First I bought the opener.
Sawed off the parts I didn't need. Notice the twist at the bottom. I used a vice to squash the twist out
Next I used the vice and a hammer to bend it to the shape I needed.
Here is a view of the bracket on which the opener would be mounted
Next I drilled out the hole for the nut and bolt. This was probably the most tricky part. We have a drill press, but there wasn't a good way to clamp the opener that would allow proper hole placement. So the first hole was a bit of a compromise, and ended up not working at all. I gave it a second try, which included unbending part of the L shape for the drill chuck to have better vertical access. I didn't take the time to grab a pic of the drill press and clamp mechanism, but I assure you, this was the sketchiest part of the whole job. The drill press itself is fine, but my clamp mechanism was not pretty. IN the end it worked. Filed down the flash left over from the drill operation then headed to Home Depot and grabbed the bolt, flat washer, lock washer and nut I needed. Below is a pic of the finished result.
Next I tested it using a glass bottled Coke. Unfortunately it did not work as well as I would like. I had to work the bottle at an angle which made me end up spilling a bit out of the top once the cap came off. I also don't like that this particular opener ended up looking just like a reflector bracket! So, I am considering this opener version 1.0, and will continue working to refine both the look and functionality. All in all it was still a fun way to spend an hour or two and I literally spent less than $6.00 on the whole rig. Just want to get a version dialed in enough to work well for Southern Surf Stomp 2018.
