Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Mancave Mishap

   Em here, I survived the tests and am back and ready for some Pinstrosity action!
Katie wrote in with a project for her husband's man cave that didn't go as she had hoped, check it out.

The Original Pin

The Pinstrosity

The project consists of taking bottles, any sort of glass bottle, and cutting it using yarn soaked in acetone nail polish remover lighting it on fire (the yarn) and as soon as the flame has traveled all the way around the bottle, dip in ice cold water and the bottle splits right where the yarn was, this will supposedly yield a drinking glass, vase, candle holder etc,. Katie said she followed the instructions to a "T" and as soon as she pulled the glass out from the water all she had was a wet bottle, a cold wet hand and no drinking glass. Thoroughly disappointed, she decided it was a dud and so far, so do we.

There are a few things that could have gone wrong here:

Make sure the polish remover is pure acetone, and not the non-acetone, the website didn't specify but I believe this may be where the problem was.

When letting the flame move around the bottle, perhaps let it go two times around the bottle to ensure it went all the way around.

In the directions it calls for 5 or 6 strands of yarn wrapped around the bottle, but then the original pinner used three strands braided instead, I might go with the 5 or 6 just because it gives you a wider area to work with and it might get that added heat needed to cut all the way through the glass.

I have to admit this one intrigues me, the directions are very simple yet it didn't work, I will have to try this one out for myself on my next pin testing day and see how it goes, although it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a fire extinguisher close, Katie says she opted out of increased fire safety , she lives on the edge that one . I will report back when the project is complete and hopefully we will have a pin win on our hands.


                                         -Emilee

40 comments:

  1. I too have thought about trying this one... can't wait to see your results!

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  2. my friend Kelsey did this,and it worked just fine. the only thing was the yarn wasn't perfectly straight around the bottle so the top was wavy.

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  3. Youtube it. People do this all the time. The only problem is you get a VERY bad edge. For a perfect edge, you need a glass cutter and hot & cool water. Score it VERY GENTLY then pour some just-below-boiling water on the glass to heat it up then run the glass under cool water. Repeat and you will have a perfectly cut bottle.

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  4. Thanks for the linkup! It definitely takes some practice. It wasn't until my third bottle that I really got the hang of it. Don't give up. It's SO worth it! :)

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  5. I had trouble with this at first too. It took me several tries, and as a last ditch effort I tried a different bottle of nail polish remover. Once I did that it worked like a charm. Maybe it goes bad after a while?

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  6. this worked for me, I used rubbing alchohol and thin cotton twine wrapped twice around the bottle, make sure you wait until the flame has died before you put the bottle into the cold water.

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  7. I just did this the other day, you have to wait for the flame to be almost dead before you put it into the water. I will be honest though, the bottle cracked bad and the line wasn't nice

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  8. I just did this today! It worked pretty well, except I had this same problem on one of my six bottles. I tried using more strands around the bottle to see if that would help but it did not. I was thinking it may have something to do with the thickness of the glass or if it is tempered glass.

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  9. I did mine and it worked just fine. Put ice in the water in the sink and if it doesn't separate, give it a little tap on the side of the sink to help it along. :)

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  10. Make sure the inside of the bottle isn't wet either. Having just drunk the contents of the corona bottle, my roommate just washed it out and we tried to cut
    It. It didn't work at all no matter what we tried but we let them sit till morning and everything was dry and it worked the first try.

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  11. My bestie and I did this with wine bottles for center pieces for her wedding. We did around 30 bottles and made them into hurricanes (we put them over pillar candles). The really came out beautiful but we did have a lot of duds during production.

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  12. My fiance and I made some of these out of glass rootbeer bottles and it worked like a charm, we let the fire burn for 30 seconds. just to make sure it was really hot, we rotated the bottle while it was burning. So cute, we gave them as a birthday gift!

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  13. After some duds I placed the bottle in a tub full of ice cold water for about a minute, if left longer you get cracks. I then placed the kite string that had been soaking in acetone based nail polish remover for several minutes about five times around and lit it. I dunked it in the tub of ice water immediately after the flame went out, no sooner. Also, beware of your acetone soaked hands when you are lighting the string or of your not so smart sister walking around with her long flowey dress! Force your younger sister to sand the edges w sandpaper and you are set.

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  14. This doesn't work for me either, but then I don't know if the Nail varnish remover in the UK is formulated differently. Mine definitely has acetone in it and denfinitely burns (although I have to soak the string overnight in it to even get close to an effect) but I think the percentages must be out as the best I have achieved is a cracked wine bottle. It wasn't even cracked all the way around - it was vertical :-S

    I have also tried this with vodka and brandy (we figured the high alcohol content might work) but no, no joy here either.

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  15. I've done this one, it's a little testy though. Sometimes the bottle doesn't cut, and other times it works the first time. Thicker, nicer glass seems to work better (so not a Mike's Hard bottle, but a wine bottle). And the edge has yet to turn out perfect, so I'm planning on trying to smooth it.

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  16. Be really careful with this technique guys, I volunteer in the pediatric playroom at a nearby hospital and had one little girl with 2nd and 3rd degree burns on her face from this very project exploding in her dad's hands.

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  17. Doesn't drinking out of what is essentially a broken bottle sound like a bad idea? All I see when I look at that pin are bloody lips. I'll pass!

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  18. I have seen glasses made from bottles and they are perfectly safe to drink out of (obviously they tops should be sanded down to ensure no lip slicing).

    The following youtube video shows various methods for making these bottle glasses and how they turn out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFXngPx3w3M

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  19. I did this one easily just wrapped string 5 times around. Tied it took the string off soaked it in 91% alcohol lit it on fire kept rotating the bottle until the flame died then dipped it in the ice water in the sink... Only problem was the edges which I used 400 grit sandpaper to even then 2000 grit to smooth.

