DIY Bottle Top Tables

Organize your collection of bottle caps on the project table top to determine whether you have enough caps to cover the entire table top with the caps all touching one another. Save more caps if you need more until you have more than enough to completely cover the surface.

Examine your collection of bottle caps, looking for any that are extremely bent on top. Place any bent caps image side down on a wooden workbench or scrap of wood. Tap the inside of each bent cap gently with a ball peen hammer to remove as much of the bend as possible.

Clean all the caps by placing them in a plastic tub, filling the tub no more than halfway with caps. Fill to near the top with water. Swirl the water around with your hand to rinse all the caps, then carefully pour the water down the drain. Set the caps on an old towel to dry. If you have too many caps to fit into the plastic tub at once, do this process in batches until all caps are clean and dry.

Plug in a hot glue gun with a glue stick inside.

Arrange the dried caps in a visually pleasing manner, design side up, on the table top. Make a border of one color, for instance, or make designs based on the groupings of various cap brands. Once you're happy with the layout, lift the caps up one at a time, placing a tall, narrow blob of hot glue where the cap was, then setting the cap atop the glue. Use enough glue to secure the cap in place but not enough to ooze out the bottom. Glue each cap down and allow the glue to harden. Unplug the glue gun.

Place a band of masking tape around the edge of the table to protect the edge from epoxy drips. Create a lip or wall around the entire table with duct tape to keep the epoxy in place. Make the lip taller than the tops of the bottle caps. The lip is not necessary if your table already has a raised lip or border which is higher than the top of the bottle caps.

Prepare the epoxy resin following the manufacturer's directions closely. Pour a layer of resin onto the table top using enough to secure all the caps in place and fill in the gaps between the caps. Allow to dry per manufacturer's instructions.

Apply a second coat of resin, enough to cover the caps completely. Allow to dry. Repeat with a third coat if you'd like an extra-thick table top.

Remove the duct tape and masking tape from the table edge.