Custom Cork Magnets

At the local recycling center there is a small bin for discarding the corks from wine and liquor bottles. It seemed that something could be made with these so I converted liquor bottle corks into custom magnets by laser etching a logo or symbol into the top of wooden corks or gluing laser etched wooden discs to ones with plastic tops. The cork part of the cork is removed and also used separately to make a bulletin board.

• liquor bottle corks with wooden or plastic tops
• laser etcher/cutter
• coping saw, sharp knife, or band saw
• rough sandpaper
• rotary tool (optional)
• glue (white, carpenters, hot glue, etc)
• 3/4" diameter ceramic magnets
• 1/8" Baltic birch plywood or other similar thickness wood

Using your choice of cutting device, saw or cut off the cork part of the cork flush with the surface of the wooden or plastic top of the cork. Save the cork part. Sand the bottom surface of the wooden or plastic part if needed to make sure it is flush with the surface of the top part of the cork. This will insure it will lay flat when etching the design into the top surface of the wooden cork. It will also help when gluing the magnet to the top part of the cork.

Use the laser to etch your design into the top of the wooden corks and etch and cut the thin plywood for the plastic cork tops. I used plywood material from the scrap bin at the maker mill to cut out the discs for the plastic corks. Some lasers will not be able to use materials over 1/2" thick. For those type of corks I used the etched discs. Of course the plywood does not have to be a disc. It can be any shape and size you desire.

I used a rotary tool to rout out a shallow pit for the magnet in hopes the extra surface area will help the glue hold. I leave the magnet a fraction of an inch above the surface of the cork so the magnet will have good contact with whatever you plan to stick it to. You can simply glue the magnet to the back of the cork as well. Use lots of glue.

Remember the cork part of the cork you saved? These can be glued to a surface and used as a push pin bulletin board for those locations where there is not a convenient magnetic surface. Use lots of glue to hold the corks down.