What can you do with wine corks. Bottle caps: types, manufacture and application

The cork of a Chinese thermos broke.
Only old Chinese thermoses (I have 2 of them) keep tea and coffee hot all day when traveling and they give nothing but tea and coffee. But the cork should be only from cork oak. There is no equal in terms of thermal conductivity. Sufficiently soft so as not to break the flask when cooling, when the cork is drawn in. Unfortunately, they dry out and die, crumble. Cork oak does not grow here, otherwise I would cut it myself. And on sale there are only plates of glued cork crumbs. And it is not known what is in the plate for rubbing skis with mastic. Or in foam, from which 90% of advisers are advised to cut in return. You can, of course, glue and coat the cork with sealant (still go find food) or wrap it with foil (on paper basis!). But why are there no factory-made corks and flasks for Chinese thermoses on sale? It was in the USSR.

On the Internet, I found a person who makes ANY corks to order from cork oak. And there was even a phone. But Ukrainian. I was afraid to call.

A good option was suggested to me by LJ user Penkin .

Here is his recipe:
We take plastic bottle(dairy ones with a wide neck are good), so that the neck approximately coincides in diameter with the diameter of the thermos neck. Next we take bottle caps and stuff it inside this neck - so that the part sticks out in one direction (this protruding part will be the cork that will lock the thermos). In my case, it does not fit perfectly, but it works.

Thanks to him. I think that it is possible to achieve by adjusting that the screw cap-glass, fully screwed, will gently press the entire system to the neck. + seal the gaps with food sealant and make something like a gasket between the neck and a piece of the bottle on the plastic shoulder of the sealant.

And I tried another option: (see Cork No. 5 option below)

glued together 8 whole wine corks (it turned out that half of my stock - corks glued from cork oak crumbs - are poorly suited for such work, although I see such ones in Penkin's picture), after turning them on round and flat rasps, (it remains to cut and grind the perimeter sample size). I had a problem, I need to seal the gaps between the parts. It seems best for this food sealant. I found the best CEMLUX 9014 in terms of price and quality, but I don’t see it in retail.

Tried to find cork bark for sale, there are only pieces

or plates and tubes

They are all thin and oh so expensive. Aha, that seems to be what you are looking for! for terrariums! here is a plate 1 kg for 353 rubles, however, to go beyond the Moscow Ring Road, but it looks like misinformation, in other places the same from 1,000 (!!!) rubles apiece, from this you can already cut circles of the desired diameter, albeit of small thickness, then glue.

Along the way I found something interesting:

"The bark is harvested after the tree reaches 25 years of age. With the help of a special ax, the bark is cut along and in a circle of the tree trunk, and then it is torn off with the pointed end of the tool. The material of the first collection is used very rarely and only for technical purposes. Only cork bark has full properties. oak of the third collection.

Natural cork is harvested in the summer on days when there is no sultry wind. A new full-fledged layer of bark is formed only 8-9 years after harvesting. After harvesting, the bark is dried directly on the plantation for six months and only then sent for further processing.

That is why such difficulties with the purchase of spare plugs. I think this is the most expensive part of the Chinese thermos.

Crap! Or maybe it's easier to order in China? By mail through the Internet?

I'm getting down to business.

"If I decide something, then I will definitely drink"
Vladimir Vysotsky

PLUG #1

I started by trying to revive an old, shriveled, but native cork.
I took an ancient medical plaster 2 cm wide. It was packed so that it was soaked through with glue and became sticky on both sides of the tape, which makes it unsuitable for ordinary purposes, but it was just fine for me - double-sided eco-friendly Velcro. I wound about 5 layers of plaster on the cork and reached the desired diameter (an easily inserted cork hung in the neck at about the middle of its height). From above I added one and a half turns of food foil, which perfectly stuck to the patch. At the same time, it is 100% glue-proof. I inserted it into the neck and twisted it a little - the cork went deeper and the sealing became perfect.
PS: It is necessary to wind the patch so that the taper of the cork is preserved, then when plugging and twisting, a small annular tubercle is formed from a soft patch under the foil between the edge of the neck and the metal top. For this tubercle it is easy to remove the cork from the thermos.
PS: There is scope for further improvement following example No. 2 with a handle (see)

PLUG #2

In the second thermos, the cork was much better preserved, but it also dried up a little. In order to close the neck tightly enough, it must be pushed all the way to the aluminum cap. As a result, it is very difficult to open a thermos; when the contents cool, the cork is pulled inward to failure, and only the lid protrudes above the neck. It is not glued to the cork, but simply slightly rolled and held due to the taper of the cork. You pull on the lid - the thin metal opens - and the lid flies off the cork, you start to pull it further, with your fingers, nails - the cork begins to crumble, break.
This is how, in most cases, it becomes unusable, you have to cut off a layer of cork in order to put the cap back on (unreliable, you have to roll it up, wrinkle it), and the cork eventually hangs in the neck - and here plaster and foil come into play.
I thought, why not, until the cork has dried completely, do not screw the handle to the top of the cork to remove the cork. The material is the same cork, only not wine, but from champagne (its integrity is not broken by a corkscrew). Let it not be whole, but glued together from pieces. At first I made a short one, but, on reflection, I decided to increase its length so that when screwing the top-glass, its bottom would press the entire system to the neck of the flask, but very gently so as not to break the fragile glass. This ensures almost complete tightness when turning the thermos over. In addition, for reliability, before assembling, I removed the metal cap, smeared it with nail polish on the inside (I often use it as glue) and carefully rolled it again. The screw for fastening the structure used galvanized with a wide washer head, deepening it by 5 mm into the handle. I filled the body of the screw and the recess in the handle with glue and closed it on the same glue with a decorative top from a piece of the narrow end of a champagne cork.
PS: The height of the cup is different for different thermoses, so the calculation is done locally. Examination. We insert the system tightly into the neck. Slightly bend the top of the cup inward with your fingers and screw it. If at the very end of screwing we see how the deflection of the top of the cup straightens outward, the result has been achieved. If this happens earlier, we grind or cut off the top of the handle. Well, or you have to not screw the glass to the end of the thread, which is worse.

PLUG #3

In embodying Penkin's idea, I improved it somewhat.

