YT2095
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Frozen Glass joint?
well I made out like a Bandit today in glassware and half of it I have no idea what it`s even for!
but the Kipps apparatus I have has a badly frozen ground glass joint as it`s been sitting on a shelf for several decades without being properly
cleaned.
HOW do I get the thing apart?
brute force doesn`t seem to work, and I don`t want to break it.
\"In a world full of wonders mankind has managed to invent boredom\" - Death
Twinkies don\'t have a shelf life. They have a half-life! -Caine (a friend of mine)
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evil_lurker
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Try gentle heat from a heat gun first.
If that does not work, then send it off to a glassblower... its not worth ruining such an expensive and hard to find piece.
Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in
beer.
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solo
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Save your money use WD40 let it penetrate well and problem resolved......solo
It's better to die on your feet, than live on your knees....Emiliano Zapata.
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woelen
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Take a little WOODEN hammer (a toy hammer may also work). Wrap the stuck joint in thin tissue paper and carefully tap the joint, while someone else
carefully tries to pull things apart. This works in many cases. But DO NOT use a metal hammer. That will break the delicate glass. A metal hammer is
too heave.
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chemrox
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Have you tried running boiling hot water over the outer joint- just long enough to warm it but not heat the inner one?
This usually works for me- if it doesn't WD40 as the man said.
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jam640
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If gentle heating doesn't work you may try applying a small amount of methanol which usually slowly soaks in between the glass and let's it loose.
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evil_lurker
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Actually I bet some stuff called Penetrating Blaster would work great.
Its similare to Liquid Wrench for getting nuts and bolts off, cept it works much better.
You can get it in Wally World or many fine auto parts shops.
Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in
beer.
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12AX7
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I hear tell PBlaster is mostly ATF and lacquer thinner. WD40, likewise, is essentially mineral spirits; to be exact, it's a lot of stoddard solvent,
plus a little oil which remains when the solvent dries.
Edit: among the organic laboratory, anything etherial (light alkanes, ethers, ketones, etc.) with something oily, waxy or fatty dissolved in it would
probably suffice.
Tim
[Edited on 10-5-2007 by 12AX7]
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Antwain
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When I seized a joint (and cracked the attachment off a thermometor fitting) by heating with a MAPP torch I had to run through *many* WD40, heat, cool
cycles to get it off. But I think I may have actually partly fused the joint so this may not be necessary for you.
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Nicodem
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Besides heating, beating with a wooden hammer and WD40, another thing that sometimes help is to dripping acetone/AcOH until it gets between the joints
and then hammering/heating it. It sometimes works, especially on the alkali damaged joints. In other cases just about nothing helps. 
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YT2095
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well the WD didn`t even penetrate, the heating (Bunsen) didn`t help and bashing it on the bench (solid oak).
I did get a little WD to go in from the Other side (where the gas exists) using the WD40 pipe that comes with the can.
so I`ve got that sitting upside down now and keeping my fingers crossed.
I like the Acetone idea! that`s much less viscous and likely to get in.
there were Marble chips in there so it was probably last used for CO2 generation.
\"In a world full of wonders mankind has managed to invent boredom\" - Death
Twinkies don\'t have a shelf life. They have a half-life! -Caine (a friend of mine)
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YT2095
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Gah!!!!
it Worked, and had a much better penetrating power, and Now I have them apart Finally thanks to that a plank of wood I shaped and a BFH!
sadly it`s bady cracked (the already cracked) separator between the liquid and solid stage, so I`ll need to blow a piece of glass or make from an
already existing piece another separator (doesn`t seem to be That complicated), although it would have been nice to keep it as Original.
but at least it will now Work again! and hopefully have another 50+ years of use!
Thanks everyone for your help, I was about to half fill it with Fluorescien and just have it as an Ornament in the Living room 
\"In a world full of wonders mankind has managed to invent boredom\" - Death
Twinkies don\'t have a shelf life. They have a half-life! -Caine (a friend of mine)
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YT2095
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here`s the final result, the Blue wire btw, it simply to stop it re-joining again until I can get around to cleaning it properly:
this is the Broken bit, the crack at the top doesn`t show, but it IS cracked too:
\"In a world full of wonders mankind has managed to invent boredom\" - Death
Twinkies don\'t have a shelf life. They have a half-life! -Caine (a friend of mine)
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Antwain
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Thats a nice piece of equipment! 
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Ozone
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Since it wasn't mentioned, I find that the old ultrasonic cleaner/bath (sometimes in a large beaker w/acetone in the bath) is enormously helpful with
unfreezing ground glass joints.
Nice piece of glass!
Cheers,
O3
-Anyone who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
--Albert Einstein
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Antwain
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Really? Ive seen glass shatter in an ultrasonic when it touched other glass
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unionised
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Nice Kipp's; I invite you to look into finding some teflon sleves for really important (ie expensive/ hard to replace) joints like that . I know you
may know about them but others here might not and this seems like a good chance to tell them.
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Ozone
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Antwain
Really? Ive seen glass shatter in an ultrasonic when it touched other glass
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I have only seen this happen if the glass was already cracked. OTT, this seems to work fine. Usually, I'll just put the piece under water in the bath
and let it go for an hour.
Beware though as in some cases the writing/graduations on the glass can be polished off.
Cheers,
O3
-Anyone who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
--Albert Einstein
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chemrox
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so which technique finally worked? the WD40 or the acetone/AcOH?
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YT2095
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it`s hard to say, when sprayed from the indie the WD did creep into the joint about 1/3 of the way, I cleaned all that away (as much as would come
out) and then added the Acetone, GAA mix, that almost made it trough to other side in one or 2 places within a few minutes.
it still refused to shift, so I got a plank of wood (a floor board) and cut a `(` shape into it that fit the underside of the the joint, lay the whole
thing down on packing plastic, grabbed the end with my feet and kept hitting it with a hammer and turning the kipps a little between each blow.
took about 30+ hits
\"In a world full of wonders mankind has managed to invent boredom\" - Death
Twinkies don\'t have a shelf life. They have a half-life! -Caine (a friend of mine)
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hydride_shift
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utfse saved the day
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quantumchromodynamics
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crazy thing that works
Before attempting the soaking methods, I promise this works almost every time, and is easy to do.
First face the joint forward and hold the receptacle firmly. Then with a little force, not much at all, just "tink" the joint back a few times with
something like a butter knife. Then "tink" the joint from behind with the force directed forwards a few times. Finally, "tink" the joint from the left
or right a few times, but not on both sides. Nine time out of ten, the joint just falls out.
I believe if the joint is nice and round the first two steps focuses the friction into two parallel lines, and the final step focuses the friction
down to just two points.
It is a little freaky how well this little trick works.
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