Evolution of Another Thing

Time to try to fix something. Or replace a lost thing, really.
Here's the items involved:

If you resign both wizards then you see that there's a nether region problem with one of them:

The plug for the pepper is missing. OK, this looks simple. Hmm, no it's not. The plug that still exists (ok, exists and is locatable), is a bit flexible. So, the replacement will also probably have to be as well. Hmm, never printed in flexible filament, is it even possible on my printer? A bit of internet searching and it sounds like it might be possible even with my bowden tube Fisher printer. The extruder design (at least the new one on the printer I fixed recently) has the required lack of gaps along the filament path. OK, order some flexible filament. How much? OK, order a sample. It's something I've wanted to have a go at for a while, just never got round to it.

Hmm, this is going to be near food, is PLA food safe? Looks like yes it is.  Unfortunately 3D FDM printed PLA doesn't seem to be due to the small gaps between layers trapping food which then decays. Hmm, is that a problem in an application where the 'food' sits on a pot for years and years anyway? OK, it might be, lets look at getting some HDPE in rod form and machining a plug on the lathe. That will be an interesting exercise as well.

Measurements  of the plug done and I have a model in OpenSCAD.

It looks printable too, if it is printed the right way round. There's a small overhang but it should be fine.

There, it is fine:

First attempt. fail. The 'elephant foot' effect of the first layer has caused the end that is first inserted to be too big for the entrance and the part won't fit at all.
OK, print another one with a smaller diameter at the end.

Done:

Does it fit? No. Still too big, but it's close and what are knives for anyway? A bit of a trim and it's in:

Unfortunately, the reason for the flex in the plug becomes apparent as this rigid plug pushes in most of the way then stops (it's got a taper), but then has no 'hold' and easily comes out again. So flex is important.

What about in the salt pot? What? It doesn't fit at all. Turns out that the holes in the ends of these two pots are different sizes. Not a surprise I suppose, as they are pottery. i wonder if the plug has been lost because the hole is bigger in the pepper? Maybe, or when they made these pots an fitted plugs they had a selection of slightly different sized plugs? I don't know, but it does mean that measuring the salt plug to make a new pepper plug wasn't ever going to be a properly grounded tactic.

The sample flexible filament has arrived. Time to have a go at a flexible version.
I find it prints with the settings I had for PLA. No changes at all. The parts

The two on the left are the flexible prints. I added a rounded end to make it easier to fit in the pepper pot. I did two as there was some discolouring on the first. The slicing tried to do retraction which didn't work as the filament was curved in the bowden tube so there's a bit of build-up at one point round the part, but they are pretty good, even so. And they fit:

They fit nicely, in fact.

The HDPE has arrived as well, so I turn a part on the lathe. It's here in the line-up:

It has come out a bit larger than the 3D printed parts as I needed to be able to hold the part in the chuck. It's not as flexible as the printed parts either, but it does fit.

I think the best fit so far is the flexible print. Opinions vary, however.