1. The photo shows that I cut the thread completely, but not under the very shoulder, but leaving a small piece of the neck without thread. This allows you to rest against the neck of the thermos not with a rigidly oblique thread, but with a smooth plane of the shoulder, at the same time slightly penetrating into it with a protrusion of the neck. You can, of course, also moisten the joint of the shoulder and the protrusion with a sealant, but absolute tightness can lead to the fact that when the contents cool completely (especially if there is a lot of air in the flask and little liquid), the flask can break from the resulting vacuum. After all, a rigid structure, unlike a soft cork, cannot be drawn inward.
2. Insulated the top of the structure with sealant. Since it practically does not come into contact with the contents, I allowed myself to use the most ordinary white Moment sealant, and not food, which is expensive and hard to find. The contents in the end should not cool as quickly as without sealing.
3. I made the sealant convex, accurately calculating the height of the structure (in my case, it is without sealant - 35 mm + 1 cm sealant protrusion). The convexity of the sealant gently and resiliently abuts from the inside against the center of the lid-cup when screwing (soft metal allows 2-3 mm of play) and ensures tightness when the thermos is turned over.

PS: We check the assembly accuracy according to example No. 2 (see)

PLUG #4

I was not satisfied with the QUALITY of cork #3, and I made changes.

1. Reduced the number of cork pieces from 5 to 3 using ONLY champagne corks. This made it possible to drive parts with more force into the neck and the protruding cork parts began to enter the neck more tightly, ensuring greater heat preservation. Yes, and it looks better. Although a slight ovality of the plastic arose when the pieces were squeezed in, this did not interfere with the tight contact of the structure with the flask. If No. 3 backlash in the neck, then No. 4, starting from the cork part, tightly, but without effort, touches the flask.


2. I poured the sealant into the structure not only from above, but carefully between the pieces to the very shoulder, so that the liquid from the thermos did not penetrate between the parts of the cork, dangling in it with the threat of souring. At the same time, No. 4 became 2 times heavier than No. 3!
3. Tightened the structure with the convex part of the sealant with cling film for a better presentation of the structure


After a day, the film can be removed and the sealant dried without it. The impression is that the film was not filmed. But it's not there!!! Beauty!!?

PS: The sealant is very smelly (it smells like vinegar essence), so it is better to dry it in the stairwell for at least the first three days.

PLUG No. 5, etc. - dead-end options

1. I spent a lot of time to carve and glue together with nail polish just such an ikebana.


But because of the beauty of #3 and #4 further processing was deemed inappropriate due to excessive labor intensity.
2. You could, of course, buy real cork and food sealant and build almost a copy of the original. But it's expensive and takes a lot of time.
3. In the Chinese Internet, too lazy to look. If you suddenly, in gratitude for my work, send the found link to the purchase on I-bey of exactly the right cork for a thermos, I will be grateful and put it in this epoch-making post, but I doubt whether I will bother with the order when I already have even 2 spare options : for one thermos No. 1 and for another No. 3.
4. Once upon a time I came across on the Internet a variant of cork expansion by drilling it in the center and driving it into a slightly larger diameter cylinder hole. Before clogging the cork must be steamed out !!! If someone tries and succeeds, the wind is in the sail.

Glass containers, unlike plastic bottles, are reusable. For example, a beautiful wine bottle that can store home-made wine will not only preserve the taste of your drink, but also holiday table would be more appropriate. Very often, factory-made bottles are closed with a cork stopper, which cannot be re-closed - as a rule, it becomes several times larger than the neck of the bottle. Even if you cut the cork with a knife, the initial tight closure of the bottle cannot be achieved, moreover, the cork is not very durable. And if we are talking about a 10-liter bottle, then no old cork will do at all. In the recent past, our grandmothers closed bottles with corn on the cob. Agree during technological progress to close the bottle in this way is outdated and inconvenient. In our article, we will tell you how to make a cork for a 20 l bottle with your own hands, so that it is beautiful, convenient and reliable.

DIY silicone stopper for a bottle

Such a peculiar and useful handicraft can be done in several ways. Next, we will consider the most interesting of them.

Method number 1

How is a cork made? To make a cork for a ten-liter bottle, you need to prepare the following components in advance:

• Plastic 100-gram cup for molds;
• Starch;
• Silicone sealant.

Important! 3 plugs come out of one package of silicone sealant.

• Pour ¾ of a package of starch on the table, make a recess.

Important! To prevent silicone from sticking to the table, you can put glass on the surface.

• Using a professional silicone gun, squeeze the silicone into the starch funnel.

Important! The amount of silicone coincides with the size of our workpiece, namely a plastic cup.

• Then you should mix silicone and starch until smooth. To prevent silicone from sticking to your hands, dip them in starch and start kneading the ingredients, similar to kneading dough.

Important! When kneading silicone, it is important to achieve such a consistency that the dough is not too hard and does not have loose formations. Otherwise, the finished cork will let air through. The ideal mixture for the production of cork should resemble plasticine and not stick to the hands.

• The dough for the workpiece must be thoroughly mixed so that the silicone is completely saturated with starch, roll it well on the table and give it a conical shape.

Important! The more starch the mixture contains, the stiffer the cork will be.

• Then sprinkle a little starch on the prepared cork so that it does not stick to the plastic cup and easily comes out of it at the end of production.

Important! To get rid of excess air, make small punctures on the bottom of the glass with a needle or awl.

• Next, we place the raw materials in a plastic cup, twisting tightly and evenly distribute the mass throughout the container.

Important! It is not necessary to use a blank in the form of a glass. If it is problematic to choose a blank for your bottle, roll the cork tightly with your hands, measure its diameter with a caliper, and leave to dry on a flat surface.

• In this form, we leave the workpiece to dry for 3-4 hours. After the time has elapsed, we remove our cork from the workpiece.

Important! To speed up the drying process, after 30 minutes, place the container next to a hot surface or place it near the radiator.

• With a kitchen knife, you can trim all the bumps or reduce the diameter of the finished cork.

Important! Silicone sealant has a specific smell. To get rid of it, you must first place the finished cork in hot water, then in cold water with the addition of soda for a while, or simply take the product to fresh air.

The cork is elastic and tightly closes the neck of the bottle. It is perfect for a 10-liter threaded bottle and a bottle with a conical thread, they are also called “Cossack” bottles.

Important! For lovers of wine production, a hole should be drilled in the cork so that air comes out of the bottle. To do this, the diameter of the hole should be slightly smaller than the drainage that you will use.

