# 200+ Wine Bottle balancers



## CueballRosendaul (Jul 16, 2012)

*Wine bottle balancers for the wedding*

About 10 years ago, I made a batch of those wine bottle balance pieces for Christmas presents. When my step daughter was here, talking about gifts for the guests who make the long drive to her wedding, I suggested these would be pretty nice. I was thinking like 1 for each couple, so maybe I'd be in for 50 or so pieces. Her first request was for 275 pieces! DOH! She later downsized it to 125, but I already had lumber cut for 200+ so she's getting about 175 and I'm keeping the rest for other giveaways and maybe an art/craft show next year.

We started by planing maple, cherry, and walnut, along with some other random scraps down to 3/4" thickness. Then they were ripped to 3" widths. I ran these long lengths through the router to put the 1/4" roundover on the edges before cutting them down. I kept track of how many pieces I could get out of each piece by writing it on the end of the board









Before cutting into the double ended pieces, we rough sanded them to remove any lines and chatter marks from the planer. The wife helped in this process.









I then cut them to length as a double ended piece so I wouldn't lose any material on the miter end and only had to make one cut. It was much easier to drill them as a double also. Less handling, more drilling.









Here's the fixture I made for drilling the holes. It aint pretty but it allowed for 90% of the chips to go to the shop vac and held them in place for a nice clean hole. I made sure to drill from the face, so if there was any tear out, it would be on the back of the piece.









Here they are all cut and drilled, ready to head next door to Jeff's shop for the engraving









Jeff (Not a LJ here yet, but more worthy than many of us!) has a Shark CNC router that we used to engrave different quotes on the holders. There were four different quotes she requested, and I made a few more up as I went along.

















It took about 5 minutes to engrave each one, so as they were being engraved, I finish sanded them. Returning to my shop, I cleaned up the engraving with a scrub brush to remove any fibers, blew them out with the compressor, and stained them with various stains, mostly Early American because I have a whole gallon of it left over from my hardwood floors.









Here is the template piece I made with the dimensions. I'm a big believer in making a mock-up piece out of pine before building anything final. That's especially important when you're making 200 pieces. I was terrified that I'd get them all done and they wouldn't balance!









When I modified the original design that I had made 10 years ago, I sent Jackie a short video to show her the difference in the new design. I'll try to upload it here. (my first blog and first video upload) You can see that the original design, while neat looking because it holds the bottle perfectly horizontal, is very tippy and a little tricky to set up. The new design is super simple to set up, and to make. The video may not have loaded properly, I'll either try again, or you'll have to take my word for it!

I still need to finish them this weekend. Planning on spraying a water based poly (also left over from my hardwood floor job). I'll post an update when I get this step done, as well as some nice close up shots of the finished pieces.


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## Sailor (Jun 17, 2009)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Wine bottle balancers for the wedding*
> 
> About 10 years ago, I made a batch of those wine bottle balance pieces for Christmas presents. When my step daughter was here, talking about gifts for the guests who make the long drive to her wedding, I suggested these would be pretty nice. I was thinking like 1 for each couple, so maybe I'd be in for 50 or so pieces. Her first request was for 275 pieces! DOH! She later downsized it to 125, but I already had lumber cut for 200+ so she's getting about 175 and I'm keeping the rest for other giveaways and maybe an art/craft show next year.
> 
> ...


Wow! That's quite a bit! Saved your step daughter some $$$ though and everyone will get a super cool gift.

If you having trouble getting the video uploaded and posted I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have to get it going. I'm no expert, but I have a fair amount of experience and knowledge. PM me if you'd like.


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## clieb91 (Aug 17, 2007)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Wine bottle balancers for the wedding*
> 
> About 10 years ago, I made a batch of those wine bottle balance pieces for Christmas presents. When my step daughter was here, talking about gifts for the guests who make the long drive to her wedding, I suggested these would be pretty nice. I was thinking like 1 for each couple, so maybe I'd be in for 50 or so pieces. Her first request was for 275 pieces! DOH! She later downsized it to 125, but I already had lumber cut for 200+ so she's getting about 175 and I'm keeping the rest for other giveaways and maybe an art/craft show next year.
> 
> ...


