Gary Knox

Jerry,

Please contact James Morrison about the 928 OC having one of these (and other tools) in the Lending program. This certainly looks like a good candidate. Ed Standke is the 'keeper of the tools" for 928 OC

Gary Knox

ReDesign by FEATHER

I think I lucked out yesterday on this project, and probably on others in my future. I was taking a little bit of time at lunch time to gather some of the material I will need to make the other parts of this project, so I went to the metal supplier which is also a recycle place. While I was standing at the door of the warehouse wondering how I was going to get inside to look at the Aluminum bar stock without a hard hat since the customer ones were all missing, I decided to amble over to some large pallatized cardboard boxes to see what they might have that I could simply buy by the pound rather than by the foot.

In the bottom of one of the boxes was just what I was looking for and even in the alloy that I would prefer over 6061 which is what I would have been buying by the foot. It is 7075 T6 which is quite a bit stronger that 6061 and is probably the highest grade of aircraft alloy available. It is not weldable, but I don't do much welding with this stuff anyway.

I had to devise some kind of hook to retrieve the pieces out of the box, but I was able to pull out almost all of it in 3/4 inch and 1 inch round bar stock which had been burned into about 2 foot lengths. I scored 80 pounds of it and it was $1.50 a pound. Most of it is the 3/4 inch stock that I will need for two of the parts of the secondary tool I hope to work on for this project this weekend.

I may even be able to try to make my own version of the gas cap pawl, that John and Alan have been so generous with in the past, out of some of the 3/4 inch material. I haven't checked all three yet but Alan and John are correct that in the first of the caps that I took apart the pawl is broken. I suppect it is in the other two also. I don't think the pawl needs to be made out of steel, but that the aluminum will be more than adequate from all respects.

Next I am going to have to find the thread that I seem to recall about how to re-key the Gas Cap. I should have enough extra tumbler pieces to be able to do that for any that I might need for my own use.

jpitman2

Jerry,
With rekeying (eg my gas cap is same as ignition and doors now), once you have the lock rumbler out its easy, as long as you dont lose any of the very small springs under the brass blades! Insert the key you want to work in the tumbler, check how many of the blades are proud, remove key, swap some blades around until you find the combination of placement that produces the minimum number proud, with the smallest amout showing, and file off the proud bits, and test in the white part until it locks and unlocks easily.
I had the pawls made at work by our toolmakers. They have a programmable profiling tool - brass wire at 48V DC that works underwater, and can cut HS tool steel at around 1mm/min. They made a digital profile of the pawl, fed it into the machine, fitted a length of mild steel and started the system. It could do a stick worth about 23 pawls in one pass, which is then sliced up to the right height. Mild steel was cheap and available, and I doubt the equipment would work properly on alloy anyway, without reconfiguring.
Note also that the very early pawls/caps are slightly different - there are no teeth, just a square end on the pawl, and the white part is slightly different.
jp 83 Euro S AT 55k.

Jerry Feather

Thanks, John. That is all pretty helpful.

I have drawn up the design of the next tool for forcing the caps apart and will start tomorrow to process some material to start that fabrication.

Jerry Feather

Here are some pictures of the progress I have made on the Gas Cap Seperation Tool.

The piece in the rotary table in the mill is the basic body of the tool, not counting the three finger part posted above. It will have some levering pieces affixed to it and then will iteslf be attached to a piece of Oak that will kind of be the frame or base.

Also, the piece in the rotary table will end up being two of the parts--the basic body, and then the "dougnut hole" in the center will become the face of the ram that pushes the three finger tool into the gas cap to release the three locking lugs. Once the center is finally cut out of this part, in the next set-up, I will finish it up in the lathe.

The somewhat finished pieces shown here are part of the levering system and a foot to even out the wood base when the three finger tool is pressed into the cap from the wood side.

Complicated sounding, I know, but you will get a better idea when I have more of this done.

I also have some of the raw material rough cut to make the rest of the components. So far I have most of enough to make 10 of these tools, except I only had enough material for 9 of the basic bodies, and have only made 7 of the three finger tools. I guess I can make two or three more three finger tools if I end up with 9 or 10 of the rest of it.

Alan

Jerry - my installed pawl and I believe John's were both from handmade blanks (by John) in aluminum - before the steel ones were cut. It is quite a soft grade - but still quite adequate to the job - so I am sure you are correct.

I think it is a marginally better material than the mild steel - mainly because its easier to work for the finishing... But in the protected environment of the cap (and if well greased) I think both are quite serviceable for the long term once finished.