Method number 2

The next method is quite laborious and requires much more time to manufacture than the previous one. But for those masters who like to tinker with the tool, you can use this option.

To make a bottle stopper using the method that we will discuss next, you will need to prepare some auxiliary tools, namely:

• Tin can from peas or corn;
• soldering iron;
• Gun for liquid silicone;
• Sandpaper;
• Building hair dryer;
• liquid silicone.

Sequencing:

• At the first stage of cork manufacturing, a mold should be made into which liquid silicone is poured. To do this, cut off the top and bottom in a tin can, as a result, we get a cylindrical blank.
• Then cut the workpiece vertically to make a rectangular tin.
• Measure the diameter of the neck of the bottle with a compass, twist the tin to right size from below, gradually expanding it upwards.
• When one edge meets the other, put notches at the top and bottom, connect the notches with an oblique line and cut with scissors.
• Carefully use your hands to give the workpiece a conical shape, observing the size along the entire length of the workpiece.
• Expand your workpiece and sand the beveled and even edge of the tin with sandpaper.
• Connect the two cuts end-to-end to each other, fix the workpiece in this position along the entire length with a soldering iron. You get a cone glass without a bottom.
• Next, you need to solder the bottom. First, clean the bottom cut of the workpiece with sandpaper.
• Take one of the cut parts and solder the bottom with a soldering iron, trim the edges with scissors.
• Next you need to solder the handle. For its manufacture, you can use a rigid wire or a metal tube.
• Sand the location of the handle and the edge of the wire for better adhesion of the material. The silicone cork mold is ready, now you can start making the cork itself.
• Take a building hair dryer and set the temperature to 120 degrees.

Important! A building hair dryer will serve to heat the mold so that the silicone does not harden during filling and evenly distributes it inside the mold.

• After the mold has warmed up, use a glue gun to fill it with liquid silicone.

Important! The tin mold should be constantly held over a stream of hot air.

• Once the silicone is completely poured into the container, leave it to harden.
• Finally, use pliers to bend the soldered edge and pull out the cork.

DIY bottle caps

You can quickly and without tools make an alternative to bottle caps.

Method number 1

To implement this cork option, you will need a plastic bottle with a cap that matches the diameter of the bottle neck.

Manufacturing sequence:

1. Fill a plastic bottle with up to half of the water, tightly close the lid.
2. Turn over and lower the bottle into the neck of the bottle.
3. The device tightly and securely closes the glass container.

Important! For vintners need to drill through hole in the lid and bottom of the plastic “cork”, pass the hose and close the neck of the wine bottle.

Method number 2

From old wine corks that do not fit the diameter of the neck, you can make new creative corks. For this you will need:

• Kitchen knife;
• cork stopper;
• PVA glue;
• Wooden spools with threads of different colors.

Preparation method:

1. First of all, measure the diameter of the neck of the bottle with a caliper.
2. With a kitchen knife, carefully cut the cork in a conical shape to the appropriate diameter.
3. Lubricate the upper wide edge of the cork with PVA glue and glue a wooden spool with threads of different colors.
4. Leave to dry completely.

Your creative plugs are ready!

footage

Making bottle caps with your own hands at home is not difficult at all. To do this, just follow the instructions described in this article. With their help, you can make corks of different diameters to close large bottles, as well as make small decorative corks for bottles with your favorite drinks. As you can see, most of the items that will be needed for this are in every home. Do not be afraid to experiment with decorating products. Then you will get not just corks, the bottles will look beautiful and additionally serve as decorative elements in the room.

Glass containers, unlike plastic bottles, are reusable. For example, a beautiful wine bottle in which you can store home-made wine will not only preserve the taste of your drink, but will also be more appropriate on the festive table. Very often, factory-made bottles are closed with a cork stopper, which cannot be re-closed - as a rule, it becomes several times larger than the neck of the bottle. Even if you cut the cork with a knife, the initial tight closure of the bottle cannot be achieved, moreover, the cork is not very durable. And if we are talking about a 10-liter bottle, then no old cork will do at all. In the recent past, our grandmothers closed bottles with corn on the cob. Agree during technological progress to close the bottle in this way is outdated and inconvenient. In our article, we will tell you how to make a cork for a bottle with your own hands, so that it is beautiful, convenient and reliable.

DIY silicone stopper for a bottle

Such a peculiar and useful craft can be done in several ways. Next, we will consider the most interesting of them.

Method number 1

To make a cork for a ten-liter bottle, you need to prepare the following components in advance:

• Plastic 100-gram cup for molds;
• Starch;
• Silicone sealant.

Important! 3 plugs come out of one package of silicone sealant.

• Pour ¾ of a package of starch on the table, make a recess.

Important! To prevent silicone from sticking to the table, you can put glass on the surface.

• Using a professional silicone gun, squeeze the silicone into the starch funnel.

Important! The amount of silicone coincides with the size of our workpiece, namely a plastic cup.

• Then you should mix silicone and starch until smooth. To prevent silicone from sticking to your hands, dip them in starch and start kneading the ingredients, similar to kneading dough.

Important! When kneading silicone, it is important to achieve such a consistency that the dough is not too hard and does not have loose formations. Otherwise, the finished cork will let air through. The ideal mixture for the production of cork should resemble plasticine and not stick to the hands.

• The dough for the workpiece must be thoroughly mixed so that the silicone is completely saturated with starch, roll it well on the table and give it a conical shape.

Important! The more starch the mixture contains, the stiffer the cork will be.

• Then sprinkle a little starch on the prepared cork so that it does not stick to the plastic cup and easily comes out of it at the end of production.

Important! To get rid of excess air, make small punctures on the bottom of the glass with a needle or awl.

• Next, we place the raw materials in a plastic cup, twisting tightly and evenly distribute the mass throughout the container.

Important! It is not necessary to use a blank in the form of a glass. If it is problematic to choose a blank for your bottle, roll the cork tightly with your hands, measure its diameter with a caliper, and leave to dry on a flat surface.

• In this form, we leave the workpiece to dry for 3-4 hours. After the time has elapsed, we remove our cork from the workpiece.

Important! To speed up the drying process, after 30 minutes, place the container next to a hot surface or place it near the radiator.

• With a kitchen knife, you can trim all the bumps or reduce the diameter of the finished cork.

Important! Silicone sealant has a specific smell. To get rid of it, you need to place the finished cork first in hot water, then in cold water with the addition of soda for a while, or simply take the product out into fresh air.