Talk about a large quantity production run. Nicely done. Its great that your neighbor has that router. I would love to see the size of the lettering that it can produce as I have been pushing around getting something like that or a Laser engraver. 
Congrats to your step-daughter.

CtL


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## Kookaburra (Apr 23, 2012)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Wine bottle balancers for the wedding*
> 
> About 10 years ago, I made a batch of those wine bottle balance pieces for Christmas presents. When my step daughter was here, talking about gifts for the guests who make the long drive to her wedding, I suggested these would be pretty nice. I was thinking like 1 for each couple, so maybe I'd be in for 50 or so pieces. Her first request was for 275 pieces! DOH! She later downsized it to 125, but I already had lumber cut for 200+ so she's getting about 175 and I'm keeping the rest for other giveaways and maybe an art/craft show next year.
> 
> ...


Very nice wedding favors. What were the quotes your step daughter choose? My sister is getting married in a week - at a winery and this would have been a great idea. (I am NOT going to show this to her at this late date though)

And, I must comment on your lovely wife working BARE FOOTED in the shop. I am sure you know better!


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## davidroberts (Nov 8, 2008)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Wine bottle balancers for the wedding*
> 
> About 10 years ago, I made a batch of those wine bottle balance pieces for Christmas presents. When my step daughter was here, talking about gifts for the guests who make the long drive to her wedding, I suggested these would be pretty nice. I was thinking like 1 for each couple, so maybe I'd be in for 50 or so pieces. Her first request was for 275 pieces! DOH! She later downsized it to 125, but I already had lumber cut for 200+ so she's getting about 175 and I'm keeping the rest for other giveaways and maybe an art/craft show next year.
> 
> ...


Engraving 200+ wine bottle balancers is just outrageous!!! I guess making 200+ from scratch, cutting, drilling sanding, staining, finish sanding… ain't to shabby either. You've inspired me to start saving now for my daughter's wedding, some day.


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## CueballRosendaul (Jul 16, 2012)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Wine bottle balancers for the wedding*
> 
> About 10 years ago, I made a batch of those wine bottle balance pieces for Christmas presents. When my step daughter was here, talking about gifts for the guests who make the long drive to her wedding, I suggested these would be pretty nice. I was thinking like 1 for each couple, so maybe I'd be in for 50 or so pieces. Her first request was for 275 pieces! DOH! She later downsized it to 125, but I already had lumber cut for 200+ so she's getting about 175 and I'm keeping the rest for other giveaways and maybe an art/craft show next year.
> 
> ...


Thanks all. I'll get some final pics up later today. I have about 60 to go with the spray poly (which is going VERY well). I may have to do a review of the HVLP sprayer I bought.

Kay, I think she has flip flops on. It was 90 and humid. Normally if I keep the shop closed up it stays really cool in there but we were making a lot of dust.

Chris, I'll get some close ups of the lettering and my two cents on the machine. I think Jeff signed up here at LJ so perhaps he can give a full review soon.

Dothan, thanks for the offer. I may take you up on it. I think the problem was file size too large.

Dave, yes, outrageous. Keep in mind the when I made the offer I thought I was in for 50 or so. Dads just get it done.


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## Alexandre (May 26, 2012)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Wine bottle balancers for the wedding*
> 
> About 10 years ago, I made a batch of those wine bottle balance pieces for Christmas presents. When my step daughter was here, talking about gifts for the guests who make the long drive to her wedding, I suggested these would be pretty nice. I was thinking like 1 for each couple, so maybe I'd be in for 50 or so pieces. Her first request was for 275 pieces! DOH! She later downsized it to 125, but I already had lumber cut for 200+ so she's getting about 175 and I'm keeping the rest for other giveaways and maybe an art/craft show next year.
> 
> ...


Just… WOW.
Now, Is your drill bit, planer knives, tablesaw blade and router bits(including the cnc ones) blunt?


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## CueballRosendaul (Jul 16, 2012)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Wine bottle balancers for the wedding*
> 
> About 10 years ago, I made a batch of those wine bottle balance pieces for Christmas presents. When my step daughter was here, talking about gifts for the guests who make the long drive to her wedding, I suggested these would be pretty nice. I was thinking like 1 for each couple, so maybe I'd be in for 50 or so pieces. Her first request was for 275 pieces! DOH! She later downsized it to 125, but I already had lumber cut for 200+ so she's getting about 175 and I'm keeping the rest for other giveaways and maybe an art/craft show next year.
> 
> ...


