Removing stuck glass stopper

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Removing Glass Stopper from perfume bottle

The following are photos showing how I removed a glass stopper from a perfume bottle.

1) The problem: The bottle and the stopper are made from glass, which is fragile. The stopper and the spout are
tapered, which means they can easily seize together and get stuck. If a stuck stopper is twisted, it can easily snap off, as in the picture below. If you have worked with stuck tapers you know that they come apart best when pulled
directly out. But in this case there was nothing grab onto to do that.

2) The solution: I drilled a hole in the stopper and epoxied a nail in the hole. See pictures below.

I used a 1/8" diamond drill (from Harbor Freight) in my drill press. It is important to keep everything as rigid as
possible so the drill can move directly up and down with no side play. I used plastiline clay to hold the bottle in place
and to make a dam for keeping water around drill, to keep it from overheating. I drilled into the glass about 3/16".

Here is the finished hole.

I used Devcon 5 minute epxoy to glue a small nail (with a head -- important) into the hole and
let it cure overnight.

I used pliers to grip the nail right below its head and gently tapped against the pliers with a small hammer
to drive the stopper out, which it did after about 4 light taps.

Here is removed stopper.

5 minute epoxy is very strong -- except when hot. I carefully heated the nail, keeping the heat away
from the glass, until I could feel the nail loosening, then I twisted it out. Then I used a small screwdriver to completely scrape and clean the old epoxy out of the hole.

There was a fair amount of surface on the broken end of stopper finial, but I still "roughed up" the
glass to help the epoxy stick better. Since I didn't need to go in too far, I did this part free-hand.

I buffed the finial, washed it, blew the hole out with an air gun, degreased it with lacquer thinner
and used 5 minute epoxy to glue the stopper onto the finial. I used a thin metal poker to work the
epoxy into the hole I drilled for the nail, which also served to anchor the stopper better. The
iron jig helped me align everything by rotating it so I could see (and correct) any wobble.

Finished bottle!