The cork is elastic and tightly closes the neck of the bottle. It is perfect for a 10-liter threaded bottle and a bottle with a conical thread, they are also called “Cossack” bottles.

Important! For lovers of wine production, a hole should be drilled in the cork so that air comes out of the bottle. To do this, the diameter of the hole should be slightly smaller than the drainage that you will use.

Method number 2

The next method is quite laborious and requires much more time to manufacture than the previous one. But for those masters who like to tinker with the tool, you can use this option.

To make a bottle stopper using the method that we will discuss next, you will need to prepare some auxiliary tools, namely:

• Tin can from peas or corn;
• soldering iron;
• Gun for liquid silicone;
• Sandpaper;
• Building hair dryer;
• liquid silicone.

Sequencing:

• At the first stage of cork manufacturing, a mold should be made into which liquid silicone is poured. To do this, cut off the top and bottom in a tin can, as a result, we get a cylindrical blank.
• Then cut the workpiece vertically to make a rectangular tin.
• Measure the diameter of the neck of the bottle with a compass, twist the tin to the desired size from the bottom, gradually expanding it upwards.
• When one edge meets the other, put notches at the top and bottom, connect the notches with an oblique line and cut with scissors.
• Carefully use your hands to give the workpiece a conical shape, observing the size along the entire length of the workpiece.
• Expand your workpiece and sand the beveled and even edge of the tin with sandpaper.
• Connect the two cuts end-to-end to each other, fix the workpiece in this position along the entire length with a soldering iron. You get a cone glass without a bottom.
• Next, you need to solder the bottom. First, clean the bottom cut of the workpiece with sandpaper.
• Take one of the cut parts and solder the bottom with a soldering iron, trim the edges with scissors.
• Next you need to solder the handle. For its manufacture, you can use a rigid wire or a metal tube.
• Sand the location of the handle and the edge of the wire for better adhesion of the material. The silicone cork mold is ready, now you can start making the cork itself.
• Take a building hair dryer and set the temperature to 120 degrees.

Important! A building hair dryer will serve to heat the mold so that the silicone does not harden during filling and evenly distributes it inside the mold.

• After the mold has warmed up, use a glue gun to fill it with liquid silicone.

Important! The tin mold should be constantly held over a stream of hot air.

• Once the silicone is completely poured into the container, leave it to harden.
• Finally, use pliers to bend the soldered edge and pull out the cork.

DIY bottle caps

You can quickly and without tools make an alternative to bottle caps.

Method number 1

To implement this cork option, you will need a plastic bottle with a cap that matches the diameter of the bottle neck.

Manufacturing sequence:

1. Fill a plastic bottle with up to half of the water, tightly close the lid.
2. Turn over and lower the bottle into the neck of the bottle.
3. The device tightly and securely closes the glass container.

Important! For winemakers, it is necessary to drill a through hole in the lid and bottom of the plastic “cork”, pass the hose and close the neck of the wine bottle.

Method number 2

From old wine corks that do not fit the diameter of the neck, you can make new creative corks. For this you will need:

• Kitchen knife;
• cork stopper;
• PVA glue;
• Wooden spools with threads of different colors.

Preparation method:

1. First of all, measure the diameter of the neck of the bottle with a caliper.
2. With a kitchen knife, carefully cut the cork in a conical shape to the appropriate diameter.
3. Lubricate the upper wide edge of the cork with PVA glue and glue a wooden spool with threads of different colors.
4. Leave to dry completely.

Your creative plugs are ready!

footage

Making bottle caps with your own hands at home is not difficult at all. To do this, just follow the instructions described in this article. With their help, you can make corks of different diameters to close large bottles, as well as make small decorative corks for bottles with your favorite drinks. As you can see, most of the items that will be needed for this are in every home. Do not be afraid to experiment with decorating products. Then you will get not just corks, the bottles will look beautiful and additionally serve as decorative elements in the room.

Plastic bottles are a versatile container that can be reused. To provide such functionality, it should be supplemented with a stopper that limits the outflow of liquid.

Simple Options

You can make a stopper for a bottle different ways. Consider the algorithm for obtaining a cork from silicone:

1. Initially, we purchase starch, silicone sealant. You will also need a plastic cup, which should fit the size of the hole in the bottle.
2. Initially, ¾ of a package of starch and silicone is mixed (with a volume of a full glass). It is important to thoroughly knead the "dough" to give it a uniform consistency.
3. When the mixture is ready, a cork is formed from it. She is placed in a glass. To prevent silicone from sticking, the container is also covered with starch. It is also important to make several holes in the bottom of the glass. This will allow excess air to escape.
4. After that, the cork should dry for about 4 hours. When it is ready, it is taken out of the glass and leveled with a knife. To get rid of the smell, the workpiece should first be held in hot water, and then in a solution of cold water and soda. Then you need to dry it thoroughly in the fresh air.

If you need a drain hole, then it can be made into the cork using a small drill. If desired, you can form a small spout that will be used to pour water.

Using a tree

Wood is a unique material that perfectly retains moisture. Therefore, corks were previously made only from it. This process is quite simple and consists of several steps:

• A timber is selected with a thickness slightly larger than the diameter of the neck.
• Then a small cone is formed from it. The easiest way to do this is to lathe. But if it is not there, you can carve it and sharp knife. In the manufacture, it is important to constantly control its shape and try on the hole. The cork should fit perfectly into the gap, sealing it.
• For versatility, a small hole can also be made in the cork to allow liquid to be poured.

If you do not want to waste time, it is better to purchase a special plastic design that can be selected for different neck diameters.

Plastic bottles are a versatile container that can be reused. To provide such functionality, it should be supplemented with a stopper that limits the outflow of liquid.

Simple Options

There are many ways to make bottle caps. Consider the algorithm for obtaining a cork from silicone:

1. Initially, we purchase starch, silicone sealant. You will also need a plastic cup, which should fit the size of the hole in the bottle.
2. Initially, ¾ of a package of starch and silicone is mixed (with a volume of a full glass). It is important to thoroughly knead the "dough" to give it a uniform consistency.
3. When the mixture is ready, a cork is formed from it. She is placed in a glass. To prevent silicone from sticking, the container is also covered with starch. It is also important to make several holes in the bottom of the glass. This will allow excess air to escape.
4. After that, the cork should dry for about 4 hours. When it is ready, it is taken out of the glass and leveled with a knife. To get rid of the smell, the workpiece should first be held in hot water, and then in a solution of cold water and soda. Then you need to dry it thoroughly in the fresh air.