The forstner bit needs sharpened again, I had to touch it up with a diamond hone a couple times during the process, and now it needs a total workover. The 60 degree engraving bit is probably in Jeff's trash can. Especially from the maple. It was hard maple originally intended for a cue maker for shaft wood.


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## Alexandre (May 26, 2012)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Wine bottle balancers for the wedding*
> 
> About 10 years ago, I made a batch of those wine bottle balance pieces for Christmas presents. When my step daughter was here, talking about gifts for the guests who make the long drive to her wedding, I suggested these would be pretty nice. I was thinking like 1 for each couple, so maybe I'd be in for 50 or so pieces. Her first request was for 275 pieces! DOH! She later downsized it to 125, but I already had lumber cut for 200+ so she's getting about 175 and I'm keeping the rest for other giveaways and maybe an art/craft show next year.
> 
> ...


LOL.
And for the planer knives?
Do you want a article that I have in finewoodworking on how to sharpen a forstner?


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## CueballRosendaul (Jul 16, 2012)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Wine bottle balancers for the wedding*
> 
> About 10 years ago, I made a batch of those wine bottle balance pieces for Christmas presents. When my step daughter was here, talking about gifts for the guests who make the long drive to her wedding, I suggested these would be pretty nice. I was thinking like 1 for each couple, so maybe I'd be in for 50 or so pieces. Her first request was for 275 pieces! DOH! She later downsized it to 125, but I already had lumber cut for 200+ so she's getting about 175 and I'm keeping the rest for other giveaways and maybe an art/craft show next year.
> 
> ...


I think I have an article somewhere. I have a collection of FWW, FHB, Shopnotes, etc I read it years ago and sharpened most of mine They're a really cheap set that was bad from the start but now work much better. I paid $40 bucks for a set of 20 or so at Harbor Freight. At first I considered them "sacrificial" but they've performed very well. For this project, I did go to the Woodcraft store and spend $40 on one nice bit however.


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## CueballRosendaul (Jul 16, 2012)

*DONE!*

I finally finished all the wine bottle balancers for the wedding. In plenty of time, the wedding isn't for another month. I'll add it to my projects list with a batch of pictures, but will also put some final pics here. 









A few things I learned/would have done different/random thoughts:


Cherry is now officially my favorite wood to work with. I used to prefer oak, and lots of other stuff is neat, but NOTHING machines as easily and comes out looking better than a piece of cherry. The maple was too darn hard, burned at the edges, dulled blades and bits, the walnut was very splintery and hard to keep the fuzz off.


I still love water based poly, especially the stuff I've been using leftover from my floor refinishing project, and especially when thinned and sprayed HVLP style. The stuff used for flooring (Varathane water based satin) is much harder than the typical poly because it has some extra hardeners for flooring. It dries exceptionally fast too. Like less than 10 minutes fast.


I wish I had routed the 1/4" roundover when I had them cut as doubles instead of in the long lengths because I would have routed the ends first, then the sides to avoid the tearout.


The Shark CNC machine is the schizzel. It's a high dollar machine, and was very much like the plastic engravers I used at a sign shop during college. Setup only took about 10 minutes each. As each one was setup, the G code file was saved and it was a simple matter of hitting OK after putting a new piece in the fixture. We had made a sampler board with various fonts to see what looked good and went fast. Some of the fonts with Serifs (like times new roman, fonts that have those little extra lines at the ends of letters like the capital T and such) took a lot longer to cut. For some reason other fonts also took a goofy toolpath and were dreadfully slow. The machine will cut any font in your computer such as TTFs. There is quite a bit of Kerning that needs to be done to get the letters spaced out just right. Kerning is the spacing between letters, and you can make micro adjustments between any letters. In most intelligent programs, it's automatic, but in something like this, it's manual. For example, if you have a capital L and T next to each other, typical spacing looks too far, same with AW, LY and a few others.

