How to Build a Beer Bottle Clock

Beer bottles are made in several attractive colors.

Turn your beer bottle collection into a decorative accent for your barroom. Use a circle of 12 bottles to mark the hours on a large, eye-catching clock. Build one to show off the labels from your favorite breweries or the labels you designed for your own home brew. For a different look, remove the labels and create a modern-style clock from clear glass bottles. Use one colored bottle to mark the quarter-hours and a different color for the rest of the clock.

Things You'll Need

• 2-foot plywood square or circle
• Drill
• Clock movement for a wall clock with a 6-inch-diameter face
• Tape measure
• Nail
• Protractor
• 1/16-inch wood drill bit
• 9-inch beer bottles (12)
• Clamp
• Rag
• Grease pencil
• Rotary tool with 1/16-inch diamond bit
• Spray bottle
• Heavy-gauge wire

Instructions

1. Mark the center of a 2-foot square or circle of plywood. Drill a hole through the mark for the stem of a wall clock movement per the instructions that came with the mechanism. The hands of the clock movement should be designed for a clock with a 6-inch-diameter face.

2. Use a tape measure with a hole at the end of the tape to draw a circle with a 9-inch radius on the plywood board. Place the hole in the tape over the center of the board and hold it in place with a nail through both holes. Make sure the tape can rotate freely. Swing the other end of the tape around in a circle and mark the path of a point on the tape that is 9 inches from the nail. Without moving the nail, draw a circle with a 11-inch radius in the same way.

3. Divide the circle into 12 wedges with a protractor. Start with a vertical line and draw the other lines 30 degrees apart. Erase the pencil lines inside the smaller circle.

4. Install a 1/16-inch bit into an electric drill and drill a hole at every point where a line intersects a circle. There will be 24 holes: 12 in the center circle and 12 in the outer circle.

5. Wrap a beer bottle in a soft, thin rag to protect the label. Clamp the bottle to a work surface with the backside face-up. Be sure the label is centered on the bottom of the bottle.

6. Use a grease pencil to mark a point 6 inches straight down from the neck of the bottle and a second point 8 inches down. Wet the bottle and use a rotary tool with a 1/16-inch diamond bit to drill slowly through the glass at the first mark. Stop frequently and spray water on the drilling site to keep the glass from overheating. Drill a hole at the second mark in the same way. Drill similar holes in all 12 bottles.

7. Cut 12 8-inch lengths of heavy-gauge wire. Thread a wire through both holes in a bottle so both ends of the wire stick out 3 inches on the outside of the bottle.

8. Stick the wire closest to the neck of the bottle through one of the holes on the inner circle on the board. Stick the other wire through the hole on the outer circle so the bottle lies along the line that connects the two holes. Twist the wires tightly together on the backside of the board to hold the bottle firmly against the board. Attach all of the bottles to the board in the same way.

9. Follow the directions to finish installing the clock mechanism in the center of the circle of bottles.

Tips & Warnings

• After you insert the wire into the first hole in the bottle, stick a large crochet hook into the neck of the bottle and use it to guide the end of the wire into the second hole.

• Use taller bottles to mark the quarter hours. You may have to adjust the spacing of the holes to accommodate the taller bottles.

• Wear eye protection when drilling glass.

References

• Discount Diamond Bits: How to Drill a Hole in Glass