Caryc

Well-known Member
Every once in a while I get these emails from "Vintage Tractor Engineer". They are "How to's" on doing different things on a tractor.

The one I just got was on making gaskets. One of their hints was, if the part is small enough, to put it on a scanner bed and scan it. Then cut it out and place it on the gasket material and trace it.

The other one was to use a ball peen hammer on the larger gaskets. I was a machinist mate in the Navy and made a lot of gaskets that way. We had a lot of big flanges on large pipe and pumps that needed gaskets. There were no ready made gaskets so we always had to make our own. We just placed the very thick gasket material over a flange and used the ball peen hammer to pound into three holes around the gasket. Then we'd put three bolts in to hold the material in place and go around with the flat face of the hammer to cut the outside and inside edges of the gasket. It worked very well. Most of these flanges were at least an inch and a half to two inches wide so it didn't matter if the hammer rounded off the edges of the flange a little. I spent a lot of time doing that.
 
I know exactly what your talking about when you say you cut those gaskets with a ball peen hammer. I was a pipefitter/pipewelder for 40 years. Back in the early days, fullface flange gaskets were made on the jobsite from six foot wide material using all manner of circle cutters and punches.Today they can be bought across the counter.
 
I thought everyone made gaskets with a ball peen,it's the way we were taught by our parents and grandparents on the farm back in the 60's,still use it today.
 
Ah yes
You poor MMs had to go down into the bilges
of engine rooms and fire rooms and take
those big ol pumps and valves out of the
system and take them apart.
Then you brought them to us in the machine
shop and we MRs would machine new parts for
you.
We had it a little cleaner:)
 
(quoted from post at 15:20:24 01/27/17) Ah yes
You poor MMs had to go down into the bilges
of engine rooms and fire rooms and take
those big ol pumps and valves out of the
system and take them apart.
Then you brought them to us in the machine
shop and we MRs would machine new parts for
you.
We had it a little cleaner:)

Depending on the age and type of boat
us MR's had it a lot cleaner !!
MRFN Brewer USS Ajax AR-6 79-81
 
I agree, Mike.

My father taught me how to make gaskets with a ball peen hammer when I was around 11.

Dean
 

I've made some tricky gaskets by covering the sealing face of the part with clear packing tape, overlapping the edges of tape passes to form a continuous sheet. Trace the edges and ports with a black sharpie, peel the whole tape sheet off, stick it to the gasket material and cut on the lines you made. This method works great for bigger gaskets with complicated cuts and where a ball peen hammer might do damage.
 

I have done it with a ball peen hammer but it has been a long time. I keep a paper punch in my tool chest for making holes in thin gasket material
 
(quoted from post at 14:34:34 01/28/17) I was on the Hector AR-7 my last 18 months
or so 74, 75
The USS Jason AR-5 relieved us at Diego Garcia in our 1980 Westpac cruise, 74 was my freshman year in high school.
Thank you sir for your service.......... 8)
 

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