The case of the missing pyrex stopper: 3D printing to the rescue

We have these Pyrex bowls with lids with a stopper. And, the stoppers seem to migrate. Or escape. Or hang out with the dryer socks, who knows. The net effect is there are more lids than stoppers. And over time, this gets to be an expensive and wasteful proposition, buying new bowls (and their lids), and then having even more of a mismatch. There must be a better way!.

But first a digression. Somewhat over 25 years ago, I was a poor student living with some roommates in Kitchener. And, in a fit of i-don’t-know-what, I bought a bread machine. I’m not sure why, I mean, it was as a lot of money for me (probably about $300 then, or about $10B today with inflation). And it was not the most practical thing I guess.

My roommate did some math, price of flour, electricity, etc., and calculated that it would take me more than 25 years for this thing to start making sense. Well mike, the bread maker is still downstairs, and still works. So ha!

So, same story with the 3D printer. I mean clearly you can always have access to one these days, they are in libraries, schools, your neighbours houses, etc. Its like the yoghurt maker or crock-pot of our generation. But nonetheless I bought one a year or so ago. And, well, it might take a while before it becomes a net positive. But today was its big chance. Tieing the story back in, I decided to print some new stoppers.. I’ll print them in ABS for better food ignoring properties.

I chose to use OpenSCAD. Powerful, complex, hard to use. Its a slogan! And, an hour or so later, we have a stopper that works. A few cents of plastic, a few cents of electricity, and, well, how do I value my time? At any rate, we are well on the way to paying back this printer!

rotate([0,180,0])
{
 translate([0,12,-5])
 cylinder(d=12.8, h=5, $fn=100);

 difference()
 {
  cube([19.5, 42.8,4.5],center=true);

  translate([-12,0,-1.5])
  rotate([0,90,0])
  cylinder(d=2.5,h=25, $fn=100);

  translate([8,-11,2])
  mirror([0,0,0])
  rotate([0,0,90])
  scale([1.7,1.7,1])
  linear_extrude(height = 1, center = true, convexity = 10, twist = 0);
 }
}