donheff
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I was about to turn to you folks on this one, as you have historically been my DIY saviors. Then I thought, why not give AI a shot?
Yesterday I took a skillet out of the sink and set it on a gas burner to clear off the moister and preheat for dinner. Unbeknownst to me, the plastic top of a salt grinder had fallen into the sink and stuck to the bottom of the skillet. In a few minutes, flames shot out from below the skillet and billows of black plastic smoke billowed off. I removed the skillet and the flames kept pouring from the burner. The plastic cap had fallen directly onto a one-inch round metal disk that forms the simmer flame. I doused the fire with a wet towel and found a hard plastic lump sealing the top and sides of the metal disk and wrapping a bit around to the back at one spot.
It quickly became evident that I was not going to be able to budge the plastic with the tools at my disposal. I started thinking of solvents that would dissolve the plastic but not the metal, grinding it off with various steel brushes on the electric drill, etc. Then I thought about heating it in the oven. I was going to confer with you on that idea when I thought about AI. Perplexity provided a wealth of information on the types of plastic likely involved and their melting, flash, and ignition points and other relevant info. I ended up, backing my disk for 15 minutes at 350 while I checked every few minutes and stood ready to intervene. When the plastic started to get soft, I was able to pop it off the disk intact, leaving a pristine part.
Success! And thanks be, since I was getting nowhere finding such an obscure part.
Yesterday I took a skillet out of the sink and set it on a gas burner to clear off the moister and preheat for dinner. Unbeknownst to me, the plastic top of a salt grinder had fallen into the sink and stuck to the bottom of the skillet. In a few minutes, flames shot out from below the skillet and billows of black plastic smoke billowed off. I removed the skillet and the flames kept pouring from the burner. The plastic cap had fallen directly onto a one-inch round metal disk that forms the simmer flame. I doused the fire with a wet towel and found a hard plastic lump sealing the top and sides of the metal disk and wrapping a bit around to the back at one spot.
It quickly became evident that I was not going to be able to budge the plastic with the tools at my disposal. I started thinking of solvents that would dissolve the plastic but not the metal, grinding it off with various steel brushes on the electric drill, etc. Then I thought about heating it in the oven. I was going to confer with you on that idea when I thought about AI. Perplexity provided a wealth of information on the types of plastic likely involved and their melting, flash, and ignition points and other relevant info. I ended up, backing my disk for 15 minutes at 350 while I checked every few minutes and stood ready to intervene. When the plastic started to get soft, I was able to pop it off the disk intact, leaving a pristine part.
Success! And thanks be, since I was getting nowhere finding such an obscure part.
