Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sean Stimac on May 13, 2010 at 10:12am

These are way cool. I might just get one sometime, but first thing's first. Figuring out how to make slides. What's the URL for those slides? Are they wood and bone or two types of wood?
Randy S. Bretz said:

Break down and buy one of mine, C.B.Gitty is selling them on his site.

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Permalink Reply by One String Willie on May 13, 2010 at 10:33am

I have had good results with the following method of making a bottleneck guitar slide:

I usually use a wine bottle with a fairly straight neck. I wrap a strip of black plastic electrician’s tape around the bottleneck so the edge of the tape is where I want to make the cut, and keep adjusting until it is even all the way around. I have found that I like a certain length of slide better than others—I have a collection of homemade slides that helps guide what length to make new slides. This length takes some trial and error, as it to some extent depends on how thick your finger is compared to the opening on the bottle neck.

I use a Dremel motor tool with a cutoff disk (about 2.5 cm in diameter) to score a shallow groove around the bottleneck on the edge of the tape. I wear glasses, as well as something over my mouth and nose, since this method creates a lot of abrasive dust. I then deepen the groove evenly at four equally spaced places around the neck (like the four points of a compass). I continue deepening the groove, and tapping the neck periodically with a small metal object, until finally the cut bottleneck falls off. I try to let it fall onto something soft, so it doesn’t break.

I have recently had good success with an electric tile saw (with a water spray) for this step. The tile saw is MUCH faster.

With the dremel method, the bottleneck now has a very sharp edge on the inside and outside. I use an abrasive stone (sold at hardware stores for smoothing ceramic tiles) and lots of water to smooth and round the sharp cut edges. I make the outer cut edge quite rounded, with a radius approaching the thickness of the bottleneck glass, because I use the tip of the slide for noting inner strings. I continue smoothing with increasingly fine grades of wet and dry sandpaper and water (auto parts store). I also smooth off the inside edge of the bottleneck with the wet and dry sandpaper, and finish with very fine emory cloth. The tip should be very smooth.

I put the slides into baby socks to protect them when they are not in use. Sadly, if your (favorite) slide falls onto a ceramic tile or concrete floor it will break.

Good luck!

Best regards, Willie

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Permalink Reply by ken farmer on May 13, 2010 at 11:16am

I've tried a few methods:

scoring/heading/cracking:
- scoring with a glass cutting tool - didn't work well on round necks.
- scoring with a triangular file - this works much better. It's very important that your scored line be straight, that you don't have multiple start & stop overlapping areas, etc. So, it's a little tricky to do right on a bottle neck.
- I heat the scored neck over a candle flame until one side of the line is covered in soot, then hold under cold water. The neck breaks clean about 50% of the time, depending on how well I did the scoring.
- I like clean lines on the slide - so that means two cuts on a bottle neck to eliminate the top lip. That means about 4 bottles to get one good slide.
- it might be worthwhile to tap the inside of the neck with a small steel. That may break things more cleanly.

dremmel:
- One string willie gave better suggestions than I can, but let me mention a few points:
- first off - eye & respiratory protection are important
- secondly, you can use the side of the dremmel diamond blade to polish the edges pretty nicely. Afterwards, I typically just rub the slide edge on sand paper. That gets it looking pretty good.
- this is a pretty reliable method. But less fun than cutting & burning, and probably more expensive - since the dremmel diamond-coated blades are $15-20.

bottle-cutting jigs:
- i've never used them, but heard that they are great.
- I've tried creating some jigs to make it easier to work with a file, but so far it hasn't worked out well, but there's some light at the end of the tunnel.

Supplies:
- go to a cafe that serves wine. They can give you armfuls of free empty bottles. More than you'll ever use, unless you're picky and just want the neat blue-glass vodka bottles.

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Permalink Reply by Sean Stimac on May 13, 2010 at 11:33am

Awesome advice guys. It's much appreciated. I have one more bottle that I can use, so I'm going to really concentrate on the scoring methods. I love my dremel accessories - I have tons of them including some of the diamond coated blades. Whenever Menards has a sale on dremel supplies I buy tons of them. It doesn't sound as fun as using fire, but it does sound like it'll work.

