Australia's Science Forum

Hi Al,

A couple of students have pushed a rubber bung all the way into a small conical flask and im having trouble removing them and I dont want to break the flasks...

Ive tried heating the neck of the flask with with warm water to slightly expand the glass but with no luck.....do you have any other suggestions??

thansk
vic

I haven't tried it, but if you go to YouTube and search for "How to Get a Cork Out of an Empty Wine Bottle" it shows a method using a plastic bag. Let us know if it works!

thanks heaps ive used that methos before!!! and i would love to do that anagin but the flask is full of coloured water.....

You could try screwing a screw into the rubber stopper and then using that as a handle to pull out the stopper. Good luck.

Sometimes you have to weigh up the cost of replacing a conical flask vs the cost of your time, energy & whatever materials you use trying to save it...

Sadly in the past I have had to give up and break items to salvage the stopper as it was taking up way too much of my time trying to save the lot.

A while ago I had a rock stuck in a perfectly good measuring cylinder ( by a student )
I did try a few remedies, one was soaking it in an acid to try to eat away the rock..............but alas, I had to throw it out!