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  20. It doesn't work.... the easiest way? A cheap ($98) wet-saw from Lowes (the kind you use to cut ceramic tile! it slice through glass like butter, and cuts in exactly the right place- even at angles!

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    1. It does work actually. And the easiest/cheapest is a $3 glass cutter. You just cut around where you want, then take a long lighter to it and it pops off. Much safer for children to use and not near as messy as a wet-saw.

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  21. I heard the yarn has to be 100% cotton. Often it is acrylic.

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  22. This project is really fickle. Certain thickeness of glass just won't work (don't know whether it's too thin or thick) BUT one thing to keep in mind is the water temperature. It will not work unless the water is ice cold and deep enough that the bottle can be submerged well past the yarn.

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  23. I've seen another version where a guy scored the bottle at the location he wanted it to crack... Used a candle and rotated the bottle at the crack mark for 2 min. then rubbed ice on it. Then repeated. over and over perhaps 3 times total. The result was a clean break. The scoring of the bottle regardless of which version you use provides a guideline for the crack.

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  24. I have done this and had some pretty good success. Here is what I learned:

    1) use 100% pure cotton string/twine/yarn. I only wrapped it 3 or 4 times around, and tied it tight.

    2) use everclear. It works better than acetone or fingernail polish remover!

    3) i like to plunge mine into ice water. Sometimes the bottle cracks, but usually it breaks nicely.

    you really need to sand it to get a nice edge. You can use a drimmel.

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  25. I've done this with wine bottles. You won't get a perfect cut every time but if you use 100 percent cotton thread, it will burn longer, heating your class up better. Also, we used BBQ lighter fluid in the place of acetone, because it burns longer. Also, adding ice to your water also helps your chances of a good break. Your very best bet though is a glass cutter, since it will give you a cleaner break.

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  26. All of these pictures crack me up. I don't have time to try any of them, so thanks for giving me a good laugh!

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  27. I did this last night actually......before I saw this! HA! It worked pretty well with clear bottles but not with dark brown bottles (thicker glass maybe?) I haven't sanded down the edges yet so hopefully that won't be an issue...I used acetone nail polish remover and some yarn I had here at home. I rotated the bottle until the flame went out (about 20 sec) and it broke immediately when I put it in the water. :)

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  28. I did this with several bottles and had great success! I learned however that the thicker the bottle the more difficult it is and ALSO the water HAS to be COLD!! We had to dump ice cubes in the sink to make it cold enough to break it.

    I wish there was a way I could post a picture for you so I could show you :)

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  29. I did this and it worked! I saw a video that also said wait until the flame goes out, and also something helpful was keep the bottom of the bottle (say that 5 times fast!) up so the gases inside won't escape. As soon as it touched the water it popped right apart!

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  30. I did this as well, and it worked great! But I used a different method...

    I used lighter fluid, one strand of cotton yarn. You tie the yarn around the bottle, to get the size. Slip the string Off the bottle. Soak the yarn in the lighter fluid (I used Zippo fluid) for a minute or so. Make sure it's soaked. Slip the yarn back on the bottle until it is snug on the bottle. (the next part I did while holding the bottle with tongs....in case).

    Light the yarn, and let it burn until the flame goes out itself, then place the bottle in cold water. Perfect cut! Maybe because it burns hotter? I don't know. All I know is it worked great. And the post I read says to sand the glass edges, to avoid the bloody lip :)

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  31. My mom and i tried this. several times it didn't work, so we tried different strings and different bottles. The combination has to be perfect.

    Use cotton string.
    use 100% acetone.(get at Lowe's/home depot)
    use a good constant flame for about 30 seconds.
    dip the botle IMMEDIATELY in ICE water.
    Then it will work.

    Depending on the glass and possible older strains on the glass you can get a rough edge, just sand these down. Also, the brak in the glass will happen above your string line, not on it, or below it. So keep this in mind when planning where to cut your bottle.

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  32. It works perfectly but its incredibly important to let the flame travel around the bottle a couple times. Keep in mind what is causing the "cut" is the quick temperature change in the glass. However, be careful because if the bottle is to cold when you start this whole project you could have a scary incident!

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  33. My boyfriend and I cut glass bottles but we use a pencil torch and cold water. You use a glass cutters to make a score around the bottle then lightly torch it and then shock it in cold water. Sand the edges. Takes a little practice but is fun.

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  34. I tried several variations of this, and only once did I get it to work... and the edges were sharp. Even after sanding, I couldn't get the rim level, it was higher on one side. I think if I were to get serious about glass cutting, I'd buy the glass cutter I found on Amazon for $30.

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  35. I tried this with a big Tanqueray bottle but it didn't work. I tried a smaller bottle and used a blow torch to get it really hot (I'm a firefighters kid & we like fire too). It did work but it wasn't a very straight cut. My brother is also a firefighter and he said they have had a few calls due to Pintrist projects gone wrong.

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  36. ive done this several times, and it works everytime!! when your yarn is wet with nail polish remover and wrapped around your bottle, you light it on fire, then twist the bottle several times unitl the fire goes out on its own. AS SOON as the fire goes out, plunge into your sink full of ice water. (i put a couple handle fulls of ice in the water). Important to do this over the sink, because this can be dangereous.

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  37. I have done this project. It does work...u do wat the instructions tell u to do but as soon as ur flame is just about out, u drop it slowly into a big thing of cold water. It works. Its just the sanding part thata hard so u dont cut ur mouth on the sharp edge. Have fun

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  38. I have successfully done this. I used thread, not yarn. And you have to spin the bottle while on fire to evenly heat. The colder the water, the cleaner the break will be.

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  39. I have done this. You have to wait til the flame goes almost out nit just all the way around. Works good.

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