rebuilding hydraulic cylinder - no chamfer lead-in to

The reassembly instructions for the hydraulic cylinder for my FEL have step (b)



I'm surprised they don't manufacture these with a lead-in chamfer already machined. My lathe can't handle these pieces, but even if it could, I wouldn't want to clamp down on the seal surface. So then I'm left with a sanding disk on a side grinder or something similar...

The top picture is the bucket rod, bottom is the lift rod. Bucket rod has just the sharp edge, but the lift rod has at least a radius. I wish it were more, because once I get the seal stack installed in the cap and compressed enough for the circlip to be installed, the seal ID will be pushed in enough that I can see the reassembly will be a bear.






I'll go out at experiment with a side grinder and some steel wool on something similar, but in the mean time, I thought I'd ask for some recommendations on how would you add the chamfer.


p.s. The bucket rod picture shows what looks like a bad surface, but it is just a reflection of something above. They're also resting on plastic shelving, even though it looks like rusty metal shelving.

This post was edited by timsch on 02/09/2023 at 02:00 pm.

Knock the sharp edge off with belt sander
held at 45 degrees while you rotate the
rod, slather the rod and seal up with
assembly lube and put it together, you
don't need to get that drastic and big-
time chamfer it, IMHO you are making it
more difficult than it needs to be.
(Sounds like what I usually do!)

(quoted from post at 15:48:49 02/09/23) Knock the sharp edge off with belt sander
held at 45 degrees while you rotate the
rod, slather the rod and seal up with
assembly lube and put it together, you
don't need to get that drastic and big-
time chamfer it, IMHO you are making it
more difficult than it needs to be.
(Sounds like what I usually do!)

Click to expand...

What I usually do too. That's why I come to you fine folks more often than not. The belt sander is a good idea. It'll give me more uniformity than I'd get with the side grinder with a sanding disk. Wish I had some finer grit belts now.... I guess I can clean it up with some elbow grease and a sanding block with finer grit.

Lead in angles are usually 15-30 degrees, so I'll be shooting for less than 45 deg.

If you can, clamp your belt sander in the vise, lock the trigger, and rotate the shaft up against the belt. BTDT before a friend gave me a bench-mounted belt sander. You could do the same thing with your angle grinder too, but it is not as controllable. steve

Worked great. much appreciated.

Thanks also to steve for the vise suggestion