In past years, glass bottles were closed with ground stoppers. Today, plastic screw caps are more often used for these purposes. The first of them can no longer be found, and the second are lost or broken. But there is a way out, and it’s simple and inexpensive.
Will need
To make reliable and durable plugs with your own hands, we need to prepare:- ordinary starch;
- the simplest and cheapest silicone sealant;
- disposable plastic cups.
When working on corks, we will use the following tools: a drill with a drill, a knife and an awl.
Silicone plug making process
Pour the contents of the bag with starch onto the table and make a depression in the middle, into which we squeeze out up to half a can of sealant. To prevent your hands from sticking to the silicone, first sprinkle it with starch and begin to knead these two components, as is done to make dough from flour and water.
The mixing process must be carried out until the loose folds disappear in the mixture, which indicate that the mass continues to remain heterogeneous. But at the same time, mixed doubles should not be too tough.
Moreover, as soon as the mixture begins to stick to your hands, immediately dip it in starch or sprinkle it. We knead the mass, roll it out and knead it on a table sprinkled with starch until it has a consistency similar to kneaded plasticine and is ready for use.
Since silicone sealant contains vinegar, the plug must be exposed to air for several days before use. To speed up this process, you can immerse the finished product first in hot and then in cold water and continue to do this until the smell of vinegar disappears. Adding a little baking soda to cold water will speed up the process, as the acid will be neutralized.
We determine the readiness of the mass for the formation of a cork by the almost complete absence of starch on the table, in a mixed mixture - no sticky folds and by the beginning of its sticking to the hands.
Before forming the cork, roll the mixture in the remaining starch to prevent it from sticking to the walls of the cup. We shape the mix into a cone shape with our hands and insert it into our cup form. At the same time, no air should remain in it. To guarantee this, we pierce the lower part of the container and the bottom in several places with an awl. Leave the mixture tightly compacted in the mold for 3-4 hours to harden.
After the specified time, the mixture of silicone sealant and starch will harden and be ready for use. Moreover, the more starch it contains, the tougher the product will be.
The flash remaining after the cork has hardened can be easily cut off with a regular knife.
To install a gas outlet tube or water seal into the plug, using a drill of a slightly smaller diameter than the size of the insert, drill a through hole along the axis of the plug.
