- G'day folks.
Quick question, how do you open up a bottle of beer?
Or another other bottled beverage for that matter.
Some clever people like to open beer bottles
with their teeth.
Oi, how's it goin'?
(spits out)
(bottle top rattles)
Cheers.
Quick disclaimer, not recommended by 100% percent
of all dentists.
Some people like to use a cigarette lighter,
by using the lighter and with a bit of practise
you can flick that cap off.
It doesn't work too bad, but what if you don't smoke?
And you could of course used an actual bottle opener
like this contraption here,
but you know, it's so boring.
It's so 1990s.
And can anybody tell me what this thing does?
It bends and twists and carries on.
Can't believe I even own it, weird.
While others like myself like to launch our bottle caps
into the stratosphere by using a catapult
or cap-a-pult as you see here.
Check this out.
And we're ready to launch.
Stand back folks.
(light bang)
(laughs)
Did you see that?
That is absolutely fantastic.
Cheers (laughs) love it.
G'day folks Uncle Knackers here, from DIY for knuckleheads
and in today's video I'm going to show you,
how to easily make your very own bottle opener,
catapult style, out of scrap wood, using limited tools
and for under five bucks.
Sound good?
Let's do it, come on, chop chop, that's you, come on.
Now before we kick off, a bit of housekeeping.
What?
What was that?
Is he fair dinkum?
(light music)
If this is your first time to my channel
please, hit that subscribe button.
And make sure you click the notification bell next to it,
that way you'll be altered immediately,
whenever I upload any new content, good stuff.
And yes there will be a competition in today's video
where one lucky viewer will win themselves
a couple of these magnificent DIY for knuckleheads stickers.
Now these are getting as rare as hen's teeth.
As I think I've only got about five pairs left,
so make sure you listen up and watch right through
to the end of the video,
so that you can pick up some vital clues that you'll need
to answer a couple of simple questions.
And with all that housekeeping done,
let's go ahead and make this crazy catapult bottle opener.
Let's go.
Now the first thing you need to do,
is go out in the shed and raid that scrap wood pile
that you've been wondering what to do with,
for all these years.
And what I stumbled across, was this off-cut
from my window architrave, it's dressed down
pre-primed pine, peter picked a pecker pickled peppers.
And its 90 by 19 or four by one, close enough.
And to accompany that, you'll also need a stick of pine.
Roughly 35 millimetres by 35 millimetres,
or inch and a half by inch and a half.
And I reckon these two together,
are gonna be perfect for our bottle top catapult.
Or should that be bottle top cap-a-pult?
Get it?
Cap, cap-a-pult, you're flicking off a cap.
I like it, I'm going with it.
Now using that stick of 90 by 19,
cut one piece at 460 millimetres
and three lengths to 360 millimetres,
whereby one of those, will be cut down to 120 millimetres
at a later date,
and I'll explain why later on in the video,
so make sure you stay tuned.
And you can cut the launching lever,
to approximately 400 millimetres.
(gentle music)
With the pieces now cut,
this is how it's going to go together.
This is the base, we have two sides,
a top and a launching lever.
To the base, I'm going to attach the two sides,
which I'll recess into that base,
then I'll plonk on the top, which I'll also recess in
and then simply attach the launching lever,
too easy.
I'm excited folks, let's do this.
Now the first step in the process is to recess in
these two sides, into the base.
Now if you aren't confident in doing a recess join,
you can simply butt the side up to the base
and screw it in, but for a stronger joint,
a recess is the way to go.
So come back in from the end, 100 millimetres
or four inches and keep the side flush
to the outside of the base.
And then just simply trace around that side.
And that is what we will be recessing out
and do the same on the other side.
There you go, beautiful.
The rebates mark on the top, it's a good idea
to transfer those measurements to the underside
of the piece.
With the base now marked and ready to go,
run a series of cuts along the length of the rebate
and then chisel out the waste.
And if this looks a little tricky and you're not comfortable
with using a mitre saw, don't panic.
The same cuts can be made with a hand saw,
just take your time and you'll be right.
Now those recesses or rebates are ready to be chiselled out
and I've also clamped the piece
securely down to the workbench.
That way, during the chiselling out process,
it's not going to move around.
Now just a quick tip for you beginners out there,
who may or may not have used a chisel before,
you'll notice that there's a flat side to a chisel
and a bevelled side to a chisel.
And with that in mind when chiselling out a rebate
or a recess, like we have here, grab your chisel
and with the flat side, not the bevelled side, the flat side
place that on the line that you want to check out.
The bevel is facing outwards, that way,
when you tap on top, the waste will go out that way
and the chisel itself will follow that line straight down
which is what you want.
Also don't give it one almighty belt,
and try and knock everything out in one hit
because that will only splinter or blow out
the underside of that piece.
So lightly tap on top on one side,
turn the piece over and then attack it from the other side.
(gentle music)
And there you have it, two rebates, looking good.
Now once those rebates have been cut,
you can see how the sides just slot in, just like that.
And remember earlier, we cut three pieces the same size?
This is going to be the top,
but we're going to cut this piece down to that size there.
The reason why this is so long,
is that we need to cut a couple of rebates into this,
which will be very difficult with a piece that size.
So we're doing this size first,
and then we'll cut it down, to that size.
(upbeat music)
So as you can see, these are now the two rebates
that will need to be checked out.
