guillotine

The previous guillotine post gave me an idea to make a similar cutting device for plastic bottles. 20 bottles with the exact same cut will look much better than 20 bottles cut randomly. Obviously it also depends on the function in mind - the shoe brush I made had random cuts and slices on the bottle, though this worked because it was able to get all the muck from the nooks and crannies. But in general, uniformity looks better.

Equipment for the guillotine.

I used a file to get a basic sharp edge on the cut sheets of steel. I would these blades later on the workshop grinder.

Lining up for the chop: the base unit would need to fit a variety of bottles, maybe even 2L bottles also. The part where the 'head' would rest could either be made adjustable or just large enough to fit the evian and lucozade bottles.

The hole drilled should fit most bottles. This will allow me to make the same series of cuts to a range of differently-sized bottles.

The key to the whole process - the blade. I shaped this using the sheet bender, I then had to trace the outline of the blade profile onto a block of wood and cut it in half along the line. Then, using some strong glue, I sandwiched the blade using the two halves of wood. A few nails from the nail gun secured it for sure and then I was ready to start cutting...