Glass Bottle Drilling
Can you drill holes in glass bottles?
That was the first question I had when I thought it would be a good to idea to drill some holes in glass bottles for a variety of as yet undecided reasons. The answer it turns out is yes, you can drill holes in glass bottles! So, armed with that information off I went to Amazon to order some drill bits that could do the job.
There is a wide selection available from pretty cheap to not so cheap. I went for cheap just in case it turned out I was no good at bottle drilling, didn’t in fact like drilling bottles after all or decided it was actually a terrible idea.
I opted for the set in the photo below, priced at just under £10- Flintronic Diamond 15pc drill bit set (8mm-50mm) for cutting glass and ceramic. For a tenner I wasn’t expecting too much, but I must say I have been pleasantly surprised so far! They do indeed drill holes into glass bottles.
This was all new to me and I was looking forward to learning as we go. Below are some photos and videos showing some of the results (both successes and failures) – detailing how to get best results as well as some useful things I have learned to make the process easier, safer and more successful.
Safety First!
Before grabbing your drill and drilling into your bottles it is very important to use appropriate PPE to protect your eyes, hands and feet etc… The last thing you want is a splinter of glass flying into your eye or the drill slipping and taking a toe or finger off. Always wear safety goggles and I’d recommend wearing a good mesh glove to protect from the bottle unexpectedly shattering or caving in.
Don’t do what I did which was literally put a drill bit in the drill, wedge a wine bottle between my feet on its side and start drilling! Fortunately everything went well and I still have all of my toes but it wasn’t the smartest thing to do (even though those flip flops were very grippy!). In all seriousness it can be very dangerous if you aren’t prepared.
Unlike wood, glass bottles don’t much like being drilled and will make the drill bit slide all over the place if not done carefully. The smaller the diameter of the drill bit the more the bottle wants to reject your efforts to make a hole.
How to drill holes in glass bottles and jars.
Drilling into the bottom of bottles and jars.
So, you’ve chosen the bottle you wish to drill some holes into and you have decided what size hole or holes you want where.
Safely secure the bottle so that it can’t move or rotate in the drilling process. I have so far come up with a couple of methods for clamping / securing the bottle or jar in place as per the following photos:
I was particularly pleased with my apparent genius of the Xmas tree stand bottle clamp! I had been pondering for a while if I could construct something out of the stockpile of wood off-cuts in my garage. Having pondered this for much of January, it was only when I decided at the start of February that it was probably time to chop the Xmas tree up that this beauty came about.
Removing the stand from the tree was one of those Eureka Moments, and here she is, now earning her keep all year round as a bottle bottom-cutting clamp rather than just free-loading on the garage wall for 50 weeks of the year!
I am equally as proud of the jig I produced for cutting into the base of jars as well. We tend to by the same stuff in the same jars over and over again so nailing a selection of different sized jar lids onto a dod of wood seemed a perfectly good and efficient way of securing jars in place for drilling where they were too short for the Xmas tree stand clamp method. Whilst not as pleasing on the eye, thus far, it has proven successful as a hands free holder for drilling holes in jars. I did try the same principle for a screw-top wine bottle but the footprint is too small to hold securely in place.
Gallery of bottles that have been drilled
