It would beat doing dog baths in the house!

RickCorey said:I save straight-walled 2-liter soda bottles from work. Cutting off the top gives a 4.25 inch diameter round pot that is very resistant to cracking, and much taller than needed.

Hi Rick,

We think very much alike on that. I have found the 2-liter soda bottle pots to be very useful, and will make even greater use of them this Winter.

Their depth allows deep root development, and the pots are virtually indestructible. I have an "assembly line" to produce a bunch more 2-liter soda pots for use in my upcoming indoor Zinnia Project.

ZM

Looks cool, ZM!

Do you drill holes in the bottom, or melt them?

RickCorey said:Do you drill holes in the bottom, or melt them?

Hi Rick,

Neither. I just saw a narrow slot with a rotary saw on a rotary tool. Sawing the slot takes only a few seconds, and it provides clog-proof drainage without "leaking" growing medium.

I do saw a vertical slot in each of the five "feet" of the pot, so there is plenty of drainage that doesn't compromise the structural integrity of the pot. I will be making several dozen of these pots this year, to add to my current inventory of them. The pots can readily be washed and re-used.

ZM

Sawing some slits sounds faster than anything I've done. Nice!

I use a "burning tool" that I guess was designed for burning patterns into wood. It has an adjustable temperature! Otherwise it's like a soldering pencil.

And sometimes a 1/4" spade bit. I wish I had a 3/8" and a 5/16" spade bit shaped like the bottom one; that's great on plastic.!




But often my pots sit on a totally flat surface, so I don't rely solely on holes that may be flat-up-against the surface it sits on. I make the hole wrap around the "corner" of the bottom so at least a little bit of the hole faces air rather than what-it-sits-on.

But if it sits on a rough or slatted surface, that's unnecessary since air can still get into the bottom..

I love those soda bottle plant containers! It's nice that they are see-through, making it easy to keep an eye on root development!

Regarding the outdoor bathtub for bathing the dogs; we have 2 wacky Golden Retrievers that my husband takes into the walk in shower in our bathroom to give them a bath. If they were to be bathed outside it would be near impossible to keep them from rolling in the dirt afterwards. They do love water and we have a swimming pool but we try to keep them out of it because of the chlorine. The 3 year old has really long, thick fur and a tendency to get hot spots and chlorine isn't good for him. The puppy who is almost 6 months old hasn't ventured into the pool yet but he's real curious about it. Luckily he hasn't had issues with hot spots so far and we sure hope he doesn't have a tendency for them like his brother does. I don't even want to think of two dogs suffering and having to wear the cones of shame.

@ZenMan How do you cut them so neatly?

Rez said:How do you cut them so neatly?

Hi Rez, (that phrase has a familiar sound to it, like "high resolution")

It has occurred to a lot of people independently that soda bottles could make good pots. By trial and error I have perfected a process that I like. I plan to document my whole "process" for making soda bottle pots in a "Community Idea" submission, including step-by-step photos. But I am a bit busy setting up my indoor zinnia project for the time being, so I will just document my process for cutting the pots neatly. And that will serve to answer your question.

The first step is to mark the top edge of the pot accurately with a Sharpie™ pen. I wanted some sort of "jig" that would help hold the Sharpie steadily and reproducibly at the desired height. I looked around for something that would serve, and found a wire CD stack holder. We had a lot of CDs and several of these stack holders, so I rearranged some CDs to "free up" one of the holder frames for this project. You could use pretty much anything for this purpose, like a stack of books or whatever, but this was handy and available. Incidentally, you can click on these pictures for bigger versions. The embedded pictures here are essentially just large thumbnails to the "real" version, which is not necessarily square like the thumbnail.

You hold the Sharpie against the pot and rotate the pot by twisting the top of the pot. I choose to make the line up as high on the pot as I can, for maximum depth for the pot. I don't want any "curve in" at the top rim of the pot, so I stop at the top of the straight side of the pot. I identify the wire I am using to steady the Sharpie with a bit of tape. I do want all of my pots to be the same size for uniformity.

With the line drawn, you have merely to cut the top of the bottle off at that line. My original idea was that I would make the cut with an X-Acto™ knife. I simply wasn't accurate enough with the knife to follow the line, so I compromised and just used the X-Acto to "rough cut" off the top of the bottle, staying roughly 3/4-inch above the line. I use scissors to cut off the rough-cut border.

I choose to cut leaving the black Sharpie line on the pot, but that is a matter of personal preference. You could go either way on that.

Like I mentioned, I plan to document my whole process of soda-pot production in an illustrated Community Idea, but this can serve as a sample of that. There is nothing unique in the methods I have chosen. Whatever works for you is fine. As the old saying goes, "There are many ways to skin a cat." (Probably none of them legal, particularly if you are a cat lover.)

ZM

I find that "tin snips" with slightly serrated edges cut the plastic a little more easily than standard smooth-edge-scissors do. The serrations "grip" the plastic a little and help keep the cut straight.