Below is a comparison picture of one with stain and one without. As you can see, the stain wasn't very dark on this dark walnut, but since the lettering is essentially end grain, it soaks up a lot of stain and makes them really pop out. Most of the lettering was .375 tall. All were cut with a 60 degree V bit. Each took about 4 minutes to run. The top picture of the light maple piece had some copper colored paint that I experimented with filling the letters. I masked it off, shot a light coat of poly on the area to keep the paint from soaking in, laid a heavy coat of the copper paint on, let it dry, then removed the mask, scraped with cabinet scraper, sanded fine and shot with poly. Nice effect, but not dramatic. Other options would be to fill with epoxy to make it look like an inlay.




























I took a few of the extra pieces and made them to send to some folks in Florida to commemorate a tragedy aboard the boat Joe Cool a few years back when a good friend was killed. I also made one out of cherry with a pretty script lettering with the name of our house The Looking Glass Lodge.

Thanks for reading!


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## alexdom_89 (Feb 11, 2012)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *DONE!*
> 
> I finally finished all the wine bottle balancers for the wedding. In plenty of time, the wedding isn't for another month. I'll add it to my projects list with a batch of pictures, but will also put some final pics here.
> 
> ...


These look amazing I'm going to have to try som!!


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## Alexandre (May 26, 2012)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *DONE!*
> 
> I finally finished all the wine bottle balancers for the wedding. In plenty of time, the wedding isn't for another month. I'll add it to my projects list with a batch of pictures, but will also put some final pics here.
> 
> ...


Lets be honest… 
Although I like cherry, I prefer Walnut…
Cherry to me, burns quickly and is one of those woods that when you leave it outside, it changes coulor quickly.
Walnut to me, Is that it cuts perfectly, and cherry is probably my second choice…


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## MT_Stringer (Jul 21, 2009)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *DONE!*
> 
> I finally finished all the wine bottle balancers for the wedding. In plenty of time, the wedding isn't for another month. I'll add it to my projects list with a batch of pictures, but will also put some final pics here.
> 
> ...


Good job. They look great.


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## CueballRosendaul (Jul 16, 2012)

*Angled hole? NO straight thru.*

Several people have asked if I bored the neck hole at a 42 degree angle too, and the answer is no. When I made the first batch of these 10 years ago I did, actually they were at a 45 degree angle. That's pretty hard to do and made for a very tippy piece when using 3/4" stock. If you notice most of the ones people make that have an angled hole have a much bigger foot than just 3/4" stock. It also made a lot of tear-out on the back of the piece. It's not just as easy as chucking up a forstner bit and drilling a hole. Try it sometime. It's a nice effect to have the bottle perfectly horizontal, but it's actually more dramatic to have it sticking up in the air a bit more. Here's a short video I shot to send to the bride to be showing the difference.

http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf


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## sedcokid (Jul 19, 2008)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Angled hole? NO straight thru.*
> 
> Several people have asked if I bored the neck hole at a 42 degree angle too, and the answer is no. When I made the first batch of these 10 years ago I did, actually they were at a 45 degree angle. That's pretty hard to do and made for a very tippy piece when using 3/4" stock. If you notice most of the ones people make that have an angled hole have a much bigger foot than just 3/4" stock. It also made a lot of tear-out on the back of the piece. It's not just as easy as chucking up a forstner bit and drilling a hole. Try it sometime. It's a nice effect to have the bottle perfectly horizontal, but it's actually more dramatic to have it sticking up in the air a bit more. Here's a short video I shot to send to the bride to be showing the difference.
> 
> http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf


Thanks for the good info, the video was good!

Thanks for sharing


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## cwdance1 (Jun 23, 2009)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Angled hole? NO straight thru.*
> 
> Several people have asked if I bored the neck hole at a 42 degree angle too, and the answer is no. When I made the first batch of these 10 years ago I did, actually they were at a 45 degree angle. That's pretty hard to do and made for a very tippy piece when using 3/4" stock. If you notice most of the ones people make that have an angled hole have a much bigger foot than just 3/4" stock. It also made a lot of tear-out on the back of the piece. It's not just as easy as chucking up a forstner bit and drilling a hole. Try it sometime. It's a nice effect to have the bottle perfectly horizontal, but it's actually more dramatic to have it sticking up in the air a bit more. Here's a short video I shot to send to the bride to be showing the difference.
> 
> http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf


So what angle did you use?


