Soda or Beer Can Nautical Gauges

I recently had so much fun making fake nautical gauges for a friend who loves all sorts of mariner home accents. You won't believe just how easy it is to make the fake gauges and they'll look nearly identical to the real thing. If you love decorating with shells, lighthouses, and other sea-theme pieces, you might have some idea just how expensive a set of nautical gauges can be. Often mounted on wood, the gauges are quite pricey, but not if you make them yourself. The ones you make are so cheap but no one will know that unless you tell them.

A nice set for a wall hanging is three gauges mounted on a piece of wood. You'll find suitable wood at a craft store or home improvement place. The perfect wood piece would be a tad longer than three, side-by-side cans of beer or soda. The width should be just a little wider than the bottoms of said cans. Paint the wood, stain it, or use it as-is.

Wash three empty beer or soda cans to use them as the gauges. Turn one can on its side, pierce it with sharp scissors or a knife, then just use scissors to cut the entire bottom off of each can. As you cut the bottom off of a can, stay about an inch away from the very bottom, and this will create sides for the fake nautical gauge. After the bottom is off of each can, use the scissors to trim the cut edges to be exact and even.

If the cans you're using have silver or gold-colored sides, there's no need to paint them. If the sides do need painting, use paint made especially for metal. Hot glue works fine to hold the can bottoms to the wood. Space the bottoms evenly apart and attach them to the wood. It can be helpful to draw a circle of silver, gold, brass, or other color of paint - using tube paints - to cover any hot glue as well as the raw edges of the cans.

You can draw directly onto the silver bottoms of the soda or beer cans with a paint marker. Or, cut circles of nautical-theme scrapbook paper - or plain white paper, and glue one onto each can bottom. If you're making paper circles, just draw your numbers or other details on the paper with a fine-tip paint marker.

If you want the fake gauges to have hands you can use hands meant for making clocks. You'll find an assortment of these online or at your local craft store. Glue one hand onto each gauge, after the papers and/or numbers are in place. If you want, glue a circle of glass, or even acetate, over each can bottom.

You'll find it really easy to make accurate nautical gauges when you look at pictures of them online. After you've created the exact gauges you want, simply hang them up. They'll look fabulous!