Alan

Jerry Feather

I bought a small handful of 1/16 inch mill cutters that are ball end with which I think I can mill the pawl teeth in the aluminum. I wont get to that until I finish up with the seperator tools though. When I do I'll set it up so that I can first mill some of the round 7075 stock to flat on two sides and then set it up so I can mill the teeth in about 4 inch pieces of it with about four passes with the tiny mill cutters. At that point I will be where John is or was with his cut with a much higher tech process than I have available.

Then I can cut the small pieces off of the milled and toothed stock and fashon the final pawl with a few passes in the mill. At least that is what I think so far. Actually the biggest part of the job will probably turn out to be cutting the little pieces off of the milled stock since I think I will have to do that with a small narrow kerf back saw in order not to waste any material. I'll cut each piece off then mill the remaining raw end true and cut another one. That way I'll have a true end as the base for the final milling.

I am thinking of setting it up so the pawl can be sent with the tool when the cap needs to come apart for repair or rekeying. I am even thinking of trying to set up a little kit so that some extra key tumblers can be sent with the tools so that when rekeying the user will have some extras to choose from. Then he will return the kit with all of his extra tumblers added, kind of like on an exchange basis.

I will need to accumulate some of the broken gas caps to take apart for the extra pieces, if anyone has any laying around. I have one I bought on eBay some time ago that had the red part cracked, but I can't remember what I did with it. Maybe it will turn up soon.

Jerry Feather

I think what I am apparently going to end up with in this venture is 9 working versions of this Gas Cap Separating tool/device. I have 7 of the three finger tools made and can make more of them without too much trouble in doing a particular set-up. I have 10 of the levering components and raw material; but I have only 9 of the basic bodies of the tool since that is the limit of the material that I had on hand.

Rather than buy some of the 3/4 inch material in bar stock that I was planning on I discovered that I had some 3/4 inch plate and bar that I could work with, but it resulted in only 9 devises. That is probably what I will end up with in finished devises if I don't destroy any of them in the next processes. I have made a couple of boo-boos so far but nothing that will affect the functioning. Those will be hereafter referred to as "artistic nuances." One can be seen in this devise where there is a nice divot right in the side of the outer circumfrence of the aluminum. I am thinking that I might have that engraved with the label "INDEX" in order to camoflage it, and I am sure that will stimulate some interesting questions about how to use this one of these contraptions.,

Here are some pictures of what I have so far. The first shows the aluminum body affixed to the wood base, both in near finished form. The aluminum piece still needs the two tangs on the end to be drilled, tapped and then rounded. That is where the levering part will be affixed. The wood piece still needs the back two corners to be rounded and then nearly all the edges to be slightly rounded, after which I may even stain and finish it. It will also have the little foot that I have already made and showed previously screwed to it toward the back end in order to allow it to have a firmer even base for pressing against.

The other pictures show how the gas cap will first be placed in the opening in the wood side of this assembly for pressing the three finger tool in to release the three locking lugs. The pressed-together assembly will be removed and the devise reversed so the wood is on the bottom and then the pressed-together assembly will be placed into the round opening and the other end of the pressing lever ram will be used to push on the lock to seperate the red part from the rest.

The round chunk of aluminum in some of the pictures is the "waste" that I milled out of the center of the large round hole in the devise body. Rather than milling it out entirely in chips, I preserved it to use as the nose of one end of the ram that will be pushing on the three finger tool to release the locking lugs. I will be finishing it up in the lathe when I get them all made and out of the mill.

So far I have only two of the nine of these finished to this point, but all of the other seven of the aluminum bodies are ready to be milled together with the wood.

Ducman82

she is looking good. as a welder i always admire the machinists.... just not cleaning up the chips... lol

Jerry Feather

That strikes a fond note with me, Ducman. I try to clean up the chips and curls around my mill and lathe about once, but not more than twice a year. My wife comes out to the shop to check on me fairly often and usually complains about the "mess" and she even offers to help with the clean-up. I always decline with the explanation that since it is a concrete floor and the chips and stuff offer some cushioning, I prefer to leave it all there, and even move it around occasionally for maximun benefit to my back.

Clean-up is not creative and I don't like to do it. I only do some of it when it gets in the way of creativity.

Jerry Feather

This is the approximate configuration of the parts that I have mostly finished to date. I completed four more of the aluminum/wood components today and will try to do a couple more this evening.

