Hey everyone! And welcome back to Rustic DIY Projects! Sorry that there's been a bit of a time gap between this and my last project, I've had a lot of stuff come up this month. But today I have a project I've been wanting to try out for a while now but just have never had the time to. This is a relatively simple and practical project you can do at home with minimal tools, time, and effort. And if you like rustic, western style stuff (which if you're following this blog you probably do) then this project is perfect for you! This bottle opener and catch can easily mount to your wall, your fridge, or you can just leave it on your counter. Regardless of where you want it, it looks and works great and when it's full you can just dump it out and start using it again! Check out below for steps on how you can make your own and share with any other friends you think may be interested!
Supplies I used for this project are listed out below.
Note: Just for the record there's definitely more than one way to do this project. I tried doing it one way at first only to wake up the next morning and find that my bottle opener blew up so I had to improvise and try another method. You'll see below, moral of the story is just take all these instructions with a grain of salt (not literally).
Supplies/Tools Needed
Table Saw
Thickness Planar
Impact Drill
Belt Sander (80 grit sandpaper)
Orbital Sander (150 grit sandpaper)
Dremel (w/ metal cutting wheel)
Router
1/4 Cove bit
1/4 Key Hole Bit
HDX Nail Gun
HDX Air Compressor
Nail Gun Staples (don't remember the size but small ones)
Ruler
Tape Measure
Pencil
Stain and Seal (Bombay Mahogany)
Bar Clamp x 4
C-Clamps x 2
Magnetic Tape
Scissors
Twine Wall Mount Bottle Opener (you can buy these at Bed, Bath, and Beyond).
1 Board of Western Red Cedar (I don't remember the exact size but you can use the pictures below to get a vague idea).
READ ALL DIRECTIONS BEFORE STARTING EACH STEP
Step One
I measured my back board for my bottle opener to be about 15.5 inches long then marked where I wanted it cut with a ruler. After that I proceeded to cut it. The leftover board is going to be used to make the catch box on my bottle opener.
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| Marking my cut with a ruler. |
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| Cutting my board in half. |
My boards were bowing out a lot more than I wanted so I had to run them through the thickness planer a few times to get both sides even.
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| This can take a while... |
Once I FINALLY got both sides evened out I sanded them down with my belt and orbital sanders using 80 and 150 grit sandpaper.
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| Clamp table is optional but definitely helps. |
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| Finishing it off with some 150 grit on the orbital sander. |
Using my router table, my router, and a 1/4 cove bit I routed a cove along the top edge and side edges of my backboard.
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| Used a 1/4 inch cove bit for this. |
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| Routing out my edges. |
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| Looks good to me! |
Now that my backboard is good to go I'm going to make the rest of the cuts for my catch. The cuts are as follows:
Front of Catch: 5 inches across, 5.5 inches top-bottom
Sides of Catch: 3.5 inches across, 5.5 inches top to bottom
Bottom of Catch: 3.5 inches, 4-1/8 inches
After everything was all cut up I gave them two coats of Bombay Mahogany stain and seal giving them six hours in between coats.
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| Here's what all your cut pieces should look like. Left is your backboard, then top right are your two sides, bottom right is your bottom and front piece. |
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| Stain and seal everything up! |
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| Made a slight miscalculation on the bottom but no worries, just cut off a little bit more to make it fit. |
Step Six
After everything was all sealed up I applied glue to all the edges, clamped them in place, and cleaned up all the excess. I let the box cure for a few hours. While this was going on I put strips of magnetic tape around all the edges on the back side of the backboard.
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| Used some C and Bar clamps to glue up my catch. |
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| Here's another angle |
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| Thought I took a better picture than this but you pretty much just want to put your magnetic tape on the back of your board. Enough to hold it anyways, I did mine around the edges. |
Now that the box seems solid enough I glued it to the backboard and clamped it in place.
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| Gluing the catch to my backboard, almost done! |
Since I'm super impatient I decided while the glue is curing I would fasten the bottle opener to my backboard using the two screws included with the Twine Bottle Opener (again, you can buy these at any Bed, Bath, and Beyond).
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| Screwing in my bottle opener. |
Uh oh, the screws were longer than I thought. But that's no biggie, I'll just cut off the excess with my Dremel using a metal cutting wheel. After donning the proper safety attire of course. After that all that's left it to let the glue finish curing, mount, and enjoy!
Note: You may not need a face shield but make sure you protect your eyes while doing this. Sharp metal scraps in the eyes is no fun at all.
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| Screws came out too long. By the way this is how you want your magnetic tape to look. |
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| I don't take chances, face shield it is. |
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| Cutting the excess of the protruding screws. |
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| Still could use some refining but it works for right now |
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| I guess stainless steal fridges don't magnetize very well so I tried it out on the side and it works! |
Step Ten
Alright so after a night of "testing out my new bottle opener" I was rudely awakened to find that the adhesive backing to my magnet strips wasn't strong enough to hold my bottle opener and catch so, as a result, it fell and blew up in my sleep. This prompted me to find another way to mount it. But first I had to fix it.Instead of using glue this time I decided I'd try something different. I used my nail gun outfitted with some small staples and stapled the sides back on. Then I reglued the front and bottom pieces back to the sides and back of my bottle opener. To finish things off I also stapled the bottom in just as an added measure.
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| Well that sucks, didn't look to good on the fridge anyways so oh well... |
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| I'll just put some of these here and that should do it! |
This time it looks like I'm actually done! All that's left to do is enjoy it over a few drinks!
Note: I forgot to take pictures of one of the steps so I'll just explain it here it's pretty simple. In order to mount it to the wall I had to route a small hole in the back near the top of the hole using a key hole bit so I could slide the hole over the nail to mount it. And that's it. Just make sure your router is adjusted so that it won't drill a hole straight through your board.
Hope you enjoyed my "How To" on how to make this cool wall (or fridge) mounted Bottle Opener and Catch! Feel free to share this link with any of your other friends you think may be interested! Also don't forget to like, share, and follow me on social media! And don't be afraid to share what you made either! I like to see what kind of cool stuff other people come up with! And if you have any questions, concerns, or remarks you're more than welcome to leave a comment in the comment tab or my email if you want to do so more personally!
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Plenty more cool stuff to come so stay tuned!
Cool Idea! Makes me want a beer now.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteYou're welcome. Keep up the great work.
DeleteHey thanks! Will do!
DeleteIs there an increased fire risk associated with having this in your home?
ReplyDeleteNope!
ReplyDelete