Pyrex bowls wedged together

I know it's not strictly DIY, but I'm tasked with getting them apart !

Two bowls on the same diameter and are well wedged together slightly at an angle. I wonder if they been taken out of the dishwasher hot by one of the members of the family and have effectively 'shrunk' together, but they certainly won't come apart.

Any ideas - I've tried hot water and then the deep freeze without success - maybe significant oven heat ?

Thanks Rob

Had exactly same problem - put the two back in the dishwasher and took them out while still really hot from the wash. They came appart easily then.

Worth trying (if you've not already!). Beyond that, dunno. Inner one full of ice while outer one sits in large bowl of hot water?

Angle grinder?

Darren

You want to apply the thermal shock in the opposite direction. Get them as cold as possible and then submerge the outer one into near boiling water and pray that as it warms up it will free itself.

The bad news is that Pyrex hardly expands at all which is why it is preferred for telescope mirrors etc. I suspect the things were mechanically jammed together and may be less keen about coming apart.

You need differential temperatures between the two bowls, heating or cooling both won't work. Try filling the inner stuck bowl with an crushed ice/salt freezing mixture. If that doesn't work place the stuck bowls in a larger container filled with hot (aka near boiling) water to just below the brim of the outer stuck bowl. Give things a few minutes to contract/expand.

WD 40, I don't think an Angle grinder is appropriate here.. Brian

Do you have access to a decompression chamber, maybe you could make the air trapped between them push them apart by reducing the pressure on the outside?

Brian

Nor Duct Tape...

I had no success using thermal techniques with a pair of pirex glasses. Eventually, decided I might as well force it. Put on a pair of leather gloves to avoid cutting myself, and then pulled them apart. They came apart, leaving a thin sliver of the rim of the outer one suck to the outside of the inner one, which had to be flicked off. Chucked away the one which lost a bit of the rim.

Fill water in the gap, then place in the deep freeze?

AAA+. TNP's award for the most creative and practical idea to date.

As an aside my wife bottles loads of fruit - and can never open the lids!

I have discovered that a blunt knife inserted op top of the rubber seal, from the side, can be used to compress it enough to break the seal..

How about a combination? Stand the outer one in a pan of boiling water, pour cold into the inner one?

And if all else fails its nothing to lose time. Piece of wood on one edge large hammer, hefty blow. This is when I find I should have taken drastic measures in the first place as it usually solves the problem, I think I am too careful and gentle up to that point. :-)

The problem with the blunt knife is that it often damages the rubber band. I know that one is supposed to replace them every time, but that makes bottling more expensive than necessary.

Actually you can potentially apply more force by wrapping with duct tape and perhaps creating a couple of "handles" which you could then grip in, say, a workmate.

Heat having failed, I would certainly be trying lubricant too.

Apply the tape before the wd 40 though.. Brian

Is one of the bowls made by Excalibur?

Hides behind sofa. Brian

I got a pair of ceramic plant pots apart by lubrication with washing up liquid. IIRC dishwasher Rinse Aid is a very penetrative surfactant.

A bit delayed but here's the recovery.

I put the two bowls into the dishwasher and got them out as soon as the hour long cycle finished so that they were good and hot through. I then gently tapped the 'outer' bowl with soft faced hammer and it came clear. I don't know if.it was the heat, or the fact that the hammer gave a slight shock or created a force in a different direction from pulling apart by hand, but it worked straight away.

Rob

Now you'll put them way in a cupboard and one of them will randomly "explode" :-)