DIY Wine Glasses

For a long time I have lusted over those glasses that are made from old wine bottles. They are so cool. I mean really- a wine glass made from a wine bottle? Love it! I know you can buy those wine bottle cutters but I've heard its a lot of work and very time consuming. So after thinking some more about it I wondered it I could use my Dremel tool to do some of the heavy lifting.

I did some research and there is lots of info online on using a Dremel to cut glass (even though the company that makes Dremel says that is not one of the intended uses.) I thought it was worth a try though~

So I gathered my materials:

2 wine bottles (these were easy to get a hold of!)

Dremel Tool with Diamond Cutting Bit (or one the Bottle Cutters you can buy if you don't have a Dremel)

Masking Tape

Pen

Safety Goggles and Mask

Water

Sand Paper 

                                                            

First I started out by giving the bottles a nice warm bath to take the labels off.

                          

See? Nice and clean!

                          

I used a glass I already had to measure the height I wanted to cut. Then I put the masking tape around the bottle. 

                          

The purpose of the masking tape is to help keep the glass shards from flying everywhere.

                   

I again used my glass as a guide to draw the exact line I wanted to cut.

I again want to stress safety gear here. You should always wear goggle when cutting anything. The mask is important to- you don't want to breath in glass shards!

                          

After I had my bottles all measured it was time to take it outside. I brought plenty of water because in my reading it was stressed that keeping the Dremel cool by dipping it in water was important. And to spray the glass with water periodically so it wouldn't overheat and crack. (Notice the baby monitor in the background?)

                         

For the first few cuts I kept the tape on. Don't put to much pressure on the glass with the Dremel; let the tool do the work. To much pressure can cause the glass to break. I dipped the Dremel in the water every 10 - 20 seconds. And after each full pass around the bottle I sprayed it with water.

                        

After a few full passes around the bottle I took the tape off. I found that holding the bottle with the open end towards you helped keep any breakage on the part of the bottle I wasn't going to be using.

                        

And just when I thought it may not work- it did! The bottle broke cleanly in half.

                             

I read that to smooth the glass down use sand paper in a tub of water. Start with a heavy grit and work your way down to a fine. Well that was taking for ever....

                       

So I cheated and used the grinding bit on my Dremel. It worked really well!

Then I used the polishing bit to polish the edges smooth.

                           

Now all done! They are pretty cool and I'm really happy with them. I love that they are a recycled product and the materials are easy (and fun) to come by.