Ask HN: Separating Two Glass Containers

[armcat]

Hi HN community! My friend has an interesting problem and I am hoping some engineering / hacking ingenuity can help. She has two glass containers stuck together, one inside the other, see here: https://ibb.co/5hwDR8P.

She has tried all kinds of things including: trying to separate them inside a water bath, greasing them, creating a temperature differential (ice on top, warm bath on the bottom), and even using WD-40. Nothing helped.

Any suggestions?

[rehto21]

Surprised to see a reddit like question being asked here on hackernews.

Water, soap, oil, compressed air etc will not work. Ask your friend to gently tap around the edges of the container that is stuck with either a wooden spatula or the back of a wooden ladle. Gentle taps in the direction of getting unstuck all around the edge of the stuck container. May require few minutes of tapping.

Source: This has happened to me many times.

[nbernard → rehto21]

Seconded. In chem labs, it happens quite often that glass labware pieces get stuck together. The gentle application of a wooden mallet is the usual solution...

[ActorNightly]

Those things are pretty strong, so using force shouldnt be an issue. You just 2 need reverse action pliers with rubber tips, stick one on either end under the lips and pry them apart.

[doormatt]

Compressed air - shoot it down between the two containers.

[armcat → doormatt]

Great suggestion, that's the one she hasn't tried, I'll let her know!

[solardev]

Put them both in the freezer overnight?

[mikewarot]

Since you can get water between them, dump the water out of the top one, wrap the whole thing in a towel, and chuck it in the microwave, either they come apart, or not.

[armcat → r2_pilot]

Nice! That was the first thing I did as well, ask ChatGPT. The only one not attempted from the list above is the compressed air method. Thanks!