Beer / Soda Can Pen Holder

Everyone has their favorite soda, beer, or other canned beverage and with the rise of seasonal craft beers, my inner hoarder was wondering if there was a way to keep the commemorative cans and reuse them in a way to not attract negative attention. Being inspired from the innerweb, I decided to make a collector's item into this pen holder.

Beer or Soda Cans (clearly, I am partial to Shiner)

Can opener

Scrap wood

Measuring tools, I use a ruler, calipers, and dividers

Drills bits

Hole saw kit or other circle cutting jig (the easiest route would be a lathe)

Sandpaper

Clamps

Glue, wood & super

Punch

Hammer

Dowels and/or rods

Pens/Pencils

OPTIONAL: Wood stain / Paint (for the top)

OPTIONAL: blowtorch for Yaki Sugi / Shou Sugi Ban

Here is a video of my process and as always, it is riddled with wackiness.

After promptly imbibing in said beverage, I used my can opener to remove the top (pic 1 & 2). This gives access to the inner workings of the can into which you will be stuffing your wood...

Yep, so with that being said, I went to work on making wooden circles. First I needed to know which size to cut so I used my calipers to see that I needed 54mm (pic 3-5). You may wonder why since my can measured 51.37mm and I am choosing a hole saw bit larger? The answer is that the inner diameter of the hole saw is around 51mm so that will fit just fine.

Another method would be to use your band saw jig to cut circles!

I set up my drill press and got to work cutting out circles (pic 1). This will depend on the thickness of your scrap but I wound up with 10 pieces that were 1/2-inch thick since your average can is about 5-inches tall.

Using the hole saw kit, I drilled ~half of the way through one side (pic 2), flipped it (pic 3), and completed through the backside (pic 4). Rinse, I mean, sand and repeat (pic 5).

The topper was cut from hardwood (I honestly don't know what species but if you recognize it please leave me a comment). I used a larger hole saw bit (pic 6) so as to ensure it sits on top of the can lid and not inside it. This will be my "show" piece (pic 7-8) after more sanding (pic 9)!

You will notice that with all your pieces cut you have a lot of wiggle room inside. Don't worry, we are going to secure those next.

I had a spare rod that fit the pilot holes (pic 1) made by my hole saw kit to glue and stack all of my wooden circles (pic 2). Unfortunately, it was a metal rod and in hindsight, a wooden dowel would be the superior choice since you wouldn't have to remove it. Although, doing it my way did make for a good pilot hole for a larger drill bit later on.

I still needed to secure the bottom of the wood stack from rattling around in the can. I came up with a quick and dirty plan on the fly: Use an janky bolt to secure the bottom (pic 3-4). The bolt I used came from a pack of janky bolts from a very cheap hardware store...you know which one!

To do so, I needed to find the center of the bottom of the can to keep everything straight. I used my dividers against the top to guess (pic 5). I measured out 52 mm (which is good since we found 51.37mm in step 1), and took half of that, 26 mm (pic 6). I tried to anchor one of the dividers against the lip of the domed part of the bottom of the can (pic 7) and scratch an arc (pic 8). I repeated this in several locations until I was satisfied and punched that spot (pic 9). I used a larger punch to make my hole (pic 10) but just be sure to not go Hulk-a-mania on it and risk making a larger hole than you need (pic 11).

With all the wooden circles dried. I removed them from the rod (pic 1).

Next, I need to make slots large enough to accommodate pens, pencils, sharpies, scribes, whatever. Back to the drill press (pic 2-5)!

For your average No 2 pencil, a 5/16-inch bit is right on the money but for a little less snug of a fit, go with a 21/64 or 11/32-inch bit. I used a 3/8-inch drill bit for something heftier like a Sharpie marker. I didn't go all the way through the wood and you definitely don't want to go all the way through with the larger drill bit on your center hole (unless you goofed up the hole on the can as mentioned earlier).

With all my holes drilled I stuck some glue in the bottom of the center wooden hole (pic 6) and forced it on to the bolt. I also added some CA glue to the bolt because, why not (pic 7)?

Now that everything is centered and straight (pic 8), I added some CA glue to the bolt head where it meets the bottom of the can to reinforce it (pic 9). I also added some CA glue on the lid right where the can meets the wood topper.

I left my prototype straight up wood with a little bit of oil to make it pop (pic 1 left & pic 2).

However, you can do a variety of finishes to make it more personal. Stain and paint are always great options.

If you know me, You know I really like the look of Yaki Sugi / Shou Sugi Ban. This is what I did with the Shiner Pecan pen topper (pic 1 right & pic 3).

That is another option, but I also watched a tutorial on YT that talked about Cerusing Oak. I tried that with my tiny Daiquiri can (pic 1 middle & pic 4).

I hope you like this Instructable and give it a shot. This is a nice way to reduce your scrap wood pile at the very least!

If you or know someone who has an older collection, perhaps with the old style pop tabs, give this a go. I would like to see how you personalize this. One other thing I was thinking of is that since some craft brews use stickers nowadays, you could remove it carefully and wash the residue off. This would allow you to paint basically a blank "canvas" for your own design!

Thank you for sticking with the me this far and I will hopefully see you on the next one!