The Intruder™

<grifferz> I want some sort of silicone stopper thing to put on top of my pint glasses when I put them in the freezer, so it forces the water up the sides and freezes them in a goblet shape, thus increasing the surface area of the ice

<grifferz> the top could be elasticated to fit varying diameters of glass

<grifferz> basically imagine a dildo with an elasticated base

<grifferz> an ice-intruding dildo

<MurkyGoth> …yes, it’s another Friday night on #bitfolk

<Robert> grifferz: do all of your glasses have the same girth?

<grifferz> yes (I only have three)

<Robert> grifferz: do you put your glasses vertical or horizontal in the freezer?

* MurkyGoth doesn’t like the way this is heading…

<grifferz> you’re asking me how I orient a half full glass of water in the freezer?

<Robert> yes grifferz

<grifferz> get tae fuck

<Robert> presumably vertically…

<Robert> but you might do it diagonally

<MurkyGoth> Robert “The Mad Inventor” Leverington and Andy “One man, two cans” Smith

<Robert> anyway, my point is i reckon this might be something you could do on a 3d printer

<MurkyGoth> #whatcouldpossiblygowrong

<Robert> do it as an insert that you put the glass upside down on top of

<MurkyGoth> DO IT

<MurkyGoth> Go to the London Hackspace and print yourself out a dildo

<MurkyGoth> THE INTERNET DEMANDS IT

<plett> “Hi. Can I print an ice-dildo on your 3D printer?”

<Robert> this will seal the water in and should be safe to push it out if it expands too much

<grifferz> I think The Intruder™ would have to be made of a material that “gives” (steady, Dave2) otherwise you wouldn’t be able to withdraw it (matron) from the ice

<Dave2> :O

<plett> I was expecting Dave2 to join in after: 21:02 <Robert> but you might do it diagonally

<Robert> grifferz: perhaps if you didn’t mind your Intruder being triangular you could design it such that it should be easy to pull out

<Robert> *pyramidical not triangular

<grifferz> hmm yes give it a notable camber..

<grifferz> I reckon ice would still grip it fairly strong

<MurkyGoth> Use a plastic cup of ice?

<grifferz> nice one, lateral thinking

<grifferz> little plastic cup with some ice cubes in..

<grifferz> let’s see if I can find one right now!

<grifferz> #BitFolk is doing science

<MurkyGoth> With beer

<MurkyGoth> The best kind of science

* MurkyGoth goes to solve the problems in the Middle East

<plett> It sounds like grifferz might actually want http://www.paramountzone.com/ice-tankard.htm

<find> plett: http://a.vu/9dix – Ice Tankard – Only £3.99 – Fast UK Delivery

<MurkyGoth> You must be new here

<MurkyGoth> On #bitfolk, one does not simply purchase the solution (for a reasonable sum of money)

<MurkyGoth> Channel rules demand time, effort and money are spent coming up with a plan which, at best, may only incidentally solve the original problem, and not very efficiently either

<MurkyGoth> (and for some reason, I just thought “Hmm, haven’t heard from so_solid_moo for a while…”)

<plett> In that case, the 3D printed ice dildo is clearly the best possible solution to the problem at hand

<MurkyGoth> I’ll ice dildo YOUR ha…never mind…

<grifferz> plett, nah, I want the ice in the drink as well (eventually)

<grifferz> anyway

<grifferz> I didn’t have any small plastic cups

<grifferz> so I cut the top off a small empty drink bottle and filled it with chick peas to weigh it down

<grifferz> my concern is that it will still be too hard to remove

<grifferz> I’ve taken a photo, hang on

<MurkyGoth> With the chickpeas removed, the soft plastic bottle should flex and be removable

<MurkyGoth> Failing that, fill plastic bottle with warm water, to melt the ice right next to the bottle, allowing the bottle to be removed

<grifferz> MurkyGoth, yeah that’s what I figured. might still try the small cup method though as it will be much faster to.. deploy

* MurkyGoth registers onemantwocups.com

SCIENCE!

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Update 2011-11-26:

The first attempt worked fairly well. It was not possible to remove the bottle from the ice without filling it with some warm water for a few seconds. I think this was probably because the bottle had a very slight bulge at the bottom.

It would be hard to find a perfectly cylindrical or even tapering plastic bottle, so I will next try the original plastic cup suggestion.