Dinky Stuff – Bottles, Again

Which screw top bottles are you referring to? ….Like the ones from usplastics? ->

Eye-drops bottles.

Eye-drops bottles.

How do you get the lotions in? How do you get them out?

DGoggins, no, none of these. My wife got some 0.5 oz jars in a travel pack she bought. The top was flush with the sides, which was part of the problem. I couldn’t get a hold of the sucker to untwist it.

How do you get the lotions in? How do you get them out?

I’m talking about VIsine-type bottles. If you look for the store brand and wait for a sale you’ll get the bottle for maybe a buck.

The squirt nozzle on top is an insert, if you pull it sideways it will pop out and give you a bigger opening for washing the bottle out and loading it up. Then, pop the squirt top back on. Works fine as is for liquid DEET, hand sanitizer, etc. For thicker lotions you can ream the hole through the squirt top to make it bigger.

I could spare a few, if you wanted to try. Work well for hand sanitizer and bug juice (have not tried DEET specifically).

I have a couple of eyedrop bottles left over from when I used to use AquaMira (it gave me heartburn). I’ll give them a try. They certainly seal up better than the flip-top plastic jars.

To fill the dropper-type soft plastic bottles, just squeeze the empty bottle, stick the dropper tip into the liquid, relax the squeeze and let the vacuum action draw it in. Not good for viscous stuff like sunscreen or Vaseline, but fine for Deet, AM and other liquids.

I found out the hard way (leaking AM!) that removing/replacing the dropper element can compromise the seal in relatively short order.

I found 3ml eye dropper bottles on ebay, they were intended for gun lube. These became to large for my overnights and I have since switched to .5 ml and .2 ml “PCR tubes”. They are for dna testing or something. Also try micro-centrifuge tubes.  They are totally air/water tight, can withstand extreme temps. and weigh around 2 grams IIRC.  Downside is you have to buy them by the thousand.  If you investigate long enough you can get free samples, that is what I did. Also they have assorted colors and sizes. Smallest and lightest containers I have found thus far, I won’t be turning back. The .2ml can only hold ten drops of soap and only allows about 8 drops to fall out. Hope that helps.