Custom gasket

[Scotty595]

Anyone know where I can get a custom gasket made up? I have the LHS engine cover which the gasket will be for off the bike and a picture of the gasket, is that enough to get one made up?

Somewhere around auckland cheers.

[p.dath]

I've just embarked on that process myself.

Go to Repco and buy some gasket paper. Lay the cover down and draw around it. Mark the holes out. Use a hole punch to knock the holes out, and a sharp knife.

Some people suggest putting a ring of oil around the cover before putting it on the paper. The trick with this is when you take the cover back off the gasket paper it leaves a mark that is easy to cut around.

Paper is cheap. Doesn't matter if you cock one up.

[p.dath]

... double post ... deleted.

[Pixie]

You can use stamp pad ink on the cover's gasket surface and poke a screw into the holes to mark them

[robinm]

The other way, the old fashioned way that mechanics have been doing for a hundred years, is to lay the gasket paper on the sidecover and tap around the outer edge of the side cover with a ball pein hammer ( tap the gasket paper, not the side cover). The gasket paper then cuts itself to exactly the same profile as the side cover. You use the ball end of the ball pein hammer to tap out the holes. Takes a bit of practice but is the best way to cut a gasket perfectly.

[CookMySock]

Yep, making your own FTW.. its easy, just hold the part down firmly and knife around it. Often, inside the gasket is not so critical.

Steve

[Katman]

Often, inside the gasket is not so critical.



And often whats inside the gasket is very important.

Some covers incorporate oil gallery chambers.

[Dutchee]

There's a place around Waimauku that does them. Can't remember the name, but if I remember tomorrow when I head up that way, will look at the sign (on the lhs just before the Waimauku shops). Gather it's some distance from you, but you said around Auckland ;)

[pete376403]

When using hole punches (to make holes, obviously) put the paper on the end grain of a block of wood and tap the punch with a hammer. Will make a much cleaner hole than if punching onto the side grain of the wood, esp. if the wood is soft ie pine. Also worth marking, and then punching the holes first. Then put the screws or bolts though the gasket and into the case. Then when you cut round using the previously described ball pein hammer method, the gasket stays correctly located.

Pizza box cardboard makes acceptable base gaskets for two stroke cylinders, if it's late Saturday night and you're going riding Sunday morning...

[F5 Dave]

. . .
Pizza box cardboard makes acceptable base gaskets for two stroke cylinders, if it's late Saturday night and you're going riding Sunday morning...

Ahh Ed's finest work. Used to love reading the 'Duct Tapes'

[sleemanj]

Coke can boxes make fine gaskets. Several months in service so far.

[pete376403]

Ahh Ed's finest work. Used to love reading the 'Duct Tapes'
"Bikers of a cetain age..."
Mike Shuter had a column in Cycle called "The Downhill Straight" but it wasn't quite in the same league as the Duct Tapes

[taff1954]

The other way, the old fashioned way that mechanics have been doing for a hundred years, is to lay the gasket paper on the sidecover and tap around the outer edge of the side cover with a ball pein hammer ( tap the gasket paper, not the side cover). The gasket paper then cuts itself to exactly the same profile as the side cover. You use the ball end of the ball pein hammer to tap out the holes. Takes a bit of practice but is the best way to cut a gasket perfectly.

The way I was taught (in the good-old / bad-old days when tradesmen still wore a collar and tie under their coveralls) - Do the bolt holes first - a ball bearing's ideal for that - and drop a bolt into each hole after you've cut it to hold the material in place, then, using the ball-peen hammer, cut any galleries, then the inside edges, finishing with the outside. Just make sure you check there's no gasket material in the holes or galleries before re-assembling.

BTW, when I first went into the merchant navy, my first chief engineer - a permanently pissed Glaswegian - gave me a right bollocking for calling anything other than a cylinder head seal a gasket. "They're joints laddie" Them was the days.......

[Dadpole]

Ahh Ed's finest work. Used to love reading the 'Duct Tapes'

You must be an old bugger. I wonder if a Duct Tapes collection has ever been published. I would love to get my hands on that.

[CRF119]

You could make one but being a side cover it may be complicated with random cut outs. If you were in hamilton id say talk to the guys at Better Industrial in Frankton. They make them thats basicly all they do so they must be good at it.

[pete376403]

You must be an old bugger. I wonder if a Duct Tapes collection has ever been published. I would love to get my hands on that.
You and me too. I've googled "duct tapes ed hertfelder" and got a few hits. www.trailrider.com (paid subscription, online version available) according to one comment - "I don’t know about you guys, but it is my humble opinion that Trail Rider magazine is getting better and better with every issue. Not only does it have Ed Hertfelder’s “The Duct Tapes” as the final article of every issue, it now has Rick “Super Hunky” Sieman’s “Check Point” as well." http://www.wesbaca.com/hertfelder.html

[F5 Dave]

oh yeah I used to trawl that site several years ago & they had quite a few on there, but it seemed to dry up a few years ago, now seem to have disappeared.