Bottle Opener Collar Stays!

In this project I show you how I made steel bottle opener collar stays!

for this project you'll need the following:

a flat piece of mild steel from a hardware store

scissors

paper

a permanent marker

a metal cutting bandsaw

a belt grinder

100 grit sandpaper

the first step is to find two plastic collar stays and trace them on a piece of paper.

use a pair of scissors and cut them out of the paper.

Time to trace the patterns on the steel.

Again, use the marker to trace an outline of the collar stays onto the steel.

take the piece with the traced patterns on them to the bandsaw!

first off, this is a metal cutting bands not and NOT a regular bandsaw. Be sure you know which is which before you cut the steel.

now that's out of the way, take the steel to the bandsaw and cut them out into a rough shape.

now its time to mark each piece with certain shapes.

Mark one with a small line slightly past the halfway point, and use a wine opener and trace the shape of bottle opener side with the marker onto the other piece.

WARNING: don't do as I did, clamp down your metal securely to your drillpress before drilling!

With your steel safely clamped down to your drillpress, use a drillbit the same size as the bottle opener. by doing this, you'll have a nice sharp edge to catch the bottle cap open when you open a bottle

once you've drilled the holes, its now time to go back to the bandsaw and finish cutting the steel.

cut the side with the bottle opener first so you'll have enough metal to hold and then carefully use the bandsaw and shape the curve in the bottle opener. After that, cut the pieces to shape.

this goes without saying, but always use eye protection when using any power tool.

once you have the two pieces roughly cut, its time to cut a small space in one of the pieces so they'll interlock.

for safety purposes, I like to use the backside of a pencil and use the eraser to guide the metal. if you get to close and cut the pen, it sure beats cutting your fingertip!

now moving to the belt grinder!

we will use this to put a final shaping to the collar stays. like the last step, if you feel the pieces are too close to the bandsaw (and value your knuckles) use the backside of a pen or pencil and carefully guide it around the belt grinder.

now we have both pieces shaped! next step is to hand sand the pieces smooth!

in this step, I used 100-220 sandpaper to give both pieces a thorough sanding to remove any sharp angles that may get caught in my shirt.

this is a pretty important step, do a few tests to see how easy they slide in out of your collar.

now they are smooth and ready for a real world test!

now would be a good time to grab a beer/soda and see if they work...

So I designed these to interlock to one-another and that provides the leverage you need to pop to the top of your favorite beer or soda. just click them together and you'll be enjoying a cold drink faster than the couple says "I do"

check out the video for a full demonstration!

I hope you enjoyed this build and for more projects like this don't forget to check out my youtube channel!

www.youtube.com/grazmakes