangerous in a not completely obvious way. You're opening yourself the likelihood of cuts on your lips (he got that edge flat, and then beveled the outside lip, but what about the inside? That's still a 90 degree angle, and a well polished one at that) and easy breakage (I mean, he did score, then heat, the cool the glass, and soda lime glass, the type that beer bottles are made out of, is not a glass that handles thermal stress very well at all).
Please, if you do do this, don't let a child use these, and if you let an adult use them, warn them in advance about how it was made, and let them decide if they want to take the chance.
Also, if you have a friend who is a glassblower, talk to them. They can actually make you a relatively safe version of these, and properly anneal them to remove any residual stress. even cooler, the bottles with fired on decals (examples being Rolling Rock, Red Stripe, Corona, etc…) can actually have the decal survive being worked in the flame and then heated in the kiln (provided that the flame doesn't actually touch the decal). They look a lot cooler, and are much safer.