If you need a drain hole, then it can be made into the cork using a small drill. If desired, you can form a small spout that will be used to pour water.

Using a tree

Wood is a unique material that perfectly retains moisture. Therefore, corks were previously made only from it. This process is quite simple and consists of several steps:

• A timber is selected with a thickness slightly larger than the diameter of the neck.
• Then a small cone is formed from it. The easiest way to do this is on a lathe. But if it is not there, you can carve it with a sharp knife. In the manufacture, it is important to constantly control its shape and try on the hole. The cork should fit perfectly into the gap, sealing it.
• For versatility, a small hole can also be made in the cork to allow liquid to be poured.

If you do not want to waste time, it is better to purchase a special plastic design that can be selected for different neck diameters.

It is very difficult to organize a stable fermentation process without a water seal. Experienced home winemakers and moonshiners know this. Although nowadays you can buy a factory water seal, it’s easier to make this device with your own hands from improvised materials, spending just a few minutes. We will consider the most successful designs further.

Why do you need a water seal. During fermentation, carbon dioxide is actively released (approximately 4 cubic meters per 1 liter of alcohol obtained). The accumulation of carbon dioxide is fraught with high pressure in the fermentation tank, which can lead to an explosion. The gas must be removed, but do it in such a way that oxygen does not enter the container. The fact is that oxygen activates the vital activity of bacteria that convert alcohol into acetic acid, and without air access, these bacteria are inactive.

A fermentation airlock is a valve that removes carbon dioxide and at the same time prevents air from entering. Without this device, winemaking is impossible, otherwise the young wine immediately turns into vinegar. Moonshiners are still arguing about its necessity, but beginners are better off installing it.

There is an opinion that the mash should "breathe", so a water seal is not needed. In fact, mash oxidizes no worse than wine. Just during the period of active fermentation, the carbon dioxide released prevents oxygen from reaching the surface. But as soon as the alcohol bacteria do their job, their vinegar "colleagues" immediately get to work, turning alcohol into acid. If such a mash is not overtaken in time, then it will simply turn sour or an unpleasant sour taste will appear in the moonshine. The exit rate also drops.

Braga under a water seal can stand without distillation for much longer and not oxidize. All the alcohol produced by our friendly bacteria is preserved.

1. Classic water seal(lid, tube, jar). The simplest and most reliable kit. It is enough to make a hole in the lid of the fermentation tank, insert the tube and seal the junction with glue. Dip the other end into a jar of water.

1 - mash (wort); 2 - cork; 3 - tube; 4 - water

Disadvantage: with a small diameter of the tube, the water seal can become clogged with foam, so I recommend using not thin capillaries, but tubes of large diameter.

assembled kit

This water lock allows you to accurately determine the readiness of wine or mash. If there are no bubbles in a jar of water for 1-2 days, then the unsweetened mash is ready for distillation, and the wine is ready to be drained from the sediment.

One of the varieties of this design is a water seal from a dropper. More on video.

During fermentation, an unpleasant odor appears. This is very important for residents of apartments who are not able to take out a container with mash to a non-residential premises. You can get rid of the smell by removing carbon dioxide into the sewer. It is only necessary to improve the jar into which fermentation products fall.

sewer gas pipeline

Gas through the tube from the fermentation tank enters the jar, overcomes the pressure of the liquid column (h) and goes into the sewer. The column of water serves as a kind of barrier that does not allow gases from the sewer to enter the fermentation tank.

This design resembles a dry steamer for moonshine still. Two holes are made in a jar with a tight lid, then they are connected to tubes and sealed. A modernized half-liter jar is filled with 1/3 of the volume with water, the inlet tube is lowered into the liquid by 1-2 cm, the outlet tube into the washbasin.

operating device

2. Medical glove. Simple design suitable for wide mouth fermentation containers (jars and bottles). In fact, this is not a water seal, but it works no worse. The glove lock is often used by women, since its construction does not require anything to be drilled, soldered and glued.

1 - bottle; 2 - glove

A small hole is made in any of the fingers of a rubber glove with a needle. Next, the glove is put on the neck of the container. So that the gas pressure does not tear off the glove, the attachment point with the neck is covered with an elastic band or tied with a thread.

fermentation glove

Disadvantage: due to the too large neck diameter and high gas pressure on containers with a volume of more than 20 liters, it is very difficult or impossible to securely fasten the glove. The smell of fermentation will be present in the room.

With active fermentation, the glove inflates, when the process ends, it deflates again.

extravagant option

3. Cotton plug. The neck of the container is plugged with a stopper made of cotton wool or other porous material, through the structure of which carbon dioxide can escape. But the cork does not provide complete tightness, especially at the very end of fermentation. The pressure in the bottle drops, as a result of which air begins to enter the container. Another disadvantage is that it is very difficult to understand when fermentation has ended.

1 - bottle; 2 - cork

A cotton plug is used if for some reason it is not possible to install a more reliable design.

4. "Quiet" water seal. The release of carbon dioxide is accompanied by characteristic gurgling sounds. There are people who are annoyed by it. The author of the following video solved the problem by creating a water seal from a syringe and a plastic bottle. It will take a little more time to make this water seal than in previous cases, but you will have a device that resembles store options.

Apart from silent fermentation, this design has no other advantages.

Cork appeared in the form in which we know it relatively recently, only in the 17th century, along with the appearance in mass use glass bottle. Before that, cork was also used, but not in such quantities. They preferred to clog the vessels with rags and pieces of wood, which gave the contents an uncharacteristic taste over time, or even spoiled it. Cork does not swell as much as wood, and if properly processed, it does not spoil the taste of wine or cognac, which is important.

Cork is made from the bark of the cork oak, which grows only in a few countries in Europe and on the Mediterranean coast in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. In other countries, cork oak practically does not grow. Most big harvest cork bark can be obtained from Portuguese plantations.

