ou812?
Well-Known Member
A stuck (or "frozen" or "seized") glass joint is a common problem when working with standard ground glass joints.
Caution: the following are suggestions only and can not apply to every situation. Trying to free stuck glass joints can result in serious injury if the glass breaks in the process. Consider wearing lightweight leather gloves and wrap the glass in a heavy towel to lower the potential for serious cuts.
(1) Gently try rocking the GonG from side to side. Remember, this is an easy way to cut your thumb, especially if you are not wearing leather gloves. Some people have luck putting solvent, such as ISO, on the outside of the joint and trying to work it down into the joint as the stopper is rocked.
(2) Try soaking the joint overnight in a bath (again, using ISO Alcohol, for example). Some people swear that an overnight soak in Coca-Cola works quite well.
(3) Try using a wooden pencil to tap around the outside of the Gong. Don't use anything metal as that could crack the glass. Sometimes the tapping will break the seal.
(4) Heat the joint around the OUTSIDE of the GonG briefly with a heat gun and then try to remove the GonG with rocking. The keyword here is "briefly". What you want to do is heat the glass around the outside of the joint so that it expands without heating the glass GONG. Heating the entire joint will just result in the bubbler glass and GonG glass expanding at the same time and the seal won't break.
Hope this helps.
All good ,the best info Ive seen but I do use one other and it worked pretty good and that was freezing it in the fridge.Its what Ive always have done in the past, now I use a cheapie chapstik and put a little on the male end, havent had a stuck joint since.YMMV