Stuck stopper, beyond stuck.

[syrupy]

First, the picture. Then the thousand words.

tldr: how to extract the rubber stopper.

Last night, whereby I resolved to clean this piece with PBW, and,
grabbed a rubber stopper, must have been 10mm, because
it fell through and became lodged, and,
piercing it with a needle couldn't pull it out.
Then I shook it for no good reason, which
caused the stopper to turn around.

How do I get this out?

 

[Caligula]

Fire?
































...or maybe a corkscrew.

 

[Buildozer]

First, the picture. Then the thousand words.

tldr: how to extract the rubber stopper.

Last night, whereby I resolved to clean this piece with PBW, and,
grabbed a rubber stopper, must have been 10mm, because
it fell through and became lodged, and,
piercing it with a needle couldn't pull it out.
Then I shook it for no good reason, which
caused the stopper to turn around.

How do I get this out?

Cork Screw... some how??

Maybe you can try getting in there w/ an Xacto knife, and cut small chunks off until it will come out??

 

[Madcap79]

Mechanical fingers to get it close enough to hook with something? Maybe just pull it out the the fingers?

 

[Caligula]

 

[syrupy]

I tried torching it. You can see the tip of the stopper is charred, but the stopper is amazingly resistant to fire.

I tried needle nose, but in that tight space, there's not enough leverage.

Short of asking Scotty for a beam-out, I'm wondering what kind of chemical might eat the rubber.

Tried that too, but I lack the lung/lip power to pull that off. Wish I knew a trumpet player.

 

[al bundy]

I say a long drywall screw or try filling with water through the center and then blow the water to push stopper through mouth piece, try the bag trick either way video it

 

[Stu]

Short of asking Scotty for a beam-out, I'm wondering what kind of chemical might eat the rubber.

WWWWD (What would Walter White do?)

 

[Caligula]

Alternative... use water pressure to push the stopper up then use a corkscrew to remove it.

 

[t-dub]

This probably wont help but its an interesting twist on the physics of this and a handy skill . . .

 

[syrupy]

After putting some duckduckgo time into 'rubber destruction', there were some interesting posts from mechanics and shoe repair people.

They suggested carb cleaner, gasoline, or iso. I'll try iso and work my way up to carb cleaner.

 

[Deadshort480]

Have you tried spearing it with something? There are quite a few inexpensive spade style wax carving tools that you could securely spear it with and most likely pull it out that way. With the addition of a bit of olive oil smeared on the inside of the joint with a qtip, it should make it even easier.

 

[ogcook]

As others said, cut at it or get something like magic acid and let it soak and try and dissolve it somehow.

 

[RUDE BOY]

This is the kind of shit I do when baked.

 

[samuraix420]

Get a magnetic pickup tool like this. If you don't already have one, you will wonder how you ever lived without it. http://www.amazon.com/TEKTON-7601-Telescoping-Magnetic-Pick-Up/dp/B000NPPC00/ref=pd_sim_hi_4.

Then get a small coin magnet, stick it on the end of the pickup tool. Super-glue the opposite end of the coin magnet and stick it to the rubber stopper. Once it dries, hopefully you can pull it out.

 

[thesoloman]

Lube up the female joint and stopper with oil. then take a high power air compressor nozzle and blast a hundred or more psi thru the male gong, that volume of air should more it somewhat. If that doesn't work you could add water into the main chamber, then repeat the above with the water, as the water could exert more force on the stopper than that air pressure alone could.

then i would try some needle nose pliers, but metal is very prone to breaking glass! so be careful!!..
If that doesn't work i would spear the stopper with something and grab one of these to start hacking it with.

and if that fails i would then go with the rubber destruction route.

 

[ou812?]

I have seen some very small pairs of hemo-stats for clamping blood vessels during surgery might be another tool you could use.The teeth are tuff and you can lock the bite as the pliers have a set of teeth that lock for extra insurance.( I have yanked out large fishhooks from some large leviathans of the deep w/ them w/ease) Should be enough to pull that out, if not tear off pieces which will you eventually enable you to get that pesky thing out of there. As others have mention, lube the orifice and the stopper 1st. Hope something works so you can enjoy your meds.

 

[bagelbanger]

Is this thing still stuck???

 

[Zookeeper]

insert a tub to hold cork, insert drillbit into tube and drille into cork. Should be easy to grab and rip in half with a hole bored in it.

 

[syrupy]

Yeah, it's still stuck.
What I neglected to convey in the original post is that the fat end of the stopper is actually larger than the glass opening. It got halfway stuck, and each of the attempts to grab or spear it just pushed it in further. There's not enough leverage to safely get it out, without risking the glass. It's like a ship in a bottle. I'm resorting to chemical warfare. 99% Iso soak until that stopper disintegrates. Time is on my said (yes it is).

 

[t-dub]

It's like a ship in a bottle. I'm resorting to chemical warfare. 99% Iso soak until that stopper disintegrates. Time is on my said (yes it is).

Not that much time my friend. Even if you go full "Walter White" with Muriatic or Hydrofluoric acid, I don't think you could dissolve a rubber stopper, but, I wish you luck . . .

 

[syrupy]

Next week

Not that much time my friend. Even if you go full "Walter White" with Muriatic or Hydrofluoric acid, I don't think you could dissolve a rubber stopper, but, I wish you luck . . .

Well, next up is acetone. If that doesn't do the job, I'll just live with it...tell people it's an anti-splashback one-way valve thingy...

 

[JoeKickass]

Well I would guess paint thinner or like lacquer thinner... if it can dissolve viynl, laytex, etc. then it will probably do a number on rubber

 

[thesoloman]

maybe take a look at this. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070325192117AATEoCl
ive read in a few places that this should work, methylene chloride

 

[t-dub]

These guys can do it but it takes specialized knowledge and glassware, except for the gasoline/toluene . . .

http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=4044