# Balancing wine bottle holder... with a twist



## shazapple (Jun 16, 2010)

My family has an apple orchard, our last name starts with the letter E, which we paint on the sides of our bins. This is a crappy drawing of what it looks like








I'd like to make a balancing wine bottle holder, but modify the plain 'board with a hole' design to be in the shape of our family E. I'm thinking that the neck of the wind bottle could go through the top loop of the E. 














If I jigsaw this out of a solid piece of hardwood with the grain going from top to bottom, would it be strong enough? I think the weak point would be somewhere in the middle, so i would obviously make the depth and width as thick as possible. I'd also have to move the top look to the left a bit so it doesn't roll over on it's side. 

Would there be a better way of doing this? Carve or burn the E into the board? Inlay? Something amazing I've never even heard of?


----------



## MastersHand (Nov 28, 2010)

shazapple said:


> My family has an apple orchard, our last name starts with the letter E, which we paint on the sides of our bins. This is a crappy drawing of what it looks like
> <img src="http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=18522"/>
> 
> I'd like to make a balancing wine bottle holder, but modify the plain 'board with a hole' design to be in the shape of our family E. I'm thinking that the neck of the wind bottle could go through the top loop of the E.
> ...


Keep the full board design and scroll out the e in the large area below the bottle. I don't know if the way you discussed will be strong enough or have the right balance


----------



## Fishbucket (Aug 18, 2010)

I'd cut the big 'E" out of some nice Dark Walnut, mohog, cocobolo etc. and attach it to the side of the balancing board. 

I dont think the numbers will transfer over to the curves easly. It's going to take alot of tinkering with the fullsize cut out 'E' to find the right happy spot and angle... 

Not trying to shoot it down, and would love to be proved it can work. :thumbsup:


----------



## shazapple (Jun 16, 2010)

yeah, I'm going to go ahead and try it anyway! the worst that can happen is that it breaks.
The paper is from the stencil we use on our apple bins. I copied it onto cardboard, but with thicker lines. Then I cut it into pieces and stapled it together to make it smaller and move the neck hole over to the left a bit. I also got rid of the gap between the top two loops, made the top loop a little more eye shaped, and flattened off the bottom.









I think I will still have to make some of the lines thicker. . .


----------



## MastersHand (Nov 28, 2010)

shazapple said:


> yeah, I'm going to go ahead and try it anyway! the worst that can happen is that it breaks.
> The paper is from the stencil we use on our apple bins. I copied it onto cardboard, but with thicker lines. Then I cut it into pieces and stapled it together to make it smaller and move the neck hole over to the left a bit. I also got rid of the gap between the top two loops, made the top loop a little more eye shaped, and flattened off the bottom.
> 
> <img src="http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=18549"/>
> ...


Good luck hope it works let us know. Test it with a cheap non alcoholic


----------



## rrich (Jun 24, 2009)

If you want to burn it in, try these folks. I've got one of their "irons" and it works well.

http://www.brandnew.net/

I seem to recall that they can do almost anything, any size within reason and torch or electric heating.

I would think that something 2" x 3" high would be about right. They did my signature so they can do fine print in addition to the graphics.


----------



## shazapple (Jun 16, 2010)

I cut one out of plywood, and it worked so well that I decided to use that instead and paint it. Not as elegant as it could be, but it works. I would still like to try making one out of hardwood. Also, I ran out of time. . .







I decided the balancing factor, while cool, was a pain in the butt because you couldn't balance anything other than a full bottle, and around here they don't stay that way for long! :laughing: I was going to use the cut out section of the lower half of the E as the base, but again, ran out of time.








If I were to do it again I would try making one of the curved rocking versions.


----------



## MastersHand (Nov 28, 2010)

That turned out Really nice. Glad it worked out I was wondering if you ever gave it ago


----------



## shazapple (Jun 16, 2010)

Next time around I'm getting a scroll saw. The joy saw was a bit too unwieldy! :lol:


----------

