Can I fix this family "heirloom" hourglass that now fails to function?

March 28, 2016 7:48 PM

The sand in an old-ish hourglass no longer drains from the top section to the bottom section and, thus, is failing to perform its physics-sanctioned time-counting duties and responsibilities. I suspect moisture in the glass. Any ideas on what I can do to remove moisture from the inside of an hourglass or how I can otherwise repair this glass of the hour?

My mom recently moved into a smaller condo after our family home was destroyed in a flood.

While helping her move, I found that she was planning to throw out an hourglass of which I have fond memories. I asked if I could have it and she showed me how it no longer works but I asked if I could have it anyway.

The sand intermittently stops draining from the top of the hourglass to the bottom. Here's an image of said ceased sand.

Now, it would be awesome if this was actually some kind of magical time-stopping device that I could use to enact goodwill (relative to my opinion of good) within this world, but, despite hours of testing (according to the hourglass, itself), that is surely not the case (trust me on this).

I was wondering if any of you Mefites might know of any way I might be able to repair this hourglass to functioning condition. I'm a romantic, sentimental chap and it would be a great thing to be able to use this hourglass with my children to play various games and time various activities like my mom used it for with my siblings and me. I should mention that I can take it out of the wooden holder/stand without breaking or otherwise ruining said holder/stand.

I suspect that it has to do with moisture in the sand caused by both time and the fact that the house it was in was literally water-logged for days upon weeks. As such, I was thinking of taking it out of the wooden holder/stand and putting the glass part in a toaster oven at very low temps for X period of time, letting it cool, and repeating. I was also considering using a microwave oven for the same procedure but I'm wary to take that route because it might cause a higher pressure differential within the glass and cause it to a 'sploded. I'm also afraid (admittedly, less so) of the microwave route because the microwaves might activate the latent magical properties of the hourglass and permanently stop time forever. Another option is to put it in a bag with rice or silica gel for a few months (or years?) and hope that the moisture that made its way in over the years, makes its way out.

I should also mention here that, even if I cannot repair the hourglass, I'd like to keep it intact as memorabilia -- as such, any recommendations for repair procedures must be non-destructive (i.e. this is not a case of: "if it's already screwed, you can't screw it any more.").

Any ideas or advice is appreciated!

posted by TimBridge to Grab Bag (10 answers total)

Response by poster: Another alternative that I just thought of but is kind of a last-ditch idea is to buy a similar hourglass from Etsy or eBay and replace the internal glass structure with the working, just-purchased version. However, that kind of defeats the purpose so I'd probably not do that.
posted by TimBridge at 7:55 PM on March 28, 2016

I'm not sure how water would have gotten in through the glass, but you could buy a big bag of silica gel and put the hourglass in a sealed container with the silica gel. The silica gel should pull all the water out.
posted by gregr at 8:04 PM on March 28, 2016 [3 favorites]

Have you tried shaking the hourglass vigorously and at length to break up the agglomerations of sand?
posted by ejs at 8:20 PM on March 28, 2016 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: @ejs, I've tried shaking vigorously for about 10 minutes -- I'll give it another shot. However, when the sand gets stuck, it's not because there are individual clumps that formed prior to the "flipping" and then get lodged in the waist of the hourglass. It's more like the sand "logjams" itself at the waist. I know this because when the sand stops, a little tap or two get its moving again.
posted by TimBridge at 9:06 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

do you or anyone you know have a dehydrator? It's a lot lower of a temperature than a toaster oven, and less likely to scorch your glass or break it if the rack it's resting on heats up faster than the glass and sand?

or... maybe leave it outside in the sun a whole bunch?
posted by euphoria066 at 9:16 PM on March 28, 2016

If you do decide to go the eBay route you won't have to spend much. We have this same egg timer at my parents' house. I suspect they must have been super common in the 70s.

Here's one in blue

And here's your pink one.
posted by MsMolly at 9:25 PM on March 28, 2016 [1 favorite]

It's more like the sand "logjams" itself at the waist. I know this because when the sand stops, a little tap or two get its moving again.

Are you sure it didn't always do this? My family had the same egg timer when I was a kid. We lived on a hilltop and never suffered a flood, but that thing jammed up regularly in just the same way.
posted by jon1270 at 3:59 AM on March 29, 2016 [6 favorites]

absolutely please do not put it in a microwave.... that risks all kinds of results from shattered glass where you want to put food to yeah, 'sploding. Not good, in other words.
posted by easily confused at 5:05 AM on March 29, 2016

If moisture got in, maybe you can get it out with some desiccant to absorb the moisture. As per the "got my phone wet" recommendations, you could put it in a sealed container of desiccant for a few days. Options for desiccant include rice, the packets from shoes, silica gel, or you can get something from a hardware store.
posted by lizbunny at 7:35 AM on March 29, 2016

Use a pressure cooker on low heat for a few hours , then remove from heat and plug the nipple and safety vent with air tight tape and let it cool, put in the freezer, the pressure differential will draw the moisture out of the sand, perhaps you may see frost on the inside of the glass above the sand line. Freeze dry your hourglass using household equipment
.
posted by hortense at 8:47 AM on March 29, 2016