I love to collect things that are small and readily accessible. For this reason I have amassed a pretty fine bunch of old bottle caps. I know that I’m not the only one with this passion so if you are one of people who has a bunch of old bottle caps lying around in a jar somewhere from college or somewhere else, take my advice to heart and get cracking on bar top made from old bottle caps.
My bottle cap collection consists of a wide variety of beer bottle caps and a few soda pop caps. Whenever I drink a new brand of beer I always keep at least one of the bottle caps. I also do this with soda pop bottle caps but now-a-days the soda pop caps are much more difficult to come across than the beer bottle caps. If you haven’t started a bottle cap collection but you still would like to make a bar top from old bottle caps, don’t worry. If you think hard I bet that you can come up with a few good places to find bottle caps.
Where to find bottle caps:
Start first with yourself. Think back through your past month. How many bottle caps have you thrown away? Maybe not a lot but you have probably thrown out some bottle caps. If you are a beer drinker think about changing from cans you bottles.
Another good place to start is to think of some friends who may have some bottle caps that you can get. Most friends won’t mind saving their bottle caps for you.
Now let’s think a little larger. Try your local bar. Bars go through ton’s of bottles every night. OK, they probably don’t go through tons of bottles, but they do go through a lot. If you ask a bartender they probably won’t mind keeping a few aside for you. Especially if you tip! The only downside is that the bottle caps may not be in the best condition because they usually will use a bottle cap opener. Just sift through them and find the best ones, or find a bartender who doesn’t use a bottle opener. They can be found at smaller neighborhood bars.
Now that you have your bottle caps you are undoubtedly ready to use them. So let’s get to it.
How to make a bar top out of old bottle caps:
To make a bar top using old bottle caps you will need an empty bar top, this could be a door blank cut down or a piece of high quality plywood, a can of lacquer, glue and some pieces of 3/4″ trim.
Lay out your bar top on a flat surface and attach the trim around the edges of the bar top using trim nails. Now decide on a pattern to place the bottle caps in. You can either use all one brand of bottle cap or an assortment. My favorite is an assortment of different styles of the same brand.
Now arrange your bottle caps in the pattern that you decide on. It is important to layout your pattern before you glue the bottle caps to the bar top since once glued you won’t be able to move them. Now that you have your pattern start at a logical point and move across the pattern gluing down the bottle caps by picking them up and placing a small amount of glue around the edges of the bottle caps then placing them back down where you want them to be.
Allow time for the glue to set up, and pour the lacquer over the entire bar top up to the tops of the bottle caps and 1/16 of an inch lower than the trim. It will take a week or more for the lacquer to dry so make sure that the bar top is undisturbed for this period of time.
Pattern ideas for your bottle cap bar top:
Bottle cap bar top idea #1 – Brand name
Say you have a whole bunch of Budweiser bottle caps. Wouldn’t it be cool if you spelled out Budweiser in cursive!
Bottle cap bar top idea #2 – Sports team
You could either use all of your favorite brand or an assortment. Spell the name with bottle caps and make the logo in all four corners. GO STATE!
Bottle cap bar top idea #3 – Around the world in 1000 beers
Collect as many different types of bottle caps as you can and place them side by side demonstrating your bottle cap enthusiasm.