The first time the bark is removed from the oak after it is 20-25 years old. The next ten years it should be restored. In addition, you can remove the bark only in a certain season, when it practically exfoliates itself. The rest of the time, the tree can be damaged. The bark is not removed all at once, but in certain areas, so from the side the trees seem half-naked. From the bark taken from one oak, you can get a thousand corks. The bark taken from a 150-year-old tree is considered the highest quality. Oak, which is more than 200 years old, begins to hurt and no longer gives high-quality bark. It is uprooted and a new tree is planted in the vacant place.

This is the only tree in the world whose bark is able to completely regenerate. Cork oaks are marked to know when they can harvest the next crop. For example, the number 7 means that the last time the bark was removed from this tree was in 2007.

The cut bark is sorted. The first grade is sent to a factory where they make corks for vintage wines and cognacs, and the worse one goes to a plant for the production of building insulation and noise absorbers.

Cork oak bark is dumped into huge piles right on the territory of the plant. Before putting the cork into the case, it is kept in the open air for several months.

First of all, the raw material is subjected to heat treatment. The cork is boiled in a huge cauldron, and at the same time all sorts of spider bugs that managed to start up in it are destroyed.

Then the bark is cut into strips, after which it is again sorted, washed, disinfected and again soaked in water.

Corks are cut out of these blanks, and the cork crumb, to which the binder is added, goes under the press.

Rejected corks are covered with cork dust, they are used for wines of medium price category. And the simplest and most massive corks, including those for champagne, are made from cork crumbs, the pieces of which are glued together with special glue. Such glued corks are also found in medium and lower price wine bottles, designed for quick sale and short storage.

From the rest of the waste they make various Decoration Materials. It is impossible to enter the workshop, from which the cork comes out already packed, without headphones and a respirator - it is very noisy and dusty here. The cork sheets come out from under the press very hot. After they cool down, they are sent for further processing - they are cut into standard plates.

If you paste over a room with such material, you can even walk on your head - the neighbors will still not hear anything. Builders love cork, and because it, unlike plastic panels does not emit toxic gases in case of fire.

As for the cork for bottles, its quality used to be checked manually. Since cork oak bark plates have different sizes and thickness, not all operations were trusted by automatic machines. A worker, directly engaged in cutting corks, pressed his foot on the pedal of the machine about ten thousand times a day. Now, in modern factories, electronics completely control the entire process.

Finished corks are carefully sorted. This is done by a special machine. It "scans" the surface of the cork, and depending on how many cracks and defects it detects, directs it to one or another basket. Then it is again checked for quality. The corks are then washed, bleached to remove harmful substances, and placed in a 12% alcohol solution for 24 hours.

Whole corks are ideal for long-term storage only if necessary conditions(humidity, contact of wine with cork). Comalted corks (coated) are also suitable for storage, but not for too long. Glued and pressed corks allow you to store wine for only a few years, after which there is a risk of spoiling the contents of the bottle.

The cork dries out, which can cause damage to the wine due to air access. It is wrong to store wine bottles vertically on the shelves in supermarkets. Just a few months of vertical standing under powerful lamps in the store - and such a wine can deteriorate or lose its taste greatly.

Only natural cork allows the wine to "breathe" and, in contact with the wine, complements the bouquet in a certain way. Bottles sealed with natural cork can be stored for decades and even centuries (under special conditions). For such a long “cooperation” with cork oak, winemakers have studied all the properties of cork, and most eminent wine critics believe that natural corks not only preserve, but also improve the aroma of wine. However, there is a small percentage of marriage - a natural payment for "naturalness".

Not only building materials are made from production waste, but also bags, aprons, shoes and even umbrellas! Cork production is practically waste-free. Among other things, cork is an indispensable material in the manufacture of life-saving equipment. On water, it can withstand much more than its own weight, and practically does not absorb moisture.

I advise you to watch the video, where you can learn even more about the traffic jam than from the post)

Glass containers, unlike plastic bottles, are reusable. For example, a beautiful wine bottle in which you can store home-made wine will not only preserve the taste of your drink, but will also be more appropriate on the festive table. Very often, factory-made bottles are closed with a cork stopper, which cannot be re-closed - as a rule, it becomes several times larger than the neck of the bottle. Even if you cut the cork with a knife, the initial tight closure of the bottle cannot be achieved, moreover, the cork is not very durable. And if we are talking about a 10-liter bottle, then no old cork will do at all. In the recent past, our grandmothers closed bottles with corn on the cob. Agree during technological progress to close the bottle in this way is outdated and inconvenient. In our article, we will tell you how to make a cork for a 20 l bottle with your own hands, so that it is beautiful, convenient and reliable.

DIY silicone stopper for a bottle

Such a peculiar and useful craft can be done in several ways. Next, we will consider the most interesting of them.

Method number 1

How is a cork made? To make a cork for a ten-liter bottle, you need to prepare the following components in advance:

• Plastic 100-gram cup for molds;
• Starch;
• Silicone sealant.

Important! 3 plugs come out of one package of silicone sealant.

• Pour ¾ of a package of starch on the table, make a recess.

Important! To prevent silicone from sticking to the table, you can put glass on the surface.

• Using a professional silicone gun, squeeze the silicone into the starch funnel.

Important! The amount of silicone coincides with the size of our workpiece, namely a plastic cup.

• Then you should mix silicone and starch until smooth. To prevent silicone from sticking to your hands, dip them in starch and start kneading the ingredients, similar to kneading dough.

Important! When kneading silicone, it is important to achieve such a consistency that the dough is not too hard and does not have loose formations. Otherwise, the finished cork will let air through. The ideal mixture for the production of cork should resemble plasticine and not stick to the hands.

• The dough for the workpiece must be thoroughly mixed so that the silicone is completely saturated with starch, roll it well on the table and give it a conical shape.

Important! The more starch the mixture contains, the stiffer the cork will be.

• Then sprinkle a little starch on the prepared cork so that it does not stick to the plastic cup and easily comes out of it at the end of production.

Important! To get rid of excess air, make small punctures on the bottom of the glass with a needle or awl.

• Next, we place the raw materials in a plastic cup, twisting tightly and evenly distribute the mass throughout the container.

Important! It is not necessary to use a blank in the form of a glass. If it is problematic to choose a blank for your bottle, roll the cork tightly with your hands, measure its diameter with a caliper, and leave to dry on a flat surface.

• In this form, we leave the workpiece to dry for 3-4 hours. After the time has elapsed, we remove our cork from the workpiece.

Important! To speed up the drying process, after 30 minutes, place the container next to a hot surface or place it near the radiator.

