O/T Need Recommendations on Cutting A Glass Bottle Neck

[jr45acp]

Greetings! Since I retired, among my many pursuits I've also gotten back into guitar playing using various types of slides. I found a nice wine bottle and I need to cut the neck off. Searching on the net has revealed a number of approaches, but for me, none have been successful.

So, I guess the ultimate question would be does anyone know of some type of blade that could be put in a hack saw blade to accomplish this?

I'm sure a masonry wet saw would be the cat's rear end, but where I live trying to get someone to take a couple of minutes to make the cuts hasn't met with positive results.

Anyway, all thoughts are appreciated.

[Steve Steven]

MANY years ago (40+) when in college, I tried to cut beer bottles off to make drinking mugs. I tried 4 or 5 ways, none entirely successful. As I remember it, the "wrap a string soaked in kerosene around, light it and dip in cold water" method worked so-so, about 50% successful.

Steve

[dp]

There's a lot of ways and this guy has tried them all:

http://www.cowtown.net/mikefirth/bottle.htm

This guy made a video:

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/508368..._glass_bottle/

And this guy has it down to a fine art:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz8WXOJ_kiQ

[Evan]

but for me, none have been successful.

It must suck having to dump out all that wine so you can try another time to cut the neck off another bottle. Are you sure you want an answer?

[topct]

Harbor freight has a little set of diamond discs with an arbor that might work. They are cheap anyways.

There are tons of glass slides being made. There are ceramic ones also. And metal of course.

But it is a bit of tradition that a bottle neck guitar player finds his own.

When you find one that works you must guard it with your life. Its part of the deal you make with the devil.

[tattoomike68]

You can make a Jig from a Miter box. clamp a glass cutter and a stop to it. They used to sell bottle cutters cheap years ago.

[hawgwrench]

Home Depot and Lowes used to sell a small cable type blade covered in carbide grit for a hacksaw. It's intended use was to cut ceramic tile,I owned one,used it a good bit,and it worked. It was slow as molasses,but worked great for odd to cut copings. Maybe this would cut glass?....never tried,but its really cheap,like 3 or 4 bucks.

[Jpfalt]

You can use a setup like a hot wire foam cutter that I used years ago. You make a frame that holds a slack wire. Wood works well for the frame. Then you attach to the wire with alligator clips and connect to a variable voltage source, such as a variable transformer or a dimmer switch. You turn up the power until the wire just starts to glow and then press the glass up against it. It cracks immediately where the glass contacts the wire. The voltage and current will depend on the wire diameter you use. Harbor freight .041" stainless wire runs about 5 to 7 amps and about 4 volts per foot of lenght.

[biometrics]

I second the Mitre box idea. You can just make a wood frame like a mitre box if you don't have one. Mount the head of a standard hand held rotary wheel glass cutter so that the bottle when turned in the wooden jig will touch the cutter just like a tool bit in a lthe. When you have scratched the bottle all the way around, hold a long bolt head first in the bottle so that the bolt head is even with the cut and tap it around the inside until you fracture the scratch all the way through. Once separated, use sandpaper to make the edge safe to touch... OR you could try heating the bottle gently in an oven to about 200 degrees and then holding it horizontally, pour cool water on the neck of the bottle. It should fracture at the scratch... then use the sandpaper trick to make the cut safe to touch as above. I remember buying one of these wooden jigs in a 5 & Dime store in the early 70's and making tumblers and vases out of every bottle that got emptied in my house. It was a lot of fun then... now it would just be a chore.

[Rusty Marlin]

This gal has down to an art form! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMiej...eature=related

The trick is obviously to put the string and the water level in the bottle to be cut at the same hight.

Very slick.