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## CueballRosendaul (Jul 16, 2012)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Angled hole? NO straight thru.*
> 
> Several people have asked if I bored the neck hole at a 42 degree angle too, and the answer is no. When I made the first batch of these 10 years ago I did, actually they were at a 45 degree angle. That's pretty hard to do and made for a very tippy piece when using 3/4" stock. If you notice most of the ones people make that have an angled hole have a much bigger foot than just 3/4" stock. It also made a lot of tear-out on the back of the piece. It's not just as easy as chucking up a forstner bit and drilling a hole. Try it sometime. It's a nice effect to have the bottle perfectly horizontal, but it's actually more dramatic to have it sticking up in the air a bit more. Here's a short video I shot to send to the bride to be showing the difference.
> 
> http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf


Angle is 42 degrees for the base. On the original project page theres a picture of my template piece with the dimensions. but I'll repost it here.


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## CueballRosendaul (Jul 16, 2012)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Angled hole? NO straight thru.*
> 
> Several people have asked if I bored the neck hole at a 42 degree angle too, and the answer is no. When I made the first batch of these 10 years ago I did, actually they were at a 45 degree angle. That's pretty hard to do and made for a very tippy piece when using 3/4" stock. If you notice most of the ones people make that have an angled hole have a much bigger foot than just 3/4" stock. It also made a lot of tear-out on the back of the piece. It's not just as easy as chucking up a forstner bit and drilling a hole. Try it sometime. It's a nice effect to have the bottle perfectly horizontal, but it's actually more dramatic to have it sticking up in the air a bit more. Here's a short video I shot to send to the bride to be showing the difference.
> 
> http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf


hmm, looks like photobucket cropped the pic. overall length (long side) is 8 1/4" and the bottom is 42 degrees.


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## Wickate (Oct 2, 2010)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Angled hole? NO straight thru.*
> 
> Several people have asked if I bored the neck hole at a 42 degree angle too, and the answer is no. When I made the first batch of these 10 years ago I did, actually they were at a 45 degree angle. That's pretty hard to do and made for a very tippy piece when using 3/4" stock. If you notice most of the ones people make that have an angled hole have a much bigger foot than just 3/4" stock. It also made a lot of tear-out on the back of the piece. It's not just as easy as chucking up a forstner bit and drilling a hole. Try it sometime. It's a nice effect to have the bottle perfectly horizontal, but it's actually more dramatic to have it sticking up in the air a bit more. Here's a short video I shot to send to the bride to be showing the difference.
> 
> http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf


Thanks for this information - I just recently made my first three balancers and struggled mightily trying to setup my drill press for a 45 degree hole through a test piece. I finally gave that up and just went 90 degrees to the face and was satisfied with the result. I did get the 45 degree hole drilled, but also feel the end of the bottle sticking up is a bit more dramatic. I cut my bottom at 45 degrees versus the 42 you mention with stock that's between 3/4" and 1" without any problems getting the bottles to balance.

CVinje


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## CueballRosendaul (Jul 16, 2012)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Angled hole? NO straight thru.*
> 
> Several people have asked if I bored the neck hole at a 42 degree angle too, and the answer is no. When I made the first batch of these 10 years ago I did, actually they were at a 45 degree angle. That's pretty hard to do and made for a very tippy piece when using 3/4" stock. If you notice most of the ones people make that have an angled hole have a much bigger foot than just 3/4" stock. It also made a lot of tear-out on the back of the piece. It's not just as easy as chucking up a forstner bit and drilling a hole. Try it sometime. It's a nice effect to have the bottle perfectly horizontal, but it's actually more dramatic to have it sticking up in the air a bit more. Here's a short video I shot to send to the bride to be showing the difference.
> 
> http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf


CVinje, glad I'm not the only one who struggled with drilling an angled hole. It's a tough task. I knew there was no way I was drilling 200 of them.