• With a kitchen knife, you can trim all the bumps or reduce the diameter of the finished cork.

Important! Silicone sealant has a specific smell. To get rid of it, you need to place the finished cork first in hot water, then in cold water with the addition of soda for a while, or simply take the product out into fresh air.

The cork is elastic and tightly closes the neck of the bottle. It is perfect for a 10-liter threaded bottle and a bottle with a conical thread, they are also called “Cossack” bottles.

Important! For lovers of wine production, a hole should be drilled in the cork so that air comes out of the bottle. To do this, the diameter of the hole should be slightly smaller than the drainage that you will use.

Method number 2

The next method is quite laborious and requires much more time to manufacture than the previous one. But for those masters who like to tinker with the tool, you can use this option.

To make a bottle stopper using the method that we will discuss next, you will need to prepare some auxiliary tools, namely:

• Tin can from peas or corn;
• soldering iron;
• Gun for liquid silicone;
• Sandpaper;
• Building hair dryer;
• liquid silicone.

Sequencing:

• At the first stage of cork manufacturing, a mold should be made into which liquid silicone is poured. To do this, cut off the top and bottom in a tin can, as a result, we get a cylindrical blank.
• Then cut the workpiece vertically to make a rectangular tin.
• Measure the diameter of the neck of the bottle with a compass, twist the tin to the desired size from the bottom, gradually expanding it upwards.
• When one edge meets the other, put notches at the top and bottom, connect the notches with an oblique line and cut with scissors.
• Carefully use your hands to give the workpiece a conical shape, observing the size along the entire length of the workpiece.
• Expand your workpiece and sand the beveled and even edge of the tin with sandpaper.
• Connect the two cuts end-to-end to each other, fix the workpiece in this position along the entire length with a soldering iron. You get a cone glass without a bottom.
• Next, you need to solder the bottom. First, clean the bottom cut of the workpiece with sandpaper.
• Take one of the cut parts and solder the bottom with a soldering iron, trim the edges with scissors.
• Next you need to solder the handle. For its manufacture, you can use a rigid wire or a metal tube.
• Sand the location of the handle and the edge of the wire for better adhesion of the material. The silicone cork mold is ready, now you can start making the cork itself.
• Take a building hair dryer and set the temperature to 120 degrees.

Important! A building hair dryer will serve to heat the mold so that the silicone does not harden during filling and evenly distributes it inside the mold.

• After the mold has warmed up, use a glue gun to fill it with liquid silicone.

Important! The tin mold should be constantly held over a stream of hot air.

• Once the silicone is completely poured into the container, leave it to harden.
• Finally, use pliers to bend the soldered edge and pull out the cork.

DIY bottle caps

You can quickly and without tools make an alternative to bottle caps.

Method number 1

To implement this cork option, you will need a plastic bottle with a cap that matches the diameter of the bottle neck.

Manufacturing sequence:

1. Fill a plastic bottle with up to half of the water, tightly close the lid.
2. Turn over and lower the bottle into the neck of the bottle.
3. The device tightly and securely closes the glass container.

Important! For winemakers, it is necessary to drill a through hole in the lid and bottom of the plastic “cork”, pass the hose and close the neck of the wine bottle.

Method number 2

From old wine corks that do not fit the diameter of the neck, you can make new creative corks. For this you will need:

• Kitchen knife;
• cork stopper;
• PVA glue;
• Wooden spools with threads of different colors.

Preparation method.

The cork of a Chinese thermos broke.
Only old Chinese thermoses (I have 2 of them) keep tea and coffee hot all day when traveling and they give nothing but tea and coffee. But the cork should be only from cork oak. There is no equal in terms of thermal conductivity. Sufficiently soft so as not to break the flask when cooling, when the cork is drawn in. Unfortunately, they dry out and die, crumble. Cork oak does not grow here, otherwise I would cut it myself. And on sale there are only plates of glued cork crumbs. And it is not known what is in the plate for rubbing skis with mastic. Or in foam, from which 90% of advisers are advised to cut in return. You can, of course, glue and coat the cork with sealant (still go find food) or wrap it with foil (on a paper basis!). But why are there no factory-made corks and flasks for Chinese thermoses on sale? It was in the USSR.

On the Internet, I found a person who makes ANY corks to order from cork oak. And there was even a phone. But Ukrainian. I was afraid to call.

A good option was suggested to me by LJ user Penkin .

Here is his recipe:
We take a plastic bottle (dairy ones with a wide neck are good), so that the neck approximately matches the diameter of the thermos neck in diameter. Next, we take bottle caps and stuff them inside this neck - so that the part sticks out in one direction (this protruding part will be the cork that will lock the thermos). In my case, it does not fit perfectly, but it works.

Thanks to him. I think that it is possible to achieve by adjusting that the screw cap-glass, fully screwed, will gently press the entire system to the neck. + seal the gaps with food sealant and make something like a gasket between the neck and a piece of the bottle on the plastic shoulder of the sealant.

And I tried another option: (see Cork No. 5 option below)

glued together 8 whole wine corks (it turned out that half of my stock - corks glued from cork oak crumbs - are poorly suited for such work, although I see such ones in Penkin's picture), after turning them on round and flat rasps, (it remains to cut and grind the perimeter sample size). I had a problem, I need to seal the gaps between the parts. It seems best for this food sealant. I found the best CEMLUX 9014 in terms of price and quality, but I don’t see it in retail.

Tried to find cork bark for sale, there are only pieces

or plates and tubes

They are all thin and oh so expensive. Aha, that seems to be what you are looking for! for terrariums! here is a plate 1 kg for 353 rubles, however, to go beyond the Moscow Ring Road, but it looks like misinformation, in other places the same from 1,000 (!!!) rubles apiece, from this you can already cut circles of the desired diameter, albeit of small thickness, then glue.

Along the way I found something interesting:

"The bark is harvested after the tree reaches 25 years of age. With the help of a special ax, the bark is cut along and in a circle of the tree trunk, and then it is torn off with the pointed end of the tool. The material of the first collection is used very rarely and only for technical purposes. Only cork bark has full properties. oak of the third collection.

Natural cork is harvested in the summer on days when there is no sultry wind. A new full-fledged layer of bark is formed only 8-9 years after harvesting. After harvesting, the bark is dried directly on the plantation for six months and only then sent for further processing.

