A friend of mine has a weird problem with his downstem. The lip is broken off and he wants to replace it, but he cant get the downstem out, it's stuck at the joint. I need ideas of how to get the downstem out, it doesnt matter if it gets broken. I thought of using a chisel somehow to break the downstem at the joint but I'm really afraid of breaking the joint so I don't really wanna try it. Any ideas would be appreciated. The joint is glass on glass, and there is a perc in the way of going down the tube.
so you're saying that the downstem broke off right at the hole? hhmmm...I think your best bet(assuming there are no percs or ice pinches in the way) would be to get a long bar, stick it down your bongfrom the top, rest it on the downstem and lightly tap it with a hammer til the downstem breaks. After that, a part will PROBABLY still be stuck in the hole, but it will be much shorter, so just stick something in there through the joint, hook it around the (now broken) back lip of the downstem, and pull it out slowly. Having the bong wet with warm water will help. The only thing you have to look out for when tapping the downstem is making sure you dont break through the downstem and smack the bottom of the bong too hard, may want to drop a rag down first to cushion in case that happens. Also, youve only got like 5 posts so if i typed all this and youre a robot or something ill kick your fookin arse.
Unfortunatley there is a perc in the way, but thanks for giving a really through answer. And no I'm not a robot lol just a broke student trying to make a few extra bucks.
If it's glass-on-glass refrigeration then a gentle heat on the outer side has worked for me in the past. If it's stuck in a rubber grommet that can be a bitch to break free if it's been there a while. I would soak it in hot soapy water for a few hours and see if you cant twist it out.
It is glass on glass, but I'm not gonna refrigerate and heat, maybe if it was my own bong but I'm not risking it with someone elses. I've never seen it happen to a bong, but my sister has broke glass cups by refridgerating and then heating them.
do what pinkyslayer said but without the first part. unbend one end of a paper clip and hook it on the bottom of a downstem and pull back towards you slowly and pull it out that way.
Using a hook to get out the whole downstem is a good idea. I don't think a paper clip will be long enough or strong enough though. It's really stuck. But if I had a strong enough hook I could get it out. Fishing hooks attached to something maybe? Idk. Actually I just remembered the downstem is diffused. But I guess it wouldn't be too hard to break the tip without hitting the tube.
Seriously do what he said. Dump the water out, stick it in the freezer. Use a hairdryer (or heatgun would be better) on the base to heat it will pulling out the downstem.
No offense but we don't really give a shit whether you're doing it or your buddy, just trying to tell you how to get the stem out...
Well then no offence but I'm not gonna risk cracking my friends bong because someone on the internet gave me an idea that I'm pretty sure is a bad one. You can tell me all day that it's the right thing to do but I'm not going to listen to advice I think is bad, unless of course you had something to back up your claim, but I wouldn't expect someone I met on the internet to do research for me, unless they had it on hand for some reason. But thanks for taking the time to try to help anyway.
Ok so you think freezing glass down to 5-10F then blowing on it with a hairdryer at like 120F max is going to break it?? Seriously... We aren't telling you to dunk it in boiling water, or go from boiling water to a freezer. This won't break the glass.
Well man, I didn't think some 100 degree liquid in a 10 degree cup would crack either. So I don't know that won't crack it, honestly I'll admit I don't know much about what kind of a temperature change will crack glass. If you can link me to a good website that would tell me about it then that would be great but until then I really don't wanna mess around with that stuff. All I'm really trying to say is yeah, you might be right about the freezer but I dont KNOW if you are or not. I'm not gonna try it unless I KNOW and even though I've looked, I can't find anything about whether glass will crack or not that wasn't written by someone talking in one of these kind of threads. And the information in those threads is half one way half the other.
Okay, appreciate it. If you have any other ideas tho I wanna hear them.. Because I think theres gotta be a way to break that downstem so itll just fall apart in the joint, but not hurt the joint.
I would be very leary of that. It's not that hard to stress fracture glass like that, and weaken the joint. You might try like the other person said any buy rubbing alcohol from wal-mart for cheap, and soak it. But holding an ice cube on the joint of the slide (NOT the part on the bong) to try and contract the glass. Glass will slightly shrink when cold, and expand when hot.