Strong Magnetic Bottle Opener

Magnets and beer...what could go wrong? This can be a great little project that will add a restaurant feel to your kitchen or workshop (wherever you prefer to have a cold one). The bottle opener will stick to any ferrous metal surface, like steel or iron, even a fridge door! The strong magnets can hold a lot of bottle caps, so you don't have to worry about having to clean it off often.

This can be a pretty simple project, depending on how intricate you make your design. The essentials for this project include:

-Wood of your choice

-Neodymium Magnets

-Bottle opener (a simple search on Amazon shows many different styles and colors).

Tools you may need: table saw, router, drill or drill press, chisel, screwdriver, and glue.

The first step in this project, as it is with most projects, is to choose your design. It can be as simple as a bottle opener and one magnet screwed to a 2x4, or you can make a nice piece with hidden magnets.

We tried out both options, but since we keep one of these on our fridge door, we wanted to make it look nice. Your design can really any size or shape you want, just keep in mind, the larger you go, the stronger (more expensive) magnets you'll need!

Our design is simple yet elegant (we think). For a fancier look, you can use different wood types, or chose a different bottle opener. We saw some with gold plating, chrome plating, specially designed, etc. There really is a lot of autonomy in this project!

If you are having trouble thinking of a design, we've included a simple drawing of ours!

Sorry for not having pictures of this step, but it is pretty simple! Whatever design you choose, cut it out, router the edges, etc. Once your final design is cut, you are ready to insert the magnets.

This step is another designing process. We thought of two options that worked well. The first option is to chisel out a square in the back of the board for one large block magnet. We used a 2" x 1" x 1/2" block, our part number BY0X08. Using this large block, it will effectively hold the opener to the steel surface and catch the bottle caps.

The second option is to use countersunk magnets (we used four RC22CS-N) to hold the opener to the steel surface and two powerful DX08 to catch the bottle caps. This method is a bit easier to manufacture, since all you need is to drill some holes. Chiseling can be difficult!

The countersunk rings are simply screwed into the wood using a #8 flat-head screw. The large block magnet or the two discs are both epoxied into place. We used a strong two-part epoxy. Superglue could also work.

Whatever method you chose, leave minimal material between the catching magnet and the bottle caps. This will insure you catch many, many bottle caps! Our wood thickness over the magnet is 1/16". We also used a small strip of grippy tape on the back, which increased the friction enough to prevent any sliding on the slick fridge door.

This really isn't a step in your process, but we wanted to share some prototyping results we found doing this project. See the first chart of different magnets catching bottle caps with 1/16" of wood over the magnet.

The second chart is what magnets we found worked well for the magnet on a 2x4 design.

After inserting the magnets, it is now time to attach the bottle openers. All this takes is a drill and a screwdriver. If you want to put any finish on your wood, you should do it before attaching the bottle opener.

Drill a small pilot hole where the bottle opener screws will go. Make sure these holes don't hit the magnets! Then simply screw the bottle opener on and you are done!

This step is VERY IMPORTANT! DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP.

Now this wasn't a true step by step instructable, since we didn't show much of the manufacturing process, but we know you know that! Any questions, feel free to comment! Above all else...enjoy!! Please drink responsibly.