opening a stuck bail-top jar
David Griffith
The problem: the lid is stuck. Holding the jar with my feet and yanking
only caused the top bail to come off the glass top. Any ideas?
--
David Griffith
davidmy...@acm.org <--- Put my last name where it belongs
Rob S.
> I thought I'd dip into my mystery mix, which I keep in a bail-top jar.
> The problem: the lid is stuck. Holding the jar with my feet and yanking
> only caused the top bail to come off the glass top. Any ideas?
>
> --
> David Griffith
David,
Not precisely sure I understand, but if it's glass to glass (with the
bail out of the way), what about getting some dental floss and trying
to work it around the lid.
Rob
Jim Beard
> I thought I'd dip into my mystery mix, which I keep in a bail-top jar.
> The problem: the lid is stuck. Holding the jar with my feet and yanking
> only caused the top bail to come off the glass top. Any ideas?
Try to wiggle it, in any and all directions to break loose some
of the gunk gluing it down. Twist right and left, push up and
down, try all sorts of directions. Hard effort will not help
much, if any. The gunk has to be cracked loose a little at a time.
You might also try putting a little alcohol on the joint between
seal and glass, in hope it might penetrate and dissolve the gunk
a bit. Let that sit a while and then try again.
The harder you twist, pull and push, the more likely the gasket
is to tear or come apart, leaving part of the gasket stuck to the
top and part to the jar. If that happens, scrape off and clean
the surfaces and replace the gasket.
And, you need to be adding to or sampling your mystery mix more
often.
Cheers!
jim b.
--
UNIX is not user unfriendly; it merely
expects users to be computer-friendly.
Al Lanman
I figure something as gotten on your rubber gasket and has formed an
impromptu glue. One approach to this is to physically attack the
gasket, something like an exacto knife would work, replacing the
gasket is a minor problem (and expense).
My second approach is to use heat expansion/contraction. For
stems we usually use the freezer, but the contraction rate between the
briar and the stem are sufficiently different to break the seal. Here
I would probably opt for gently heating, first by trying a hair dryer
to see if that was enough to do the trick. Failing that I would try
heating the jar to get the air in the jar to push the top off, a)
running under hot water tap, b) failing with "a)" heat a small pan of
water to the boil remove from heat and set the jar into the still hot
pan.
Beware prying the lid, it might break and you don't want glass shards
in you 'baccy.
Finally c) follow heating, heating then freezing, hoping the
difference in thickness of the top and the rims might free up the
seal.
good luck,
Al (in Canada)
On Jan 4, 7:54 pm, davidmylastn...@acm.org (David Griffith) wrote:
> I thought I'd dip into my mystery mix, which I keep in a bail-top jar.
> The problem: the lid is stuck. Holding the jar with my feet and yanking
> only caused the top bail to come off the glass top. Any ideas?
>
> --
> David Griffith
> davidmylastn...@acm.org <--- Put my last name where it belongs
TBombadil
> I thought I'd dip into my mystery mix, which I keep in a bail-top jar.
> The problem: the lid is stuck. Holding the jar with my feet and yanking
> only caused the top bail to come off the glass top. Any ideas?
>
> --
> David Griffith
Sounds like you've already got some good suggestions for removal. Me,
I'm still trying to visualize you "Holding the jar with my feet and
yanking..."
Good luck,
Bob
p.s. Were you by any chance raised by great apes? ;-)
David Griffith
> On 01/04/2011 07:54 PM, David Griffith wrote:
>> I thought I'd dip into my mystery mix, which I keep in a bail-top jar.
>> The problem: the lid is stuck. Holding the jar with my feet and yanking
>> only caused the top bail to come off the glass top. Any ideas?
> Try to wiggle it, in any and all directions to break loose some
> of the gunk gluing it down. Twist right and left, push up and
> down, try all sorts of directions. Hard effort will not help
> much, if any. The gunk has to be cracked loose a little at a time.
As luck would have it, a few minutes after I posted about this, I got
the top off. It suddenly flew off and scattered about a handful of
tobak on my desk. Oh well. I did manage to identify the mystery mix.