Plastic bottles accumulate in every family. Most often, their continued use is to landfill. Not everyone understands that a plastic bottle can be a good raw material for the manufacture of useful and necessary things in the household. It is enough to carefully cut it, and you get a reliable heat-shrink tape. When heated, it melts and becomes very durable. Therefore, it is easy for her to find application in the country.
It is impossible to cut plastic accurately and quickly only with a knife or scissors. To solve this problem, you can create a special device that is easy to manufacture and operate. How to make a bottle cutter with your own hands will be discussed in the article.
Manufacturing Features
There are several options for making a bottle cutter with your own hands. Photos of them suggest that most of them are almost the same. But there are some fundamental differences. Some options have additional improvements.
As a cutting element, the blade from the stationery knife is most often used. For the tape to be flat, it must be sharp. The blade is attached to wooden or metal workpieces. Some options include mounting to the base (for example, to the table). Others must be kept in hand during operation.
The easiest way
To make the simplest version of a bottle cutter with your own hands, you will need very few materials:
- base;
- blade (for example, from a clerical knife);
- several screws;
- several washers (or nuts).
The manufacturing process will take only a few minutes. As the basis, you can use a small segment of the board. In any of its places (but not on the very edge), a self-tapping screw is screwed. It should have a nut with several washers. Next to it, another self-tapping screw with several washers (nut) is screwed in the same way. In this case, the washers (or at least the upper one) should be of a larger diameter. This is due to the fact that it will serve as a guide. Nuts are optional. You can just take a few washers to get a small pile. There should be a distance between the stacks of washers approximately equal to the wall thickness of the bottle.
A knife is placed between the washers located on different self-tapping screws. Moreover, the sharp side should be directed to the screws. It clamps between the washers. Depending on the number of them under the knife, the thickness of the cut tape will also be adjusted.
The bottom is cut off from the bottle. An initial cut of the tape is made. With the trimmed part, the bottle is mounted on the knife so that one of its walls is between the stacks of washers. With one hand, the bottle is pressed down, and the ribbon is pulled with the second.
Wooden device
You can make a bottle cutter with your own hands, taking as a basis a small wooden block. You will also need a clerical knife (its blade), a metal tape and several screws 15 mm long.
The bar should fit in your hand (approximately 4.5 x 4.5 x 17 cm). From the top in the center, the bar is cut down a few centimeters. An incision is made on the front side to about the middle of the thickness of the bar. Both incisions must intersect. A knife is inserted into the horizontal with the point to the unfinished sidewall. It is fixed there with pieces of metal tape, bolted with screws.
The bottom of the bottle is cut off. An incision is made to form the beginning of the tape. Next, the bottle is put on the blank. The principle of operation and the device are visible in the photo above.
Materials for metal bottle cutter
The next version of a self-made bottle cutter involves the use of the following materials:
- aluminum corner;
- clerical blade;
- several nuts (washers);
- one nail (200 mm).
In addition to materials, you will need tools: a drill with drills (with diameters of 3 and 6 mm), a grinder, a file. Sandpaper is also useful to remove burrs. It is convenient to clean the resulting metal shavings with a brush with metal bristles.
Assembly assembly
The schematic diagram of this device is visible in the drawing. Do-it-yourself bottle-cutting starts with fixing the knife to the corner. To do this, the blade is applied to the corner from the inside. A place is marked for the hole through which the fastening will be carried out, and the length of the knife (to remove the excess part of the corner). In the marked place, a hole is drilled in the workpiece (6 mm in diameter). The excess part of the corner is cut off.
Near the hole (5 mm from it), cuts are made at the corner with an interval of 5 mm. Their length should correspond to the desired thickness of the tape. Slots are thoroughly cleaned of burrs and chips.
A nail is used as an axis. A thread of about 15-20 mm in length is made on it. The edge of the thread is slightly bent so that the axis sets the angle of cut of the tape and feeds the bottle. A threaded nail is inserted into the hole prepared first. The do-it-yourself bottle cutter is ready, and you can use it.