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cereal box for a gasket

R

Rkh

Member
Anybody use a cereal box as gasket material? I like using the red rubber material, but hard to find.
 
Used quite a few of them over the years. Had to show one of the young mechanics at work how to cut one out with the round end of a ball pein hammer the other day. He had never seen it done before. 10 cent gasket for a 100K gearbox.
 
rkh,

Dang, you drew up some history with that question. And, yes, I have.

For note, when doing that, leave a litle bit of un-trimmed gasket external to the mating surfaces, it'll help you hold the gasket while getting things placed and torqued.

Thanks,

D.
 
I have made them out of cereal boxes and brown paper bags. I have soaked them in spar varnish and let them dry. Never had a failure yet!
 
(quoted from post at 04:33:21 01/30/14)
I also use a lot of them. Wipe a little grease on each side and torque them down.
Click to expand...

I have been a mechanic for 40 years and have never figured out why folks put grease on a gasket... If I have to make a gasket I use gasket paper its never failed me yet... I have had instants were I did not have thin enough paper so used a vanilla folder are a hanging folder... I would have to be in a jam to use cereal box paper...
 
Blew a water pump gasket on my 64 Super Sport Impala one Sunday in Galena Illinois about 40 years ago, hammered gaskets out of a shoe box in the trunk, never leaked as long as I had it.
 
manila file folders also work. Lately have just kept rolls of cork and fiber gasket material in stock. I bought a $9.99 hole punch set at Harbor Freight. With carbs, I just paint one half with red tacky sealant, then press it down on the cork, it leaves a perfect impression so I can cut it out. X-acto #11 blades, HF hole punch set, extra fine tip sharpie, pencil, compass, straight edge, and a pair of good scissors in the same toolbox drawer as the tacky sealant and rolls of gasket paper. I still have a few manila file folders in there too, just in case. Also some Indian Head...
 
I made gaskets out of gasket material, for machines at work, doing maintenance. Used a ball bearing with a small hammer to make the cuts for bolt holes and the sides of item in question that needed the gasket. I just never thought of using cardboard. Only one question......this does not see much heat I guess?
 
Wile e,

Leave a few exterior tabs, it'll help with placement.
You can always cut the tabs off after making up the joint.

D.
 
Yep, was at the drag strip and blew a thermostat gasket dug around in the trash cans until I found a box from something. It worked for many years as I never did go back and buy a gasket.
 
Yip, we even use them in Northern Ireland.....I use grease on them as it helps to swell the paper, it also usually allows you to use the gasket again in a pinch. The old mechanic who taught me some stuff always used grease.He also taught me how to hammer out gaskets, including the holes, with his little ball pein hammer. Forget the bag the porridge comes in, too slippery and much too thin to be any use!!.........Sam
 
We had a chevelle with part of a cover of a national geographic hanging out the side of the transmission for many years.
 
Many times, dip your finger in some good used black Diesel crankcase oil and smear it around the opening that you are making a gasket for, press the inside of the cereal box on the opening and cut around the oil stains. Smear some grease on both sides of the opening and install gasket and you are good to go.

I don't know if it would work on today's tractors with all the pressurized transmission and diffs.

Have used it on auto/truck diff cases, tractor transmission covers, NH forage harvester transmission, baler gear boxes.

JimB
 
Yes and If I look around I can probably find my cutters for the bolt holes cut the big hole with a hammer as spoken got a couple different brass around .. Old 30-30 and a 270 I used for the bolt holes
 
I have used oil filter boxes to make gaskets, a cereal box would work good for something bigger.Thanks for the idea.
 
Hobo, if you have ever installed a nagneto on an airpllane engine, you would have learned why the grease. Timing mags every couple years is a lot easier if the gasket is greasd on one side. Bare gasket will seal on both sides and be impooeeible to rotate the mag without distroying the gasket. Same applies to tractor magnetos.

Gene
 
Hobo, my grandad was a notorious gasket greaser. He said ya
dint have to scrape em off if ya grease em good when ya put
em on!!!!
 
Hobo, if you have ever installed a nagneto on an airplane engine, you would have learned why the grease. Timing mags every couple years is a lot easier if the gasket is greasd on one side. Bare gasket will seal on both sides and be impossible to rotate the mag without distroying the gasket. Same applies to tractor magnetos.

