ring of glass stuck in gong-joint

[djonkoman]

monday I dropped a plant sprayer on top of my bong. result: downstem broken, upper part came off(stuck to herborizer bowl, the herborizer bowl was still intact but I broke that too trying to get the stuck downstem-part off).

the rest of the downstem was stuck in my bong, with nothing sticking out to grab.
I managed to get the lower part of the downstem out of the bong by ramming a wooden pole into the tube till the downstem was broken into small enough pieces to fall out(it's a ehle straight tube model bong)(I tried other more gentle options like a piece of wire with hooks, but nothing worked except the wooden pole-option).

but now there's still a ring of glass from the downstem stuck in the gong-joint.

I've tried about everything I could think of today: soaking in hot water, hot water on the outside+a piece of ice inside the joint, olive oil, wax, wax+heating with torch lighter to try to let it melt into the space between the glass parts, WD40, olive oil floating on top of water inside the joint while heating the outside with a torch lighter, same but a hot water bath to heat and WD40 inside the joint(sprayed it in so that there was again a layer floating on top of water, the layer of wd40 covering most of the glass ring). it's still completely stuck, no movement at all.

I'm all out of options I can think off, besides buying a new bong.

but I already lost so much money(ehle diffused downstem+herbo bowl, so around 50 euros lost) with that 1 second drop of the watersprayer, so if even remotely possible I really like to at least save the bong itself.

anyone have any ideas how I could save this bong?

 

[Madri-Gal]

monday I dropped a plant sprayer on top of my bong. result: downstem broken, upper part came off(stuck to herborizer bowl, the herborizer bowl was still intact but I broke that too trying to get the stuck downstem-part off).

the rest of the downstem was stuck in my bong, with nothing sticking out to grab.
I managed to get the lower part of the downstem out of the bong by ramming a wooden pole into the tube till the downstem was broken into small enough pieces to fall out(it's a ehle straight tube model bong)(I tried other more gentle options like a piece of wire with hooks, but nothing worked except the wooden pole-option).

but now there's still a ring of glass from the downstem stuck in the gong-joint.

I've tried about everything I could think of today: soaking in hot water, hot water on the outside+a piece of ice inside the joint, olive oil, wax, wax+heating with torch lighter to try to let it melt into the space between the glass parts, WD40, olive oil floating on top of water inside the joint while heating the outside with a torch lighter, same but a hot water bath to heat and WD40 inside the joint(sprayed it in so that there was again a layer floating on top of water, the layer of wd40 covering most of the glass ring). it's still completely stuck, no movement at all.

I'm all out of options I can think off, besides buying a new bong.

but I already lost so much money(ehle diffused downstem+herbo bowl, so around 50 euros lost) with that 1 second drop of the watersprayer, so if even remotely possible I really like to at least save the bong itself.

anyone have any ideas how I could save this bong?

Can it be filed down ? I'm thinking a round file might file down the ring, and possibly loosen it to come out, or break apart to come out. I'm spatially an idiot, so please don't be too harsh if this isn't feasible. Can you post a picture of the area ? There are many on the site that are gifted spatially, and they might see a way that would be more helpful. I'm sorry for your situation. It isn't sounding pleasant, and I hope you can save your glass.

 

[macbill]

Could you use a flat head screwdriver and a hammer to lightly chisel/break the inner ring? What a dilemma!

 

[ubardog]

Use a Hot wire . From a mod / foam cutter ect . Heat one spot or 2 if you loop the wire right, Only heat what you want to break. leave for 1min + heating then pour cold water over it. It should "shock" the glass and break nicely.

 

[arb]

Squeeze it with needle nose pliers.

 

[MoltenTiger]

I wonder if you plugged it up (epoxy) and blasted air into the tube if it would give?

Either that or hooking it and pulling it out, which might be easier if you epoxy in a handle/cable.

It's German borosilicate so thermal shock or expansion might not be too viable.

 

[ubardog]

I wonder if you plugged it up (epoxy) and blasted air into the tube if it would give?

Either that or hooking it and pulling it out, which might be easier if you epoxy in a handle/cable.

It's German borosilicate so thermal shock or expansion might not be too viable.

Even Quartz no matter the production country will shock when heated in one area then rapidly cooled.

 

[MoltenTiger]

Even Quartz no matter the production country will shock when heated in one area then rapidly cooled.

yeah you're not wrong.
I guess the difficulty really lies in that it's nested in glass you'd want to remain intact, so that kind of limits the thermal possibilities

 

[djonkoman]

thanks for the suggestions so far.

I'm a bit limited in the tools I have available(student house, I own a few tools, housemate has a limited toolbox and there's a toolbox in a closet somewhere with some old tools), flathead screwdriver+hammer I can try.
round vile I'll look for if there's one in a toolbox around the house somewhere(difficulty though is that the glass tapers to the end too, so not a nice even diameter to vile down), but I don't think we have any viles.

