[SEL] piston rings

Tue Apr 28 07:10:32 PDT 2009

I have made quite a few rings for my engines as well as for friends using
the heat treat method and so far have not had a failure. If you have access
to a lathe its one of the easiest parts of a restoration.
Heres how I do it. Chuck up a bit of good cast in your 3 jaw. Bore it to the
fitted ring I.D. Machine the O.D to your bore diameter. Part them off. Split
the rings. ( I use a bit of pressure with some bolt cutters and they
fracture cleanly) Make up a wedge out of a bit of keysteel or whatever is
laying around and stack the rings together with the wedge in the gap holding
them open. Wrap some fireproof cloth to keep the direct flame off them. Put
the stack of rings between two plates with a 3/8 bolt holding them together.
I make up a little firebrick furnace on the shed floor and stick in a LP
torch and keep them to a dull red for a couple of hours. Pull them out when
cool and gap them.So far the rings I have made have gone into new bores and
there is no leakage past the rings and seem to work perfectly.
Ray Freeman

-----Original Message-----
From: sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com
[mailto:sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com] On Behalf Of
curt at rustyiron.com
Sent: Tuesday, 28 April 2009 8:19 PM
To: The SEL email discussion list
Subject: Re: [SEL] piston rings

Wayne,
For several years I've had a link on my webpage for 2 scanned documents on
making piston rings using the heat treat method. I never tried this method
as I questioned it's effectiveness.

The traditional method is to cut an over sized ring of the correct
dimensions, remove a section, compress the ring to a collapsed diameter
(now oval shaped), mount the compressed ring in a turning fixture and then
turn the OD to exactly the cylinder diameter. This is the method used by
folks like Niagara Piston Ring.

I took photos as I was doing this last summer and placed it on my website.
Here is the link.
<http://www.oldengine.org/members/holland/images/MakingPistonRings/Thumbnail
s.html>

Curt Holland
Gastonia, NC

> Curt,
>
> Would it be possible for you to walk us through the procedure of making
> piston rings. This is something I have been wanting to try for sometime
> but
> can't seem to find anything on how it is done.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Wayne A Thackery
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com
> [mailto:sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com] On Behalf Of
> curt at rustyiron.com
> Sent: Monday, April 27, 2009 7:25 AM
> To: The SEL email discussion list
> Subject: Re: [SEL] piston rings
>
> Tom,
> I made new piston rings for a couple of friends last fall and fitted them
> to the pistons. I took apart a feeler gage set and used 3 or 4 of the
> feeler gages. They are made of a decent tempered steel and won't buckle as
> the ring slides over the grooves allowing you to use quite thin strips.
> Thankfully no broken rings, but I did make an extra ring for each just in
> case.
> Curt Holland
>
>
>> In a message dated 4/26/2009 9:31:44 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>> steve_royster at hotmail.com writes:
>>
>> did it  with two hands. the trick was  having enough strips to keep the
>> rings  spread.
>>
>> Steve,
>>
>>
>> Yep, same as using old hacksaw blades with set removed.  The trick is
>> getting all the strips to stay in place while getting the ring initially
>> started.  sometimes think I would like to figure how to get my toes to
>> help  with
>> the hands to hold stuff!  HA!
>>
>> Did you get my email I sent you about the Lowes stop after leaving
>> Reidsville?
>>
>> Tom  Schmutz
>> Concord, Va.
>> germoamer at AOL.com
>> **************Access 350+ FREE radio stations anytime from anywhere on
>> the
>> web. Get the Radio Toolbar!
>> (http://toolbar.aol.com/aolradio/download.html?ncid=emlcntusdown00000003)
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>
>
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