bottlecap magnets

I'm somewhat of a packrat. I collect things thinking that one day I'll make something of it all. But usually it comes to nothing and I'm stuck with a lot of ... stuff. But today I'm actually getting to use some of that stuff, turning it into functional stuff. Yay! I have some bottle caps from soda bottles, mostly IBC sodas. I have a whole stash of glass bottles too, but I'm still trying to figure out what to do with those. Anyway, I decided to make magnets out of them after seeing the concept online. So, let's get started, shall we?


First, we gather our materials. Bottle caps - yep. Wood circles - yep. The circles that are 1" in diameter fit beautifully into the bottle caps, and they can be found at pretty much any hobby store (yay Michael's!). Then there are magnets. I got these at Wal-mart and they have foam and adhesive already attached to one side of the magnet. These are 3/4" in diameter and have a total height of just under 3/16".

   
If you have magnets with adhesive, go ahead and peel off the backing and center them on the wood disks. Press, hold, and voila. The main purpose of including the wooden disk is to give the magnet height, because to clear the edges of the bottlecap, the magnet's going to have to be at least 1/4" thick (which would be a waste of magnets). Then pull out the hot glue gun, squirt a big ol' dollop on the wood circle, and press it into the bottle cap. There should be enough glue that it squishes around the wood when you press it down, securing it into the bottle cap's ridges. This is just a precaution, because generally things don't glue too well to metal. Also, be careful because the bottle cap will heat up due to the glue. All of my hot glue turned yellow over the years so I have to be careful to keep most of it hidden, but if yours is clear (as it probably is) it won't be too big of a deal if you're a bit messy.

   
Then stack 'em together or stick 'em on the fridge. I ended up making a total of eight, four from cherry limeade and four from the tangerine cream soda. I still have some more, but I'm going to wait until I have enough to make a proper set so I can give them as a gift or what-not. They're functional and cute, which is just my style.