perfect O ring groves no lathe

[kydavies]

so far i haveonly used this on a wooden piston but here it is
all you need is: a vice, a pipe cutter (normally used to cut metal) and a file

1 take the piston andplace it in the vice
2 grab your pipe cutter and place it around the piston
3 make a grove on your piston about 1/8 deep
4 use the 90° edge on the file to widen the droove made by the pipe cutter until the desired depth is reached

pictures and possible a video comming in about 9 days (il be in disney land until the 26)

[chinnerz]

hmm, i rly only see this working on plastic or wood pistons. Good idea, cant wait to see pictures

[kydavies]

ya it was only meant for wood and plastic pistons but it works really really good

[Big-E]

I bet it would work on aluminum rod too, it'll just take longer. Would wear down the pipe cutter after a while, though.

[Mr.Sandman]

What I thought would help would be after you used the pipe cutter, you could spin it in a drill if it was a small enough piston or you used a bolt on it and then file it like that.

[chinnerz]

thats probably how i would do it, its also how i currently cut pipes :p sept i use a saw

[i-will]

that sounds great but how will you polish the grove so it will seal against the o-ring? from what i know a layer of clear coat spray paint works on most all types of pistons. for plastic i use a small flame to smooth it out. what i really want to know is if this is even an issue for anyone besides me?

[rcman50166]

I'm assuming this is to get around the lack of a lathe?

[Gun Freak]

Well the title is "perfect O ring grooves no lathe", so yes.

[rcman50166]

lol well the whole title didn't how up unitl I clicked on it. How about interior o-rings? anyone got a way around that?

[Gun Freak]

I think there was a good tutorial on how to do interior grooves, but I don't remember.
How about you cut the pipe in half, then couple it back together leaving a small gap between the pipes, making a female groove.

[kydavies]

i got no great ideas for interior O ring grooves.



edit: how about something like a rifiling tool (nail on a broomstick) but with an ajustable stopper and a rollers on the back of the nail to keep the groove straight

[Technician1002]

I made one by cutting about 1/8th inch off the end of a pipe, sanding it flat and gluing it in a coupler. Sliding the o ring up to the ring of pipe, then sanding the end of the pipe smooth and gluing the pipe in the coupler right up against the o ring. It worked well for the piston in the Dragon cannon. That is a 3 inch piston with a 2.5 inch port and 2.75 inch valve seat seal.