Where do rubber stoppers come from?

[TreverT]

A stupid question, yes, but I'm stumped. Maybe eleven or twelve years ago, I bought a set of rubber cork stoppers in various sizes, which I used to stop up the bowl chambers for protection during sandblasting. Years and use have whittled my set down to just a few, and now those seem to have vanished during our big move, and I'm left without any way to stop up the chambers for blasting.

Seemed simple enough till I hit the hardware store and could NOT think of where I would find them. Store employees had no idea, and for the life of me, I can't remember where I got them originally, just that I had a bunch of them. Where can they be found?

[kbadkar]

I used to get them for my test tubes when I was a chemical teenager. You could get them with holes for glass pipettes and tubing, or just plain no holes for taking your test tube for a walk. So, I'd suggest trying a lab supply or science stuff place. The internets is full of them, as I found out trying to purchase a graduated cylinder locally for my kids science project about volumetric displacement, density, and buoyancy - "Why do things float?"

Edit:

Check this out, and free shipping!
http://www.widgetco.com/rubber-stoppers

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention I used to order the stoppers through a mail order catalog I got from my chemistry teacher... the same place that he ordered the school's lab supplies from.

[KurtHuhn]

Sometimes American Science Surplus has them - along with all manner of dangerous and decidedly fun stuff:
http://www.sciplus.com/

But, I just get them at Lowes or the local mom-n-pop. Lowes carries them in all their stores, in the same section as all the nuts, bolts, screws, hooks, and various hardware. They have a bunch of sizes:
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=p ... lpage=none

[Danskpibemager]

Trever,
I found them at Lowes and Home Depot as well in the nuts and bolts isle where the specialty drawers are.

Kevin

[daniel]

if you want an alternative for those,
i have been using vine bottle corks, and they work fine, especially the cheaper ones that are really somekind of plastic.

[TreverT]

Awesome, thanks! I thought of lab supplies, but knew I hadn't got them at anyplace like that before. My memory (such as it is) was that I'd just found them in a hardware store or some-such, but then I found myself wandering through Harbor Freight thinking, "WHERE in here would one find rubber stoppers?"
And the problem is that when I wander aimlessly through Harbor Freight, I tend to gather up other stuff as I go...

[ToddJohnson]

And the problem is that when I wander aimlessly through Harbor Freight, I tend to gather up other stuff as I go...

I go aisle by aisle just saying "hmmm, what could I use that for?" None of the tools are very good, at least not for their intended purpose, but who can argue with a $2 pair of safety goggles, or a 75 pc. screwdriver set for $6? I tend to think of them as "disposable," but I've been using the same set of needle files for a decade now.

TJ

[KurtHuhn]

I won't buy things that operate at a precision level from Harbor Freight. But a cutoff tool, sure! Actually my MIG welder is from there, and has performed really well, but I tend to baby it. Things like mechanics gloves are great to buy there, or hammers, sockets, wire brushes, or even plant trimming shears.

I have a buddy that bought a small metal lathe there, against advice. He's ended up spending as much on that teensy POS keeping it running as he would have spent for an older South Bend with all the fixins, or a new JET BD920. And he knows he'll never recover any of that cash.

[jeff]

Or wine corks. Synthetic wine corks are much more fun to acquire and can be shaped to size if smaller ones are needed.

[TreverT]

Or wine corks. Synthetic wine corks are much more fun to acquire and can be shaped to size if smaller ones are needed.

I've tried those in the past but they would never hold up to heavy sandblasting. What usually happened was that I ended up with a cork blasted evenly level with the bowl rim.

[FredS]

Trever,
I found them at Lowes and Home Depot as well in the nuts and bolts isle where the specialty drawers are.

Kevin

My local True Value hardware store also keeps them in the (yellow) specialty drawers alongside the springs, dowel pins, woodruff keys and all the other misc stuff that's fun to dig through.

[SimeonTurner]

where do rubber stoppers come from?

Well Trever, when a boy stopper really likes a girl stopper, they spend a lot of time together, and then one day, their love becomes so strong that it forms a little baby stopper, which is delivered by the stopper stork during the night for the mommy and daddy stopper to find in the morning.....


Sorry guys, but this lame joke has been bouncing in my head every day since this was posted. I couldn't help myself.

[Frank]

where do rubber stoppers come from?

Well Trever, when a boy stopper really likes a girl stopper, they spend a lot of time together, and then one day, their love becomes so strong that it forms a little baby stopper, which is delivered by the stopper stork during the night for the mommy and daddy stopper to find in the morning.....

OK, let me try and explain all the fun you're missing out on...

[Ryan]

I had never thought to use a rubber stopper to plug the bowl.

Since I've been blasting, every once in a while I just turn a scrap piece of briar to fit inside the bowl. As you can imagine, it blasts away too, they only last for 3-5 pipes.

Thanks for the tip. I'm going to pick some up today.

[kkendall]

Ace hardware. Just got some today.

[Ryan]

I just got a few from Lowes..they were like a buck each.

i already used one, works great for keeping the stain out of the bowl.