That is why such difficulties with the purchase of spare plugs. I think this is the most expensive part of the Chinese thermos.

Crap! Or maybe it's easier to order in China? By mail through the Internet?

I'm getting down to business.

"If I decide something, then I will definitely drink"
Vladimir Vysotsky

PLUG #1

I started by trying to revive an old, shriveled, but native cork.
I took an ancient medical plaster 2 cm wide. It was packed so that it was soaked through with glue and became sticky on both sides of the tape, which makes it unsuitable for ordinary purposes, but it was just fine for me - double-sided eco-friendly Velcro. I wound about 5 layers of plaster on the cork and reached the desired diameter (an easily inserted cork hung in the neck at about the middle of its height). From above I added one and a half turns of food foil, which perfectly stuck to the patch. At the same time, it is 100% glue-proof. I inserted it into the neck and twisted it a little - the cork went deeper and the sealing became perfect.
PS: It is necessary to wind the patch so that the taper of the cork is preserved, then when plugging and twisting, a small annular tubercle is formed from a soft patch under the foil between the edge of the neck and the metal top. For this tubercle it is easy to remove the cork from the thermos.
PS: There is scope for further improvement following example No. 2 with a handle (see)

PLUG #2

In the second thermos, the cork was much better preserved, but it also dried up a little. In order to close the neck tightly enough, it must be pushed all the way to the aluminum cap. As a result, it is very difficult to open a thermos; when the contents cool, the cork is pulled inward to failure, and only the lid protrudes above the neck. It is not glued to the cork, but simply slightly rolled and held due to the taper of the cork. You pull on the lid - the thin metal opens - and the lid flies off the cork, you start to pull it further, with your fingers, nails - the cork begins to crumble, break.
This is how, in most cases, it becomes unusable, you have to cut off a layer of cork in order to put the cap back on (unreliable, you have to roll it up, wrinkle it), and the cork eventually hangs in the neck - and here plaster and foil come into play.
I thought, why not, until the cork has dried completely, do not screw the handle to the top of the cork to remove the cork. The material is the same cork, only not wine, but from champagne (its integrity is not broken by a corkscrew). Let it not be whole, but glued together from pieces. At first I made a short one, but, on reflection, I decided to increase its length so that when screwing the top-glass, its bottom would press the entire system to the neck of the flask, but very gently so as not to break the fragile glass. This ensures almost complete tightness when turning the thermos over. In addition, for reliability, before assembling, I removed the metal cap, smeared it with nail polish on the inside (I often use it as glue) and carefully rolled it again. The screw for fastening the structure used galvanized with a wide washer head, deepening it by 5 mm into the handle. I filled the body of the screw and the recess in the handle with glue and closed it on the same glue with a decorative top from a piece of the narrow end of a champagne cork.
PS: The height of the cup is different for different thermoses, so the calculation is done locally. Examination. We insert the system tightly into the neck. Slightly bend the top of the cup inward with your fingers and screw it. If at the very end of screwing we see how the deflection of the top of the cup straightens outward, the result has been achieved. If this happens earlier, we grind or cut off the top of the handle. Well, or you have to not screw the glass to the end of the thread, which is worse.

PLUG #3

In embodying Penkin's idea, I improved it somewhat.

1. The photo shows that I cut the thread completely, but not under the very shoulder, but leaving a small piece of the neck without thread. This allows you to rest against the neck of the thermos not with a rigidly oblique thread, but with a smooth plane of the shoulder, at the same time slightly penetrating into it with a protrusion of the neck. You can, of course, also moisten the joint of the shoulder and the protrusion with a sealant, but absolute tightness can lead to the fact that when the contents cool completely (especially if there is a lot of air in the flask and little liquid), the flask can break from the resulting vacuum. After all, a rigid structure, unlike a soft cork, cannot be drawn inward.
2. Insulated the top of the structure with sealant. Since it practically does not come into contact with the contents, I allowed myself to use the most ordinary white Moment sealant, and not food, which is expensive and hard to find. The contents in the end should not cool as quickly as without sealing.
3. I made the sealant convex, accurately calculating the height of the structure (in my case, it is without sealant - 35 mm + 1 cm sealant protrusion). The convexity of the sealant gently and resiliently abuts from the inside against the center of the lid-cup when screwing (soft metal allows 2-3 mm of play) and ensures tightness when the thermos is turned over.

PS: We check the assembly accuracy according to example No. 2 (see)

PLUG #4

I was not satisfied with the QUALITY of cork #3, and I made changes.

1. Reduced the number of cork pieces from 5 to 3 using ONLY champagne corks. This made it possible to drive parts with more force into the neck and the protruding cork parts began to enter the neck more tightly, ensuring greater heat preservation. Yes, and it looks better. Although a slight ovality of the plastic arose when the pieces were squeezed in, this did not interfere with the tight contact of the structure with the flask. If No. 3 backlash in the neck, then No. 4, starting from the cork part, tightly, but without effort, touches the flask.

2. I poured the sealant into the structure not only from above, but carefully between the pieces to the very shoulder, so that the liquid from the thermos did not penetrate between the parts of the cork, dangling in it with the threat of souring. At the same time, No. 4 became 2 times heavier than No. 3!
3. Tightened the structure with the convex part of the sealant with cling film for a better presentation of the structure

After a day, the film can be removed and the sealant dried without it. The impression is that the film was not filmed. But it's not there!!! Beauty!!?

PS: The sealant is very smelly (it smells like vinegar essence), so it is better to dry it in the stairwell for at least the first three days.

PLUG No. 5, etc. - dead-end options

1. I spent a lot of time to carve and glue together with nail polish just such an ikebana.

But because of the beauty of No. 3 and No. 4, further processing was deemed inappropriate due to excessive labor intensity.
2. You could, of course, buy real cork and food sealant and build almost a copy of the original. But it's expensive and takes a lot of time.
3. In the Chinese Internet, too lazy to look. If you suddenly, in gratitude for my work, send the found link to the purchase on I-bey of exactly the right cork for a thermos, I will be grateful and put it in this epoch-making post, but I doubt whether I will bother with the order when I already have even 2 spare options : for one thermos No. 1 and for another No. 3.
4. Once upon a time I came across on the Internet a variant of cork expansion by drilling it in the center and driving it into a slightly larger diameter cylinder hole. Before clogging the cork must be steamed out !!! If someone tries and succeeds, the wind is in the sail.