Gene
 
(quoted from post at 21:40:35 01/29/14) Hobo, if you have ever installed a nagneto on an airplane engine, you would have learned why the grease. Timing mags every couple years is a lot easier if the gasket is greasd on one side. Bare gasket will seal on both sides and be impossible to rotate the mag without distroying the gasket. Same applies to tractor magnetos.

Gene
Click to expand...

Gene,

Are you an A&P? Quick question... Do you know why modern aircraft piston engines still use carbs and not fuel injection? Or did they start going that way?
 
Along with making the gasket easier to remove, applying grease to a gasket softens it so it will better conform to the surfaces to help seal them. It also helps keep the gaskets from drying out and them starting to seep. That is more of a problem with paper and cork gaskets rather than those made of materials designed to be used as gaskets.
 
I use manila file for shims on gear box covers to get the desired spacing. You can chose between letter size and legal size.
 
I can only say yes to to many times over the years. Years ago stores where not open on Sundays but you still needed thing and when you had to get by you used what you had and a gasket made fro ma box was very common place
 

I can see that but to think it would help it seal NO :!:
I think the old timers used it to hold the gasket in place so Me being the low man on the totem pole I got to fix there mistake :twisted:... It gripes my arse to see folks grease up a gasket to this day...

The worst are folks that grease up a cork gasket, grease and cork do not play well together.... Now we see anti seize recommended :roll:
 
Never a cereal box yet but did use poster board for the center trans. gasket in my 4520 Deere because my dealer ordered the wrong one twice.How hard is it to check power shift or syncro trans? It was after hours and I would have had to wait two days so we went to town and picked up a big piece of poster board at Walmart.We were chopping corn the next day.
 
If you ever get in a bind and have to reuse a gasket, spray both sides with aluminum paint. This will even work with head gaskets if they are not torn.
 
In the early 70's I had just started a job at a dealership. I was working lawn and garden. Most lawn tractors were gear drive, but there were a few hydro's. I found a leak on one, at a seam between housings. I can't recall if we didn't have a parts breakdown for the hydro unit, or if the boss just wanted it fixed NOW. He told me to make a gasket if I had to. I was guessing that thickness was critical. So off he went with the old gasket and micrometer in hand. He came back with something that looked just like a piece of cereal box!
To my knowledge,(and I would have been the first to hear about it) it never came back!
 
I used the cuff to my work glove to make a carb gasket on my '50 model 8n once when I was having start trouble and I was in the woods away from my stuff. It lasted until I cleaned/rebuilt carb years later.
 
I've used the side of a 12 pack beer carton before. The cardbord is nice and stiff, and the colored side doesn't seem to be a problem.
 
I don't think I'd use grease on all gaskets, but the old 50's and 60's MOTOR manuals instructed one to grease the gaskets when assembling the 3 and 4 speed transmissions.
 
In the era of the internet, there's very little that's "hard to find".

Case in point (short version) I found something I needed on fleabay from a seller in China not even 10 days ago and I already have it.

Yes, if you (like me) are frugal (cheap) and don't want to spend a few bucks, stuff can be hard to find locally, but the internet has put an end to "I can't find it"!
 
"It gripes my arse to see folks grease up a gasket to this day..."

Old friend, they must have been reading John Deere service manuals. Slathering gaskets with grease is "company policy" there.
 
I was a little afraid at first of giving my paypal info to someone in another country. I have bought things from Thailand, and China so far without any problems. Like you say it's out there. Stan
 
Just used one last month on snowblower, carb to intake. Too bad carb needs a real cleaning as it still isn't running right. Hammered it out with a small ballpeen hammer.
Makes me proud of growing up in a lower income family to know how to do these things after many many years of not needing to use this type of knowledge. Most kids these days need to pay someone else to fix things.
 
I've been known to hammer out gaskets, out of some suitable paper product. Once took apart a motor, it had good oil pressure, but needed rings, found 5-20 sheets of newspaper behind the rod bearings!
 
(quoted from post at 09:49:46 01/30/14) I don't think I'd use grease on all gaskets, but the old 50's and 60's MOTOR manuals instructed one to grease the gaskets when assembling the 3 and 4 speed transmissions.
Click to expand...

