I had some people over to the house this weekend and when I was out of the room someone decided it would be a good idea to make some drinks using one of my many 1950's era glass cocktail shakers with the metal lid! Well now the damn lid will not budge, I've tried pulling and unscrewing until I'm blue in the face and still no luck! I've had problems like this before with lots of my other shakers but this one looks like it's locked up for good! Guess I can always just wash it through the spout, put it back on the shelf and forget about it...any suggestions?

Hey John,

I'm having the same problem right now. Is it a Hazel Atlas shaker?

Someone posted sometime ago about a method that should work but I still haven't been able to get the lid off!

Help, please!

I feel for you. I was housesitting once at mrsmiley and Enid's Ugh house (I know, lucky me, I spent a lot of time in their famous home tiki bar that week). Anyway, I decided to make a couple of cocktails in one of their vintage shakers (one they use all the time). Guess what happened? I tried soaking it in hot water, soaking it in cold water, everything but I never did get it off.

Maybe you should play that track off Mel Henke's album La Dolce Henke called "The Twisters" for good luck!

I had this happen to me a couple years ago, and recalled a trick to get 2 stuck glasses apart, where you soak the bottom glass in Hot water, and then put Cold water in the top glass. So, I soaked the whole shaker in Hot water, poured it out, and tipped the lid upside down into Cold water. Sucker Popped right Off!

On 2003-12-17 18:03, stentiki wrote:
Hey John,

I'm having the same problem right now. Is it a Hazel Atlas shaker?

Exactly, a cobalt blue shaker with the white sailboats on the side...I hate the thought of not ever using it again! Thanks for the tips, I'll get on it tomorrow and let everyone know how is went!

JohnTiki~

Your answer can be found by Swanky's suggestion found on this thread. His suggestion does work, but just remember you have to have some patience. He suggests trying 409 or other lubricant to help separate the pieces, but I have used Pam Non-stick Spray with great success.

I have approximately 27 cocktail shakers and have had to "undo" about 5 of them throughout the years. Also, make sure that there are absolutely no hairline cracks at all on your glass shaker or else you could be in for a surprise "break" (and possibly a very bad cut). I use laytex gloves so that I have a really good hold of both the glass and the metal top. When I first started collecting cocktail shakers, I broke a "fairly common" one by not using laytex gloves and when the glass shaker and the metal top separated I had a good hold of the metal top but the glass shaker took a tumble in the sink. (That Pam was really slippery!)

Good luck.

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[ Edited by: SugarCaddyDaddy on 2003-12-18 03:09 ]

Try WD-40, it worked one time for me.