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## Zelbar (Sep 14, 2008)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Angled hole? NO straight thru.*
> 
> Several people have asked if I bored the neck hole at a 42 degree angle too, and the answer is no. When I made the first batch of these 10 years ago I did, actually they were at a 45 degree angle. That's pretty hard to do and made for a very tippy piece when using 3/4" stock. If you notice most of the ones people make that have an angled hole have a much bigger foot than just 3/4" stock. It also made a lot of tear-out on the back of the piece. It's not just as easy as chucking up a forstner bit and drilling a hole. Try it sometime. It's a nice effect to have the bottle perfectly horizontal, but it's actually more dramatic to have it sticking up in the air a bit more. Here's a short video I shot to send to the bride to be showing the difference.
> 
> http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf


I do the straight through drilled hole and like the results and it is easy and fast. I use a 7/8" stock instead of the 3/4 that Cueball uses.


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## CueballRosendaul (Jul 16, 2012)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Angled hole? NO straight thru.*
> 
> Several people have asked if I bored the neck hole at a 42 degree angle too, and the answer is no. When I made the first batch of these 10 years ago I did, actually they were at a 45 degree angle. That's pretty hard to do and made for a very tippy piece when using 3/4" stock. If you notice most of the ones people make that have an angled hole have a much bigger foot than just 3/4" stock. It also made a lot of tear-out on the back of the piece. It's not just as easy as chucking up a forstner bit and drilling a hole. Try it sometime. It's a nice effect to have the bottle perfectly horizontal, but it's actually more dramatic to have it sticking up in the air a bit more. Here's a short video I shot to send to the bride to be showing the difference.
> 
> http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf


Good call on thicker stock. At 7/8 thickness, the footprint is nearly 3/16" wider for greater stability.


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## greg48 (Nov 7, 2010)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Angled hole? NO straight thru.*
> 
> Several people have asked if I bored the neck hole at a 42 degree angle too, and the answer is no. When I made the first batch of these 10 years ago I did, actually they were at a 45 degree angle. That's pretty hard to do and made for a very tippy piece when using 3/4" stock. If you notice most of the ones people make that have an angled hole have a much bigger foot than just 3/4" stock. It also made a lot of tear-out on the back of the piece. It's not just as easy as chucking up a forstner bit and drilling a hole. Try it sometime. It's a nice effect to have the bottle perfectly horizontal, but it's actually more dramatic to have it sticking up in the air a bit more. Here's a short video I shot to send to the bride to be showing the difference.
> 
> http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf


Wow, how timely. I was just thinking of making up a couple for someone who considers himself a "conn-e-sewer" (not knowing french, I spelled it phonetically, I think).
THANK YOU


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## CharlieBhoy (Sep 18, 2012)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Angled hole? NO straight thru.*
> 
> Several people have asked if I bored the neck hole at a 42 degree angle too, and the answer is no. When I made the first batch of these 10 years ago I did, actually they were at a 45 degree angle. That's pretty hard to do and made for a very tippy piece when using 3/4" stock. If you notice most of the ones people make that have an angled hole have a much bigger foot than just 3/4" stock. It also made a lot of tear-out on the back of the piece. It's not just as easy as chucking up a forstner bit and drilling a hole. Try it sometime. It's a nice effect to have the bottle perfectly horizontal, but it's actually more dramatic to have it sticking up in the air a bit more. Here's a short video I shot to send to the bride to be showing the difference.
> 
> http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf


Hi Cueball, just want to say that I've used your design quite a few times now, great little gift to go with a nice bottle of wine. Saw quite a few online but given that you had made 200 I thought that your design was the one to go with. Being from the UK I'm metric all the way but this is the only thing I've got in my notebook that has the design measurements in imperial. Wish you American's would see the light and move to metric, it would make my life so much easier!

Anyway, thanks again for this posting, it's a great addition to an amazing site.


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## CueballRosendaul (Jul 16, 2012)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Angled hole? NO straight thru.*
> 
> Several people have asked if I bored the neck hole at a 42 degree angle too, and the answer is no. When I made the first batch of these 10 years ago I did, actually they were at a 45 degree angle. That's pretty hard to do and made for a very tippy piece when using 3/4" stock. If you notice most of the ones people make that have an angled hole have a much bigger foot than just 3/4" stock. It also made a lot of tear-out on the back of the piece. It's not just as easy as chucking up a forstner bit and drilling a hole. Try it sometime. It's a nice effect to have the bottle perfectly horizontal, but it's actually more dramatic to have it sticking up in the air a bit more. Here's a short video I shot to send to the bride to be showing the difference.
> 
> http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf


Charlie, You're Welcome, and I'm glad the design is working for you. Sorry you had to do a little math to make them work over there. Do tape measures and rulers over there have the imperial system on them like they have metric on them here? I think I only have one ruler that doesn't have a parallel line of metric rule. Just curious.