Now you might also notice that the width
from the outside edge to the outside edge
of those rebates, is the same width as the base
of the other bottle opener.
And to cut those rebates out,
I've set my circular saw, to a cutting depth
of around 10 millimetres, which is roughly,
half the thickness of that top piece.
And you'll also notice that I've clamped
the piece down to the workbench,
that'll make the cutting process a whole lot safer.
(upbeat music and buzzing of saw)
Alrighty, let's see how it fits.
Look at that.
Beautiful.
Happy days.
The next thing we need to do,
is cut the top of the bottle opener, to size.
And all I've done, personal choice,
is run past the edge of both rebates 20 millimetres
or roughly three quarters of an inch.
So we'll cut this and then move onto the next step.
It's getting exciting folks,
we're almost there, stick with me.
(upbeat music)
Now this is basically how the cat-a-pult
bottle opener is going to look.
But before we assemble it and screw it all together,
we need to know the height of our launching lever.
And a good way to do that is to grab your preferred brew
or your favourite brew.
Mind is Coopers mild ale, 3.5% percent.
I can't do the heavies these days,
knocks me around too much.
And on that topic, what's your favourite brew?
Let me know, down below, anyhoo,
get your favourite brew and measure from the underside
of the cap, across to the side of the bottle opener
and that'll be the centre hole for the bolt
that's going to secure the launching lever.
Bang.
An easy way to find the height for that bolt,
is to run a square across until it lines up
with the underside of that cap,
and bingo, there you have it.
(light drilling)
Once you've drilled those pilot holes,
grab yourself a speed board drill bit,
mine's 25 millimetres, or an inch,
and drill into the timber, about 10 millimetres,
which I've marked on the drill bit itself,
with this bit of tape.
And what that does, is that will actually recess the bolt
so that's flush with the top of the wood
rather than sitting up on top.
You don't have to do it,
but I think it looks a lot better.
With those holes now counter-sunk, turn the boards over
and drill a hole through the other side,
the same diameter as the bolt that you're using.
And in my case, that's 10 millimetres.
Beautiful.
Now with the launching lever, come back in from one end
about 150 millimetres, which is just under six inches.
Find the centre and then drill a hole through that,
the same diameter as the bolt that you're using.
And in my case, it was 10 millimetres.
Now make sure you start off
by drilling a pilot hole from both sides,
'cause that will make the hole more accurate.
Now we can go through with the full size 10 millimetre bit.
(upbeat music)
Alrighty, let's now turn this piece over,
that way the drill bit won't burst through
the other side and splinter it.
(upbeat music)
Beautiful.
Okay, it's now time to start glueing and screwing
the bottle opener together.
So, just carefully place everything in the right spot.
There you go.
Make sure everything's nice and flush
and when you're happy,
grab your drill, and what I have here,
is a counter-sinking bit with a pilot hole
drilled bit as well.
So place it on your hole, or on your mark and drill.
Done.
There's one,
two, there you go.
And if you'd like one of these fancy contraptions
or one that's similar, I'll link to one
in the description box down below.
And the reason for the counter-sinking bit,
is that when the screw goes in,
it'll finish up nice and flush with the surface.
Now you may have noticed also that these screws are black.
I actually painted them black,
cause that's what I thought looked pretty cool.
There's one, and there's two, beautiful.
(upbeat music)
And the final step before we attach the launching lever
to the bottle opener,
we need to drive a screw into the end
of that launching lever and leave it hanging out
by about 10 millimetres.
(upbeat music)
Just like that and now we can attach this,
to the bottle opener.
So there it is folks, all put together.
And I reckon it's looking absolutely fantastic.
And I love how those image transfers worked out.
Now if you want to know how to do those,
I'll leave a link to a previous video I did,
in the description box down below.
So make sure you check that one out.
Alrighty, last step, a quick coat with a clear satin varnish
and we're good to go.
Now just remember, this is an old tin that I found
just floating around the shed,
so we try to do these projects for as cheaply
as we possibly can.
(upbeat music)
And there she is folks, all done and dusted.
And I have to say, that this has been
an absolute cracking little project.
And now you can open beer bottles, bang, like a boss.
And like I said at the start of the video,
the project came in under that magical five dollar mark.
The wood, that was free,
the bolt and the screws, they were two dollars
and the varnish and the glue, a buck fifty.
So for three dollars fifty,
you get yourself this cracking little bottle opener
that'll be the talking point the next time your mates
come around for an icy cold beverage.
I love it.
(smacking sound)
Is it okay to kiss your bottle opener?
It's okay, I'm here.
Now very quickly, competition time,
where I'm going to select the first 20 correct answers
plus one random viewer to win a couple of these
magnificent DIY for knuckleheads stickers.
Now, question number one.
What's the name of my favourite brew?
And question number two,
what do I make in the fist video listed,
in my scrap wood, slash, pallet wood playlist?
That will pop up at the end of this video.
Happy searching and good luck in the comp.
So that's it folks.
I hope you enjoyed that video
as much as I enjoyed making it.
And as per usual a big thumbs up
is always greatly appreciated.
Now if you could share the video
that would be absolutely awesome.
Alrighty, it's 10.00am.
Is it a bit early to, you know?
Yeah probably is.
Alrighty till next time, be safe
and I'm out of here.
Cheers.