I had previouslsy made the connecting rod and the foot for the base both of which are shown in these pictures.

What I have left to do is the lever arm, the ram rod that will have the waste hole piece shown here finished and affixed to one end, with the other end machined to match the chrome key opening for pushing, and the lever handle which will consist of three pieces of 3/4 inch round bar stock. I have the raw material cut to length for those pieces, but will wait until the mill is opened up from this rotary table excercise to work on those pieces.

I was thinking that I was only about 40 percent along, but on reflection, I think it is more like 60 percent. Most of the remaining steps will go pretty quickly, I think.

Jerry Feather

I have the devise(s) nearly complete having made all of the pieces and am now finishing them in preperation to try to have then anodized, if it is not going to cost too much. I am also waiting on some hardware necessary to fully assemble them, so the pictures here don't have this one quite fully assembled.

Nevertheless, here is how I think it sould work. First put the three finger tool into the cap and then put it in the devise and press it down to close the gap between the tool and the whiteish part. Then, while it is held together in the compressed configuration, reverse the devise and press on the lock to seperate the cap by pushing the lock, the whiteish part and the three finger tool out of the red part and into the large round recess in the devise.

So far, there is one little problem and that is that once the three finger tool is pressed into the cap to the bottom, it does not want to stay there while I am reversing the devise to push on the lock. I have tried taping it together after the first push, but the tape does not want to stick very well on the red part and it also stretches a little. I might try some straping tape next. I have pushed a couple of caps apart with about a sixteenth inch gap, but that takes more force that I think it should.

However, I am going to work on the design of the three finger tool a little to see if I can get it to stay in place once pressed in without wanting to slip out of position, and without having to use any tape.

Jerry Feather

I didn't make as much progress this weekend on this project as I had hoped, but that seems to be the norm these days. I did find out a few days ago what it will cost to have most of the aluminum pieces anodized, and I think it will be affordable. Since the 3/4 inch round bar pieces are a different alloy the procedure is different, so I think I will leave those 4 pieces bare aluminum. The contrast will lend itself to the "style" of the devise.

I cut the remaining chunk of 3 1/4 inch round bar into four pieces to make the new version of the three finger tool, and then promptly screwed the first one up by boring it too big before I started measuring it. The second one turned out pretty well so far, and I have turned the end of what will be the fingers so that they will pass slightly over the ridge on the white part and then have a slight flat area on the outer part of the ends of the fingers where the sharp edges of the locking lugs can rest after being forced outward in the releasing process. That makes the ends of the fingers very thin and that concerns me about the longevity of the tool in use around the world, but I think I will fashion some kind of protection for the tips in shipping at least.

I see that I have another piece of the same round bar that I was saving for another project, but I will use it for the additional 6 of the three finger tools and get another chunk for whatever the other project was going to be.

I will trim the tool into the three finger configuration this evening and then see if it will work as I now hope.

I'll do some pictures of what that amounts too later if it works.

John had sent me some information about the pawl which I have not started on yet. He points out that the early caps are a little different from the later ones in that the pawl is squarish and blunt on the end rather than having gear-like teeth. I actually have obtained such a cap and have got it apart to see just what he is talking about. I don't think I will be trying to replicate those pawls. Too, I find that although the red outer part of those early caps is virtually identical to the later ones, the whitish inner piece is different. It is slightly smaller in diameter and the center "post" is not quite as long as with the later caps. I don't know if that is going to cause an issue with this tool or not. I guess we will see.

Jerry Feather

During the week I was able to turn out the 9 new design versions of the cup that will become the three-finger tools for these devises. I haven't yet milled any of them into the three-finger finish version yet, but will later today do one of them to see if the new design will work the way it needs to work. I'll do one of them to try and if it needs some change I have left enough material in them to turn them into any different configuration that I might have to come up with. I have no idea what that might be, but we will see.

Then, I finally obtained the longer bolts to hold the handle together, so I can finally assemble these devises. I'll be doing that after I sand all of the components and then have most of them anodized.

In the meantime, I'll be applying some spar varnish to the wood parts so they will stay relatively neat over time since the bare wood has a tendency to take on the grease and grime from one's hands.

When I get one of the new three-finger tools finished and tested I'll post some more pictures of the completed but bare results of this devise.

Rob Edwards

I wonder whether Nicole knows anyone in the factory tool department in Zuffenhausen that you could petition to have a factory tool part number assigned to this. Nice work, Jerry!