I never thought to stop and ask for bottles from the trendy cafe down the road. It's great they have a massive wine selection, but their beer selection is even better though - Lot's of wheat ales and IPAs.

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Permalink Reply by ken farmer on May 13, 2010 at 11:53am

Not a problem: you can drink the beer and ask for the wine bottle. ;-)

Sean Michael Stimac said:

I never thought to stop and ask for bottles from the trendy cafe down the road. It's great they have a massive wine selection, but their beer selection is even better though - Lot's of wheat ales and IPAs.

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Permalink Reply by Sean Stimac on May 13, 2010 at 12:36pm

You read my mind, man.

ken farmer said:

Not a problem: you can drink the beer and ask for the wine bottle. ;-)

Sean Michael Stimac said:

I never thought to stop and ask for bottles from the trendy cafe down the road. It's great they have a massive wine selection, but their beer selection is even better though - Lot's of wheat ales and IPAs.

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Permalink Reply by BenBob on May 14, 2010 at 3:51pm

Tonight I scored a longneck bottle with a fragment of chert, ran a lighter around it for several seconds, put it under cold water... and nothing happened. So I rapped the neck on the bottom of the sink and it snapped of fairly clean. The edges weren't even sharp, but I abraded them with the flat part of the chert so it felt smooth.

That being someone successful (but a lousy slide), I dug under the sink and found an old empty wine bottle. The neck was thick; 3/16" walls. I did the same procedure and it broke pretty clean when I tapped it on the bottom of the sink. Then, I proceeded to ruin it while trying to clean up the edge with unsuccessful and unintelligent methods. I don't know if the heat/water made a difference, but I'm out of wine bottles.

I used to make eyeglasses (back in the analog days) and we dreaded glass bifocals. Had to stop everything to put in the diamond wheel, lenses sometimes broke while grinding, and then they took forever in a special polishing setup. If you didn't get the curve exact, it would crack in the polishers too. Farsighted or bad astigmatism corrections ran another risk of chipping when cutting to fit the frame. Not fun stuff to work with.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Becker on May 15, 2010 at 2:00pm

The best method I've used so far is to use a cutting disk on a dremel tool. Keep cutting around then neck until you have a notch cut all the way around it. Gently tap the rim on a firm surface (I use my workbench with an old towel on it). If it doeson't break, cut some more. Be patient, it may take 5 minutes or so of cutting. The first time I tried it, the neck popped off by itself! To clean up the jagged edges, I used an old knife sharpening stone, with a bit of water.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Roberts on May 15, 2010 at 2:24pm

Steve Becker said:

The best method I've used so far is to use a cutting disk on a dremel tool. .

Could you tell me what cutting disk you use? The only one I have was useless. The people at my hardware store are clueless ("A slide? Like at a playground?")

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Permalink Reply by Sean Stimac on May 15, 2010 at 2:40pm

Alan Roberts said:

Steve Becker said:

The best method I've used so far is to use a cutting disk on a dremel tool. .

Could you tell me what cutting disk you use? The only one I have was useless. The people at my hardware store are clueless ("A slide? Like at a playground?")

I get almost the same responses when I go to Menards asking about various projects. Dremel makes a diamond coated cutting wheel. They're kind of spendy but they're worth it.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Werner on May 16, 2010 at 4:18am

The standard "reinforced" cutting wheels work just fine. The non-reinforced ones (the cheap ones...) tend to flex and shatter.
I've done this too, works pretty well. Just score around the neck in a nice clean circle and tap... The sharp edges can be removed by judicious use of the same wheel.

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Permalink Reply by Sean Stimac on May 16, 2010 at 11:57am

Randy S. Bretz said:

Break down and buy one of mine, C.B.Gitty is selling them on his site.

Holy Smokes!!! I just checked out cbgitty.com and checked on the slides. I wish I could afford them. Sometime in the future perhaps, but I don't get my overage check until August.

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