Cutting gallon bottles

Thanks all for your replies. I tried with making a V shaped jig and holding the cutter stable while I turned the bottle. Used the hot water/ ice water technique to break it, and break it did -- just not on the line. I hate for these bottles to go to waste and I do need cloches for the garden, but apparently this is not the way to go. And I'm not going to buy specialized saws or other equipment -- the idea of reusing these was to save $$.

I think I'll list them on freecycle. Perhaps someone else can use them. But thanks for all your creative ideas.

Don't give up yet! What about making a bottle wall? An acquaintance of mine has one near his fireplace. He designed. A thin floor to ceiling section in the design of a tree. A lot of brown beer bottles for the trunk and branches, green bottles for foliage, yellow wine bottles for fruit, and a lovely big gallon bottle for the sun or moon. In the day time , inside, the light streams in and it is marvelous. At night, outside, with the fire leaping inside, it is magic.

Anyway, those tile cutters are not so expensive, are they? After you cut the bottoms off, you can earn your cost back by making mobiles of them and selling them, right?

I once saw a guy dip a string in some gasoline. He tied the string around a bottle where he wanted to cut the bottle. He set string on fire and let it burn for about ten seconds, then quickly immersed the bottle in cold water. It came apart clean. He then sanded the edges to make them less sharp. It was pretty cool. Maybe try that.

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"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow the fields of those who don't."-Thomas Jefferson

I've never tried it, but my FIL told me the gasoline and string thing is what they used yrs ago. The glass in the bottles might be thinner that it was yrs ago, but it's worth a try. Molly

I had a room-mate that did the gas and string routine/hot & cold. We had 40+cloches for our city garden! They were all cider gallon bottles. ldc

I've used the burning string and cold water method, and it works great. Breakage will depend on the thickness of your bottles' walls, as others have said. And I also really like the idea of using glass for cloches instead of plastic!