SpudFiles

has anyone made a piston out of turning nylon ?

i think i'm getting some ttomorrowand id like to know anyones ideas about it preferably people that have used it.

is it a good weight or too heavy ? i'm going to make the piston about 50mm (2 inches) long and its 2 inch diameter nylon aswell.

its fairly solid stuff so i don't think there is any danger of it cracking or anything like that. and its strong enough to put screws into.

just any ideas about it would be great.

It´s a great material as it´s self lubricating and very resilient.

However it is fairly heavy, you could shorten it to 1.5 inches (assuming it´s for a barrel sealer) and maybe hollow out the base to give a cup-shape.

I don't think there is any difference between PVC and Nylon when it comes to machinability, other than like they said the weight. You can try boring holes into it strategically to lower the weight but don't bore too many.

use a well sharpened high speed steel cutter and turn around 800 - 1200 r.p.m. I've never turned nylon before but I've turned a lot of other stuff.

P.S. don't use a carbide cutter unless it is sharpened for wood.

i have turned it before but it was for a customer at work not for a piston. thanks for the replies ill give it a shot. should be getting it tonight after school. 8)

well I think theres a big difference. Nylon is a lot heavier but its also a lot thicker and denser. It is so hard just to drill a hole in nylon with a regular drill and a bit. I would just stick with pvc but whatever floats your boat.

No experience with turning nylon... but I thought I'd point out that it's <i>less</i> dense than PVC.