Custom cut gaskets at home

[richard5933]

Just saw this on the Y-tube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hejUzvfGuY8

Would have come in handy over the past years working on restoring cars and working on the bus. Not sure if I'd buy the machine just for this, but if I had access to one I'd give it a try.

I've had marginal success cutting gaskets using our LASER engraver/cutter, but if the material has any rubber content at all the LASER makes a mess of it. This would have been much easier.

[ernst]

Just waiting to happen..

[eagle19952]

ball-peen hammer and 40 seconds for the ones in the video.

[chessie4905]

Ball-peen hammer has been used for years making gaskets.

[bobofthenorth]

I guess I'll have to keep using the ball peen hammer too.  I didn't make it to the 3 minute mark.  I can't stand those yappy SOBs that make YouTube videos to hear the sound of their own voice - 30 seconds of content buried in 30 minutes of video yapping just doesn't work for me.

[Dave5Cs]

Agree Bob. They all seem to think we want to here them talk about whatever it is they are espousing. Then right at the end they show you something. This one was a little better but unless you have a bunch to make would not be worth it IMHO. ball-peen hammer is a whole lot cheaper.

[Jim Blackwood]

Wouldn't mind knowing someone who was set up to do that but have no desire to do it myself. Ball peen hammer, razor knife, scissors, slow and careful.

Jim

[luvrbus]

Ball peen hammer (different sizes),small hobby razor knife , circle cutter, a 1x12 and leather hole punches gets it done for me.I don't watch Utube people are just trying to make a few bucks and I don't mind that part lol but some advice they give is comical   

[richard5933]

I get the ball peen hammer and razor knife thing. I've done that many times and it works, especially for times when the piece needing the gasket is cast iron or a heavier casting. But, when you start getting into Delrin, plastic, or some of the softer metals used nowadays a ball peen doesn't work and can destroy the part you're working with.

I've worked with a few projects recently where they used some pretty delicately cut gaskets to mate parts. Sometimes cutting them with the knife just didn't produce good results. If the gasket material was paper-based the LASER machine did a quick job of making new. If they used a rubber-based gasket or a metal-impregnated gasket my LASER is useless. In some of those cases the only option was to find the right gasket, and sometimes that wasn't easy. Or I could use liquid gasket - but I have a distaste for taking shortcuts like that.

Making the cut files is usually as simple as scanning the old gasket if I have one, or finding an image of one in a catalogue online. With smaller parts I've even just put the part itself on the scanner and let the software trace it. Once the image is in the computer it's not really difficult to make the cut file.

When I saw this video I thought that perhaps others would find some benefit or be inspired in some way about a new way of doing something. Wasn't expecting that anyone would go buy a machine just for this or that anyone would have one already, but with as many as have been sold being out there, I hoped at least someone would have access to one in the family or at a neighbors and want to give this a try.

[luvrbus]

A real neat machine but the gaskets I make most of the time are to large for the gizmo anyways lol I am not into to 2 cycle chain saws and for a $150.00 I can buy enough gaskets for a Detroit to last for me years 

[DoubleEagle]

For small quantities it might make sense for a repair shop instead of having inventory, but it seems that stamping them out with a die would still be the way for large quantities. The Cricut is similar to the 3D modelers that can fashion parts out of plastic, and then be used to make sand molds to pour metal. Things are changing. 

[Jim Blackwood]

I guess almost a decade ago I had a bright idea to make a 3D printer that would print metal using a mig gun, so I ordered one of those 3D tabletop plastic printers as the first step then went on to build, patent and prove out the machine. It was large scale with a 2ft x 3ft x 4ft build envelope and a quench tank so we could lay down the metal fast. Very cool thing. But the software was very complex and my brain doesn't work that way. I no longer have the metal printer, although I still have the little plastic printer. I don't use it and really should sell it. I do have a scanner but nothing to cut parts with. Closest would be the custom sign shop up the road, so it really isn't a practical idea for me.

Jim