Making A DIY Bottle Opener With A Wood Handle
With everyone stuck at home we thought it might be a good idea to post a few super simple DIY projects that anyone can do with very basic tools. In this Blog we will show you how you can make your own chrome bottle opener with a scrap piece of wood and some hardware.
Typically, when we make our openers, we turn them on the lathe. Seth always says the lathe is his favorite tool in the entire shop. A wood lathe gives you endless opportunities to design and shape handles for items like this. However, if you don’t have a lathe handy (most folks probably don’t), you can still make your own bottle opener with a few basic steps.
You will need:
A scrap piece of wood, approximately 1.5 x 1.5 x 6 (a bit smaller or larger is fine)
Something to carve with (knife, chisel, or spokeshave)
Sand paper or pads (80, 120, 220 grits)
A drill with 5/16” bit
Threaded bottle opener hardware (link below)
Finishing oil (Boiled Linseed works)
Finishing Wax (optional)
Super glue or epoxy
For this demonstration, we found an oddly colored piece of 1.5x1.5 poplar that we thought might make a neat looking handle. The first thing we did was cut it to size on our saw then clamp it in a bench vise with two thin strips of wood on either side to help prevent leaving any marks in the soft poplar.
We chose to use a spokeshave to bevel the edges of the wood blank. You could easily just sand the edges down or carve it with a knife but spokeshaves are pretty inexpensive tools that allow you to get a more uniform edge. You can even continue with it to make it perfectly rounded. If you use a spokeshave make sure you have your wood blank secured.
After beveling the edges, we take the blank to our downdraft table and sand it smooth using first 80 grit, then 120 grit, and finally 220 grit pads. We used an orbital sander for the sake of speed but you can just as easily sand this by hand.
From there we have to drill our hole. The threading on these chrome openers are 10M (approximately 3/8”) so we mark our center and drill the pilot hole with a 5/16 drill bit. We used our drill press but a hand drill will work.
From there we apply several coats of boiled linseed oil to the handle. BLO, given enough coats, will leave a nice hard finish and is much easier to work with that polyurethane. Let each coat dry at least a day. A nice coat of paste wax with give it a silky-smooth feel.
Once the handle is finished, add a few drops of super glue to the pilot hole and thread in the hardware by hand.
The final step is to enjoy!