Actually, if my knife is sharp and has a thin blade, I can often cut most of the bottle square with a single "swipe", but then the last few inches are harder with a knife than with tin snips (or scissors).

I leave any plastic wrapper on the bottle to shade roots and add a little more strength.

RickCorey said:I find that "tin snips" with slightly serrated edges cut the plastic a little more easily than standard smooth-edge-scissors do. The serrations "grip" the plastic a little and help keep the cut straight.

Hi Rick,

I use straight-cut tin snips to cut gallon jugs (and tin cans), for the reasons you stated. But on the pop bottles I can go a little faster with sewing shears, so I use them for that "light weight" cutting.

ZM

Probably your wrist and fingers are a little stronger than mine, to force the scissors to stay in a straight line.

With a little more "grip" and a little less fear of cutting off my fingers, I would take that whole bottletop off with one swipe of a sharp, thin blade.

But I figure that would work great for the first 10-20 bottles, then one finger would go flying through the air and I'd have to change my name to "Frodo".

RickCorey said:With a little more "grip" and a little less fear of cutting off my fingers, I would take that whole bottletop off with one swipe of a sharp, thin blade.

But I figure that would work great for the first 10-20 bottles, then one finger would go flying through the air and I'd have to change my name to "Frodo".

Hi Rick,

Chuckle. We wouldn't want that.

My X-Acto blade fits the description of thin and sharp, and I was originally intending to use it to cut the pots along the line. But if I went slowly enough with the X-Acto to stay on the line, I was going way too slow. So I went to the rough-cut with the X-Acto and the final cut with the scissors. Those two steps let me be reasonably not slow, while staying reasonably accurate.

Our different cutting experiences may be explained by the labels. I completely remove them before marking or cutting, so I am cutting "naked" pot, while you are cutting through both the pot and part of the label. That could make the cutting a bit more difficult."There is more than one way to skin a cat".

ZM

I agree. Also, I don't care much about the uniformity of heights, but for some reason I do like to get them "square".

After this discussion, I'll probably try to make my first "swipe" go all the way around. I just ope ever tenth let er in my p sts doesn' disappea !

P.S. For my "system" the blade also has to be long, like more than six inches. That, plus being inaccurate, makes the "swipe" go fast. If I wanted a uniform height, I would do exactly what you do: one rough cut with a blade, then scissors or snips to make it precise.

The "little rotary saw" to cut slits is a great idea. Do you use a Dremel tool, or hand drill, or what?

I don't use any of your methods. I don't care if the lines are straight or not but 95% of the time my cuts turn out being pretty darn straight anyway. Go figure.
I use a utility knife on plastic & just wing it.
https://www.uline.com/Product/...

SEWING SHEARS???????? Heresy! There must not be anyone in your home who still sews.

RickCorey said:The "little rotary saw" to cut slits is a great idea. Do you use a Dremel tool, or hand drill, or what?

Hi Rick,

Over the years I have had several Dremel tools. In fact, I have one now, but it isn't operational. It's battery is dead and, what's worse, it's battery charger is dead. And Home Depot doesn't still stock either, because they are older models.

Rather than buy yet another Dremel, which my local Home Depot doesn't do a good job of supporting (they stock only the "latest" models), I purchased a German-made Proxxon tool from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001FWXEO6/

It costs more than the Dremel tools, but has several advantages for me. It is AC rather than DC, and runs off line current. Its motor is brushless, so it doesn't need brush replacements like the DC Dremel tools need. And it doesn't have that DC motor smell, which is burnt brushes or ozone or who knows what? It has almost no vibration as compared to my old Dremels. It is much quieter than the Dremels. And it accepts all my old Dremel rotary bits, which is handy. In fact, the rotary saw I use to cut slots in my pots is one of my old Dremel attachments.

If I find myself really needing a cordless rotary tool, I will consider buying yet another Dremel. But in recent years all my rotary work has been in convenient reach of a wall socket, or in some cases in reach of a long extension cord.

I could buy several Dremels (or Black & Deckers) for the price of my Proxxon, but in my case the Proxxon is worth the higher price. And it very well may be cheaper "in the long run." My Proxxon has had a lot of use, and it still "runs like new." And I like the feel of it.

ZM
(not associated with any product or vendor mentioned or linked)

CarolHB said:SEWING SHEARS???????? Heresy! There must not be anyone in your home who still sews.

Good guess.

ZM

For me it would be a choice between an ancient hand drill and a cheap Chinese angle grinder. Both make hideous noise and blow ozone at me (and probably graphite dust).

I'll probably stick with the wood-working "burner" pen.

RickCorey said:I'll probably stick with the wood-working "burner" pen.

Hi Rick,

Many years ago (I have been experimenting with 2-liter soft drink bottles for use as pots, off and on, for 11 years now) I used a soldering iron to burn holes in the pot bottoms. I had to do that outdoors, because the fumes and the smell were horrendous. Melted 2-liter plastic smells toxic, even if it isn't. And my guess would be that it is toxic. I discontinued that approach for several reasons.

ZM

I agree: probably toxic, and also "outdoors".