I have no idea what a mod/foamcutter is, is it an easily available cheap tool?

epoxy I don't have available, but I coud look around to see if I can buy it at the diy store, but I don't have an airblaster/electric pump or anything either(only a bicycle pump).

using a hook doesn't work, the ring of glass is stuck in there pretty well.

pictures:

 

[davesmith]

Hold bong so joint faces down and lightly tap the joint with a wooden dowl. Do this forna very very long time and it should come out. Just needs to unlock from its seat. Other than that the thermals shock wire thing could be an option but id go straight in with a cold wet q tip rather than pouring water in. A small contact point works better for controlled cracking

 

[ubardog]

thanks for the suggestions so far.

I'm a bit limited in the tools I have available(student house, I own a few tools, housemate has a limited toolbox and there's a toolbox in a closet somewhere with some old tools), flathead screwdriver+hammer I can try.
round vile I'll look for if there's one in a toolbox around the house somewhere(difficulty though is that the glass tapers to the end too, so not a nice even diameter to vile down), but I don't think we have any viles.

I have no idea what a mod/foamcutter is, is it an easily available cheap tool?

epoxy I don't have available, but I coud look around to see if I can buy it at the diy store, but I don't have an airblaster/electric pump or anything either(only a bicycle pump).

using a hook doesn't work, the ring of glass is stuck in there pretty well.

pictures:

Hot wire . A battery and a resistance wire. or a E-Jucie Mod with a wire to create a tiny hot spot.
@davesmith is a glass blower . I would try what he said.

Either way Good luck let us know

 

[davesmith]

Hot wire . A battery and a resistance wire. or a E-Jucie Mod with a wire to create a tiny hot spot.
@davesmith is a glass blower . I would try what he said.

Either way Good luck let us know

I mean this hot wire ideas a bit out my realm but cant see why that wouldnt work as long as the outer joint dowsnt get hot. But almpst exactly this happened yhe other day to a customer of mine and the dowl and a lottle poking eventually got it free

 

[macbill]

I wonder if a coat hanger wire heated with a torch would work.

 

[Hippie]

I would revisit the wd40 idea or buy some penetrating fluid, spray the joint and let it do it's thing for an hour or two. It should work it's way in between the two surfaces eventually

 

[djonkoman]

woohoo, finally succeeded!

the wooden dowl didn't work, tapped it for ages with the hand-end of a wooden spoon but still no movement.
but I managed to chisel it away with the pointy end of a scissors+a pestle as hammer. took a while, but bit by bit I managed to chisel a hole in the ring, and when I was through the rest of the ring easily slid out.

now onto cleaning the bong and seeing if I still have a spare diffused downstem somewhere, and ordering a new herbo bowl.

 

[Madri-Gal]

woohoo, finally succeeded!

the wooden dowl didn't work, tapped it for ages with the hand-end of a wooden spoon but still no movement.
but I managed to chisel it away with the pointy end of a scissors+a pestle as hammer. took a while, but bit by bit I managed to chisel a hole in the ring, and when I was through the rest of the ring easily slid out.

now onto cleaning the bong and seeing if I still have a spare diffused downstem somewhere, and ordering a new herbo bowl.

Yay! Glad you were able to save your piece.

 

[davesmith]

Horray! Sucess

 

[Mynameismud]

Even Quartz no matter the production country will shock when heated in one area then rapidly cooled.

Thats not true. Quartz has a coeffecient of expansion of 0. you can heat a single spot on quartz and then immediately drop it into a bucket of ice water and nothing will happen. At least if its true pure quartz and not mixed with metals and other impurities like a lot of china quartz

 

[MoltenTiger]

I'm glad the EHLE is saved!

Thats not true. Quartz has a coeffecient of expansion of 0. you can heat a single spot on quartz and then immediately drop it into a bucket of ice water and nothing will happen. At least if its true pure quartz and not mixed with metals and other impurities like a lot of china quartz

"The main characteristic of fused quartz glass under the thermal point of view is its low thermal expansion coefficient (5.5 x 10-7 cm/cm°C)"

Fused silica has a substantially lower expansion rate than other glass but it's not impervious to thermal shock

 

[Mynameismud]

I'm glad the EHLE is saved!


"The main characteristic of fused quartz glass under the thermal point of view is its low thermal expansion coefficient (5.5 x 10-7 cm/cm°C)"

Fused silica has a substantially lower expansion rate than other glass but it's not impervious to thermal shock

Not impervious yes, but also extremely hard to achieve unless there are impurities in the quartz. Take a Quave Banger, heat it up red hot and immediately drop it into a bucket of ice water, Nothing will happen.