The Home Machinist!

I'm repairing a floor jack. Need to make a new metal washer like item that serves as both a high pressure seal and check-valve ball restraint. Original item appears to be metric, 22 mm diam (.874 diam) and 1 mm thick (.040"). The hole in the middle is not round. It appears that high pressure bent the original concave slightly so the sealing surface no longer seals.

Looking for some heavier copper or bronze stock, say .060 to .080, or something I could cut a chunk out of. Ideas anyone?

TIA

1) Check out the auto parts store - copper seals used on the banjo fittings on hydraulic brakes.
2) Box store for a copper pipe coupling - slit and flatten, cut out , smooth and anneal.

Go to a hobby shop and buy a sheet of stock. I think they are 6" X 8". Try the auto parts store first for one.

Richard W.

Try a coin shop. Old brittish pennies would be just what you are looking for and for about a quarter. You can get foreign copper coins, aluminum bronze, nickle bronze, silver or bronze coins in that size for next to nothing. You will most likely need to turn a collet to hold a piece like that for turning. Like an emergency 5C or soft jaws for your chuck.

How about:

Your local city/county scrap metal yard, all city's/county's have
at least one. Pay scrap prices per pound.

Your local city/county "Home Depot" 'Lowe's" "Ace Hardware" "etc." in
there plumbing, lamp repair parts, general hardware/fastener sections.

Your local city/county "Goodwill Store's" "Salvation Army Store's" and
talk to the receiver/sorter person and see if they have thrown out any
that you could have for a small donation. You can rumage around the
store as well.

Ken.

_________________
One must remember.
The best learning experiences come from
working with the older Masters.
Ken.

Hi There,

Have you tried McMaster-Carr?

Check out part number: 97725A450

Good Luck!
-Blue Chips-
Webb

Also in the auto stores they have replacement copper gaskets for oil drain plugs. Problem is they are usually pre packaged and you can't easily measure them. They may have the hole diameter on the box though. Or try a old fashioned auto parts store.

a local hardware store may have the boxes of assorted parts in little bin drawers. lots of odd parts that may fit your needs. beyond that hard to say as we dont know where you are.

Hobby shops often have small displays of tubing, sheet, channel, stuff like that, in small pieces (typically 1" x 12" and sometimes bigger, in various thicknesses. Brand, IIRC, is "KB".

Another possibility -- IF they're really copper -- might be a copper bath-tile.

Also -- how about copper flashing ? Check with a roofing contractor; you may be able to mooch enough to do the job. Might not be the exact thickness, but if it's more, that's easy to fix.

I don't recall seeing copper shim stock - what I've got is brass or steel -- but that's another possibility.

Last-ditch resort would be to flatten out a piece of copper tubing, but "flat" would be the operative difficulty.

_________________
Pete in NJ

Norm,

Another thought I had was, if you have a regular plating shop in
your area ask if you could speak to the maintenance manager
and see if you could purchase a drop off chunk of copper anode
or small cut off of copper buss bar for the going scrap price and
(maybe a 6 pack of beer)

Ken.

_________________
One must remember.
The best learning experiences come from
working with the older Masters.
Ken.

Copper is right maleable and the valve aperature is incuse. Measuring a penny, the thickness is 1.5mm and the dia 19mm. Pounded correctly, it might work. "penny for my thought"

Hi There,



If you do this, Use a penny made before 1983.

Good Luck!
-Blue Chips-
Webb