Silicone bottle stoppers

Tony Baideme

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Location
Honolulu, Hawaii
Hi gang,

Some time ago I purchased some silicone bottle stoppers from Woodcraft so I could turn some stoppers for friends. Well, time went on and life got in the way and those never got made. Now, I am looking to find out how you people fasten the silicone to the turned part (assuming it would be a dowel or a spigot turned from the original wood). Thinking glue? silicone sealer? or??? what do you use?


Thanks in advance for any info.

Aloha, Tony
 
I haven't actually done what you describe, but I've read about a couple of options as I studied bottle stoppers in general. One method is to turn a 5/16" to 3/8" tenon on one end of your blank, then turn it around to finish turning. Drill a hole in the cork and use either epoxy or CA to attach. You could also drill both the cork and turned handle and use a dowel to join them.
 
Tony,
When you ordered the silicone sleeves you should have also ordered the little dowels... I make these all the time and usually order from Packardwoods and the dowels come as part of the stopper.... you don't want to glue the sleeves to the dowels... the beauty of these little silicone stoppers is that you can slip the sleeve off the dowel for washing and cleaning without having to get your wood turning wet.

I usually drill a 3/8" (I think) in the turning for the dowel to fit in, glue the dowel into the turning and then slip the sleeve over it.... here are a couple I've done... I do two styles... one has the silicone stopper at the bottom of the turning and the other style I do has a recess drilled into the turning and the stopper is "hidden" and the turning fits down over the bottle top.
37-1649_2.JPG37-1082.jpg
 
...you don't want to glue the sleeves to the dowels... the beauty of these little silicone stoppers is that you can slip the sleeve off the dowel for washing and cleaning without having to get your wood turning wet...

Thanks for the info, Chuck. That makes sense. :thumb:
 
So, actually, all I would need is to make the tenon/dowel so it fits snugly into the silicone but still can be removed for washing. Snug enough so the silicone insert would not slip off the tenon when pulling it out of the bottle.

Oh, and I bought these stoppers from my local Woodcraft store. I don't recall seeing the dowels with or near them. I didn't know then, now I do.

I will give this a try. Thanks everyone for your help. Aloha.
 
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I've never done one of these so this is second hand info, but, I saw a demo yesterday and the demonstrator said the wood dowels slip out of the silicon when you put your "chardonnay in the fridge." Temp changes and the glass, wood and silicon all expand and contract at different rates. He uses a wooden pin glued in from the bottom up into the dowel. As I said, no personal experience, but he has had customers complain about trying to get the silicon out of the bottle when it separates from the rest of the stopper. I think some testing is in order. Send me several bottles of wine and some stoppers and I'll volunteer.
 
I've never done one of these so this is second hand info, but, I saw a demo yesterday and the demonstrator said the wood dowels slip out of the silicon when you put your "chardonnay in the fridge." Temp changes and the glass, wood and silicon all expand and contract at different rates. He uses a wooden pin glued in from the bottom up into the dowel. As I said, no personal experience, but he has had customers complain about trying to get the silicon out of the bottle when it separates from the rest of the stopper. I think some testing is in order. Send me several bottles of wine and some stoppers and I'll volunteer.

I can vouch that they will slip off with changes in temps.... I was working on some turned bottle stands that require the bottle to go through a ring and the weight of the bottle holds it in place.... like this....41-1288_1.jpg ... I had an empty bottle filled with water and corked with one of my silicone stoppers to use as a test.... over the winter the water in the bottle froze and somehow sucked the stopper sleeve into the bottle.... no way to get it out, so......
 
I found that a 1/2" dowel/tenon fits the silicone stoppers pretty snugly. I have to make one of the turned stoppers and apply the silicone insert to see how it works. I will report on my findings. Thanks everyone.
 
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