Beer Bottle Lamp

This is a lamp I made from an old Heineken beer bottle. I came up with the idea after seeing an article and video on how to cut beer bottles, which I'll post a link to. This is the first instructables thing I've made, so I'll try not to screw it up.

-An oversized beer bottle, the one I used was 650mL (You could use a smaller, standard sized beer bottle, but you would need to find a smaller light and light socket than I used)
-An Empty duct tape roll
-A cord to plug into the wall, to be wired into the light socket
-A piece of wood, to make the base (I used just a leftover piece of 2x4)
-An in-line switch, to turn the lamp on and off

Here is the video on how to cut glass with a piece of string and some lighter fluid. If you are using a bigger bottle, the glass may be a bit thicker, and I had to partially cut the glass with a spinning, sanding tool before I used this method.

You want to cut off the bottom of the bottle, wrapping a string around the bottle, but as close to the base as possible, trying to leave the bottle's logo in tact. I found that the edge that was cut was not as clean as I wanted, so the next step is to add the duct tape roll to the bottom of the bottle so it stands straight up and doesn't cut anybody.

I chose to use an empty duct tape roll because it was the perfect size for my 650mL bottle, and I happened to have it lying around.

Put the cardboard roll over the edge on the bottom of the bottle you just cut, and to hold it in place you can use a hot glue gun (I use a different technique for mine, a combination of liquid latex rubber, and cheesecloth). Try to make it as level as possible so the bottle stands up straight when its on the base.

I made the base out of a small chunk of 2x4, I marked the center of the top, and drilled a hole down without going all the way through, and then drilled a hole from the back, into the first hole, so the wires from the socket go down into the wood, and out the back. I bought a small, standard lightbulb sized socket, that looks like the one pictured above. The important thing is that the socket it not wider than the bottle/duct tape roll, and can fit inside when its finished. Hot glue can be used to hold the socket in place. You can now wire from the socket, through the hole, to the wall plug (I used a two-pronged plug from a broken piece of electronics). I painted the base of mine green (and painted the cardboard roll green) to match the green glass, but you can decorate your base, or make it as fancy as you'd like.

You can add the in-line switch to the wire, just making it more convenient turning it on and off. Now just throw in a standard sized light bulb and you're finished (I would recommend a fluorescent bulb, because it gives off less heat).

The bottle sits loosely over the lightbulb on mine, but if you want to secure them together so they arn't knocked over, it wouldn't be a bad idea