senorqueso
Member
A friend of mine asked me if I wanted a bunch of old, dirty bottles he got from a neighbor. I'm always looking for more bottles, so I said I'd swing by. Turns out, he had a case of old Fischer swing-tops! But these poor things have been out in the rain and the cold for a long time. I had to deal with the caked on dirt...
...the cigarette butts...
.. and the spiders (oh god why so many spiders)...
...but I was determined to breathe new life into these bottles. I took these lost souls into my home and gave them a nice, steaming hot rinse under the sink, but neither water or brush could remove the grime that had built up over the years. So I filled a bucket with hot water and oxiclean and let everything soak for a few days. In the mean time, I had these things to deal with:
These gaskets were hard and brittle, and almost flaked off the ceramic stoppers. Somehow, all of the LHBS's in my area were out of gaskets except 1, who was charging a whopping 1.25 for a dozen. I bought 4 bags.
After a few days in the soak, the top of the water in the bucket looked like a pond. The labels disintegrated under the hot water, and before long, I had a case of good-as-new bottles, ready for filling!
...the cigarette butts...
.. and the spiders (oh god why so many spiders)...
...but I was determined to breathe new life into these bottles. I took these lost souls into my home and gave them a nice, steaming hot rinse under the sink, but neither water or brush could remove the grime that had built up over the years. So I filled a bucket with hot water and oxiclean and let everything soak for a few days. In the mean time, I had these things to deal with:
These gaskets were hard and brittle, and almost flaked off the ceramic stoppers. Somehow, all of the LHBS's in my area were out of gaskets except 1, who was charging a whopping 1.25 for a dozen. I bought 4 bags.
After a few days in the soak, the top of the water in the bucket looked like a pond. The labels disintegrated under the hot water, and before long, I had a case of good-as-new bottles, ready for filling!