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## CharlieBhoy (Sep 18, 2012)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Angled hole? NO straight thru.*
> 
> Several people have asked if I bored the neck hole at a 42 degree angle too, and the answer is no. When I made the first batch of these 10 years ago I did, actually they were at a 45 degree angle. That's pretty hard to do and made for a very tippy piece when using 3/4" stock. If you notice most of the ones people make that have an angled hole have a much bigger foot than just 3/4" stock. It also made a lot of tear-out on the back of the piece. It's not just as easy as chucking up a forstner bit and drilling a hole. Try it sometime. It's a nice effect to have the bottle perfectly horizontal, but it's actually more dramatic to have it sticking up in the air a bit more. Here's a short video I shot to send to the bride to be showing the difference.
> 
> http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf


Sorry Cueball, just saw your post (as I was directing another Jock to your most excellent blog). (http://lumberjocks.com/projects/100693)

I think I might have confused the issue with my explanation. Yes, we have imperial. The point I was making was that the wine balancers are the only thing in my notebook that I have written down (and measure out) in imperial.

All our tape measures also have imperial but I think 28 millimetres is a lot easier to read and follow than something like 1inch 7/16ths.


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## Albert (Jul 28, 2008)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Angled hole? NO straight thru.*
> 
> Several people have asked if I bored the neck hole at a 42 degree angle too, and the answer is no. When I made the first batch of these 10 years ago I did, actually they were at a 45 degree angle. That's pretty hard to do and made for a very tippy piece when using 3/4" stock. If you notice most of the ones people make that have an angled hole have a much bigger foot than just 3/4" stock. It also made a lot of tear-out on the back of the piece. It's not just as easy as chucking up a forstner bit and drilling a hole. Try it sometime. It's a nice effect to have the bottle perfectly horizontal, but it's actually more dramatic to have it sticking up in the air a bit more. Here's a short video I shot to send to the bride to be showing the difference.
> 
> http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf


Hi Cueball,
I'm going to make a batch of these, any recent developments?

Paul


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## CueballRosendaul (Jul 16, 2012)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Angled hole? NO straight thru.*
> 
> Several people have asked if I bored the neck hole at a 42 degree angle too, and the answer is no. When I made the first batch of these 10 years ago I did, actually they were at a 45 degree angle. That's pretty hard to do and made for a very tippy piece when using 3/4" stock. If you notice most of the ones people make that have an angled hole have a much bigger foot than just 3/4" stock. It also made a lot of tear-out on the back of the piece. It's not just as easy as chucking up a forstner bit and drilling a hole. Try it sometime. It's a nice effect to have the bottle perfectly horizontal, but it's actually more dramatic to have it sticking up in the air a bit more. Here's a short video I shot to send to the bride to be showing the difference.
> 
> http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf


Paul, no real changes. I'm still going through the leftovers from that batch I made for the daughter's wedding. My neighbor and his dad made some pretty nifty ones, including these curved jobs. They're a glue up like a cutting board and sliced into curves on the band saw and cleaned up on the spindle sander.


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## CFrye (May 13, 2013)

CueballRosendaul said:


> *Angled hole? NO straight thru.*
> 
> Several people have asked if I bored the neck hole at a 42 degree angle too, and the answer is no. When I made the first batch of these 10 years ago I did, actually they were at a 45 degree angle. That's pretty hard to do and made for a very tippy piece when using 3/4" stock. If you notice most of the ones people make that have an angled hole have a much bigger foot than just 3/4" stock. It also made a lot of tear-out on the back of the piece. It's not just as easy as chucking up a forstner bit and drilling a hole. Try it sometime. It's a nice effect to have the bottle perfectly horizontal, but it's actually more dramatic to have it sticking up in the air a bit more. Here's a short video I shot to send to the bride to be showing the difference.
> 
> http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf


Favorited! Thanks for sharing.


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