The first shop I worked in did a ton of fleet repair and transmission work is were I seen them grease up the gaskets... Gaskets must have got'n much better cuzz I have never greased one and never had a issue...
 

My Grandfather taught me how to make gaskets many years ago. He insisted that I use Post Toasties boxes. I don"t know why but I have never had one fail.
 
don't eat cereal, but a beer package once in awhile
for a big, no pressure gasket like a pto delete plate, etc
Everything else, I have rolls of gasket material for.
(hate running to town for a 50 cent gasket)

as far as grease, if I'm doing it for someone...never
I don't want leaks and I'll probably never be the one to have to scrape it off.
For my own stuff, especially if I'm in and out of there to
'make do'....stick-em on the side I want the gasket to stay,
grease on the other...just a little...stamped oil pans, valve covers, etc.
coolant stuff gets a good gasket with a whisper of sealer on both sides
 
I use "Copper Coat" on most gaskets, and have
had no problems.
On another subject: I was looking for Wisconsin
Engine parts, on Flea-Bay, and was surprised to
find seller's listing used Head gaskets. Who buys
used head gaskets? Why buy used head gaskets when
you can get them new at NAPA !
 
On a paper/cardboard gasket, the grease seals it so that the liquid it's holding back doesn't soak through and start leaking out.

You don't want to use a cereal box gasket on something under pressure, obviously, but a splash-lubed gearbox is a perfect application.
 
In over fifty years as a T&D Maker and Mechanic, I have made literally hundreds of gaskets. I can not remember ever making a gasket out of anything but gasket material, but may have fabricated a few when I was 12 or 13 years old--and didn't know better LOL!
I have a large assortment of gasket material from .010--1/8" and have fabricated many different size hole punches from 2" down to 1/64" and have made up many small engine carburetor gaskets.
I just finished refurbishing a Gravely G16 Lawn Tractor and I made every gasket except the head and exhaust gaskets.
I have--in a pinch or non-available-- made head gaskets out of copper!!
I can see how "cardboard" would make a gasket, and I am sure some have lasted for many years--just not the way I work.
With some small gaskets I would coat the metal surface with a light film of oil and carefully place the gasket material to the surface and press. This would leave a nearly perfect pattern and I could cut gasket without guessing.
As for sealing with gasket material, I don't, unless the surface can't be dressed or made perfectly flat.
 
(quoted from post at 15:40:03 01/30/14) I use "Copper Coat" on most gaskets, and have
had no problems.
On another subject: I was looking for Wisconsin
Engine parts, on Flea-Bay, and was surprised to
find seller's listing used Head gaskets. Who buys
used head gaskets? Why buy used head gaskets when
you can get them new at NAPA !
Click to expand...
The ONLY head gasket that I have ever reused was made from solid copper. It can be heated to a dull red, which will make it expand, and then be used--but only one or two times.
But I am sure this is not what you are referring to as being for sale.
 
(quoted from post at 19:24:00 01/30/14) In over fifty years as a T&D Maker and Mechanic, I have made literally hundreds of gaskets. I can not remember ever making a gasket out of anything but gasket material, but may have fabricated a few when I was 12 or 13 years old--and didn't know better LOL!
I have a large assortment of gasket material from .010--1/8" and have fabricated many different size hole punches from 2" down to 1/64" and have made up many small engine carburetor gaskets.
I just finished refurbishing a Gravely G16 Lawn Tractor and I made every gasket except the head and exhaust gaskets.
I have--in a pinch or non-available-- made head gaskets out of copper!!
I can see how "cardboard" would make a gasket, and I am sure some have lasted for many years--just not the way I work.
With some small gaskets I would coat the metal surface with a light film of oil and carefully place the gasket material to the surface and press. This would leave a nearly perfect pattern and I could cut gasket without guessing.
As for sealing with gasket material, I don't, unless the surface can't be dressed or made perfectly flat.
Click to expand...

"I would coat the metal surface with a light film of oil and carefully place the gasket material to the surface and press. This would leave a nearly perfect pattern and I could cut gasket without guessing."

Great tip :!:

I use a scanner to copy carb gaskets and store them in a folder just in case I can not get my hands on one...
 
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