A Useful Prepper Tool: The Plastic Bottle Cutter

UPDATE: UncleMorgan is considering making a bunch of Plastic Bottle Cutters to sell to the other Monkeys on the Board.

Not a simple copy of the French cutter, but a better version: Lighter, smaller, simpler, and able to cut much wider strips. (Like, an inch wide instead of only 9mm because sometimes size really does matter!)

It will also be somewhat prettier, much like UncleMorgan himself.

My best gorilla-guess is that the price will be just under $20.00, including shipping within the US.

With shipping, a French cutter would be about $42.00. When and if they can ship. (They never did acknowledge my inquiry, so I think they're just snowed under.)

If enough Monkeys would like one, I'll open up a mini-factory in my workshop. Earliest delivery would be about April 15, 2016, if the Poll shows enough interest.

UncleMorgan's Plastic Bottle Cutter will come with three spare blades and a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee that involves no fine print.



(Original Post Below)

Saw this in Giz-Mag. Very cool. Simple, useful, and great for making expedient cordage in the wild--where you can almost always find a discarded soda bottle.

This would also be a great tool for the garden, for everything from cheap, long-lasting garden twine to heat-shrunk lashings that will never work loose.

You get a lot of strip from one bottle, and it's inherently strong stuff.

I've put in my order--I'll let you know when it comes in.

Cutter adds another string to plastic bottle's bow

 

that is cool!

 

Very interesting and, I would bet, useful. Please let us know how it turns out as I'm interested.

 

That's a cool invention....the product ...(plastic strips) could be put to many DIY applications.

 

@UncleMorgan
Very cool, thanks for sharing.

At the local Ag center someone makes tote bags, purses and even blankets out of plastic bags:

Recycle Plastic Shopping Bags into 'Yarn'

https://www.csudh.edu/dearhabermas/crocheting_bags.pdf

 

I like it, prepper tool, heck I could use that now. Thanks for the post

 

@Aeason
After SHTF, the AO will be filled with empty plastic bottles and bags.

 

Update time:

It looks like I will not be getting a plastic bottle cutter from the guys in France. It would wind up costing something like $42.00, anyway, counting the insane French shipping charges.

Dats a little much.

Aside from that, I think they're well and truly snowed under by their Kickstarter success. It's been a week and they haven't even answered my mail.

I am now considering some other possibilities.

Stay tuned--more later.

 

There's quite a few videos of how to make one of these on Youtube. From a couple of leftover nuts and washers to a homemade rig that will rip through the bottles pretty darn quick. I'm planning on setting up a little experiment this weekend to see what kind of string/line I can get off a couple of water bottles. I'll let you know what I find out. And if I remember, I'll try to take a few pictures.

 

That would be great!

A cutter isn't all that complicated, it's just a variation on the string cutter like leather crafters use.

But it's a very handy variation, and for the endless tie-ups and lashings that go on in the average garden (or camp) make it a great time and money saver. And/or lifesaver, depending on the circumstances.

It's usually slow going to make primitive cordage in the bush, and dead plastic bottles are just about everywhere--so in an emergency, or just when camping out, it would always be a good thing to have.

 

A screw or nail, and a sharp knife driven into a post, would do exactly the same thing.
Nail acts as a fence or stop, and the blade as the cutter.
Interesting, and professionalay made, but high in cost for what you really get.

 

Creek Stewart make a bottle cutter-

 

Great find. Easy technique & good to know. I'm finding a lot of bottles cutters on Youtube, some simple, some pretty complex.

 

Well if you can invent something so I don't have to cut a tree down to have a stump so I can do it the Creek way I would be interested.

 

Heheheheh! Oh, I have.

And it's such an elegant little tool. I just built the process-prototype to make sure it would work, and it did. (Very well, in fact!)

So now I'm building the pre-production prototype, which is the exact version that will go into production.

It has to be a 100% perfect mock-up, to show the tool's attractiveness (or lack thereof) as well as it's real-world functionality.

After that, it's tool-up time.

All-in-all, I'm just about on schedule.

The poll (sadly) hasn't attracted much attention, but there is still a bit of time before I have to make the do-it or drop-it decision, so I'm just going to carry on doggedly until the last minute, and then make the call. On the good side, of course, only one person in four hates the idea...

 

So I started on my quick and dirty version. I was tweaking the bottle holder, and went to brush some sawdust off, and put a very impressive slice on the end of my finger. 2 hours at Urgent Care and a bottle of medical grade super glue later, I was back at home, annoyed that I couldn't work in the woodshop anymore for a while. I'm fine, and the doc let me get away without stitches, but it's a bit uncomfortable to type. I'll try and get some of the pictures up later.

 

I'm in. For about 20 bucks it looks like a useful addition to the preps. Fish trap material? Besides, anything to keep "UNC" too busy to stand around admiring his"pretty"? self in the mirror.

 

Ow! But at least you didn't have to get stitched. Especially on the hands where everything you do is an opportunity to hook one on something and give it a nice yank. (Double-ow!)

Pictures would be good.

I'm going to try yo upload some of mine, but I have to find (or buy) a camera cable to drop the pics into my computer. Be a few days, any way.

 

Oldawg, yer a peach, y'are.

I haven't been standin' around in front of my mirror much lately. Poor thing went blind. I think it was from reflecting an overabundance of meself, which I seem to have a lot of lately.

It's many a time the ladies have commented that my own exceptional beauty is only enhanced by my minor imperfections...which, on a person of lesser countenance, might have been considered almost tragic.