I use emply 1/2 gallon milk containers and cut them three quarters of the way around with my Dremel - have to do it outdoors because of the mess, but it is certainly the quickest way I've found. I'm sure it would slice through those plastic bottles like butter.

Dremel is a good idea!

I would only think maybe a box cutter type...very carefully!

Or dril a hole then use strong sissors starting at the hole.

Be careful!
Karen

Those bottles are HARD, make sure your blade is sharp!

yeah Dot I mainly use milk jugs as well... but I have 2 55 gallon trash bags full of the juice bottles and I'd like to use them if i can.

I am going to talk DH in to buying a band saw and do it or the dremmel so I can.

I have also used the Costco juice jugs, but they are apple juice, and they are thick and stiff. I found the best way to cut holes in the bottom was to pierce and not even try to "cut." You can easily pierce out some 3-sided triangles on the bottom by shoving a razor (I used the slanted razor, not a straight one like you would use to scrape paint from a window) in and out. Shove it in and out 3 times for 3 sides of a triangle, and the triangle pops out of the bottom. Cutting the top has been more of a challenge. I tried the "swinging door" method, but that didn't work too well. The plastic around the rim was way to thick to slice through, so I had to cut my swinging doors with tops and bottoms. They were hard to keep open for planting. The oven method seemed to work a bit better, but still be prepared for it to be harder to put soil and seeds in.

This is my first year, I've done less than 20 containers, and only a few of them are the juice ones. I like the juice conatiners because they are clear, and for some reason it makes me feel better than sunshine gets through so well, but it probably doesn't matter! Bottom line, this is the blind leading the blind!

Deanna

A couple of things.
First.

Do Not use a utility/razor knife to try and hack thru hard plastics. It is simply too dangerous. Don't ask me how I know this.

A small band saw would be perfect but a considerable expense.

If you know someone with any kind of table saw you could use that by seting the blade very shallow (just a quarter inch or so above the table) and, placing the bottom of the bottle against the fence, rotate it around, over the blade, to make a clean cut.

If you have any wood laying about you could make up a cradle like a miter box and simply use a common hand saw.

A very safe method, if you can get a helper involved, to hold the bottles SOLIDLY in place would be to get a hold of a wire saw.

It is simply a piece of strong wire with a couple of handles attached.

Plumbers use them to cut through PVC pipe in tight locations and it works very well.

PVC is pretty tough stuff and it cuts through like butter.

The link below is to a YouTube video of one in action. You can find them at Depot/Lowes for about five bucks or even make one if you have some braided picture hanging wire and some dowels around.

FYI wire saws (on a much larger scale) are what they use to cut through gigantic slabs of granite, stone, marble etc. to make countertops and such.

A plastic bottle is no problem.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wire Saw

Monte you are a wealth of information! Thank you!

A wire saw. Well, I'll be darned. I never knew people in the real world used such a thing. In medicine they're known as Gigli saws. When I started out giglis were used to cut off bone for amputations or even craniotomy.

But even in surgery such relics are being replaced by power tools. I'll bet the old giglis cost a heck of a lot less.

Karen

"You don't live in the real world??

Gigli saw. I would have never suspected such a thing would be used in the medical field.

Interesting name, do you know where it is derived from?

No, Monte, I don't know the origin of the name. Probably named after a surgeon who used it way back when. Trust me, the operating room isn't at all like the real world. Normal people would be appalled. You wouldn't believe how many new young people pass out when they first see surgery. Not to mention the language that flies, the F-bombs, the crude jokes... things that aren't tolerated in the business world. Patients are appalled that we listen to music all day. People don't realize that it's just a job to those of us who do this daily. All in a days's work, we are a special breed of oddballs.

You would find surgical instruments interesting. Orthopods use power drills and saws, nails and plates and screws just like what you might use in your workshop, only a little more expensive. The other end of the spectrum is fine delicate microsurgical instruments, suture and needles so small they're barely visible.

OTOH, surgeons would find it pretty funny to hear that you are recommending a Gigli saw to open a juice bottle for wintersowing.

Karen

Monte how DO you know not to hack at plastic with a utility knife?? bats eyes innocently...

"You would find surgical instruments interesting."

I do. Years ago there was a show, I think on PBS, called "The Operation"

It was surgeons eye view from the first cut right on through. Facinating. I distinctly recall them doing a knee joint replacement with a belt sander like tool to flatten out bone surfaces and a dril/driver to screw on the mating plates.

Another was repairing a hernia. Lapro. The internal images were crystal clear. As I recall the repair amounted to attaching a patch that looked like a piece of window screen with a staple gun.

My surgeon, lucily for me, is one of the best nurologists in Bergen Co.

I annoyed him no end wanting to know details of how he put me back together.

Harvesting bone bits from my hip, just what is the exact torque rating of the srcrews holding the attachments and such.

We liked each other from the beginning. During a follow up office visit I rescued a small frog that got into his reception area when they were swapping out the plants.

Took it home and named it after him.

Sent regular e-mail updates to his office staff on how he was doing.

He gave me these. I got to make frames for them. where should they be hung?

I'm thinking, maybe the dining room??

{{gwi:350569}}

{{gwi:350570}}

All this bother because of a midlife fling with a pretty face.

But she is a looker.

{{gwi:301785}}

A soldering iron should be up to the task. You just need to be patient and let it work. I use a Ginsu and it cuts amazingly. (But wait, if you order now...!)

Scientific medical lingo for that "looker" of yours = organ-donor-generator".

Karen

So I've been told.

But the heart want's what it want's.

Wild Hogs!!!