Jerry Feather

I posted some of this in Alan's thread about the Gas Cap Pall, then thought I ought to put it in a seperate thread, including my current thoughts and plans about it.

I had some time ago tried to devise a three finger tool to press into the Gas Caps between the red and white (now yellow) parts in order to release the locking lugs holding them together. It didn't work--or now that I have thought about it some more I think it actually did work--so I set it aside and went on to something else.

Then yesterday I was inspired to take another look at it to see if it could be made to do the job intended. I did some minor modifications to it and then with a little heat I was able to seperate one of my Gas Caps. Then I made some more minor mods to it and seperated two more Caps.

I posted some pictures of the tool and Caps in Alan's thread; and now have thought about it some more and have figured out that the reason it did not seem to work for me in the first place was simply that when it was forced into the space between the red and white parts it was actually releasing the locking lugs, but then there was so much friction between all three components that the cas cap would not simply fall apart. In fact it turns out that once the lugs are released it then takes quite a bit of force to get the parts to seperate.

What I am going to do now it start over and make the tool a little bit closer tolerance, both inner and outer, to make it a little bit stiffer, because part of the problem I think I originally had might have been deflection, and then simplify it back to what I had in mind in the first place, but fix it so that one can see when the tool is bottomed on the white part while it is being forced together. That way you will know that the lugs are released.

Then I am going to devise another tool that can be used with it to push on the lock itself while holding the red part fixed in order to get the tool and white part out together from the red part. That may be a little levering devise with a plug on it to push on the lock while the cap red part is resting on a rim of some sort. Or maybe just a piece of metal with a large hole in it just the size of the three finger tool and something like a wood dowel and hammer to drive against the lock to get it apart.

Here is some of what I put in Alan's thread about it. I'll work on it some more later and see if I can get it to work better, and particularly if I can get it to work without the use of heat.

If this works out I'll make three or four of these for loan to all or any of the 928 guys who have the occasional need. Maybe I can send one set to Europe for their use and one down under for them. Then we will have a couple of them for use around here. Any thoughts about that?

928mac

Nice Job

Stromius

Would love to put my name on the 'list' if there were one.

Great job on developing this tool!

Bilal928S4

Part of 928 OC tool lending program?

Jerry Feather

I didn't have good luck before trying to put some tools in that program, but I'm sure willing to try again with this one. Lets see how it comes out with my second design, which I just worked on some more in my head while I was delivering some products to the Post office that I didn't get to yesterday. I think I have it figured out how to make this a one-handed operation.

Jerry Feather

One thing I was thinking was to have Alan help coordinate the use of this tool in Europe kind of like he has done with the tow hook clean-out tap, but just leaving it over there rather than having it only there for a short time on a lend basis.

Then, I am wondering if JPitman might be someone in AU who could have one and send it around down under for occasional use. I thought I would wait until I get it refined some and then work on how to get it around for whoever needs it.

As to a "list" Stefan, I'm not sure what you have in mind. I don't intend to go into production with this item, but just to have it available for anyone to use as needed. If that is the kind of list you mean I suggest that we see how it develops and then we can refine some kind of program.

PHIL928

And one maybe for the middle east fellows?

Randy V

I have a spare cap ready to do this, just haven't got around to it yet.

ReDesign by FEATHER

The Middle East is good. I am in the process of making five of them now so I'll go cut another couple of chunks of Aluminum round bar and make another two. That way I'll have enough to maybe go around and one that I can fail with in the process. That is unless they all fail since I am making them now to the design that I came up with in my head, and that is always questionable.

I'm going to need to get some flat bar aluminum monday to do the body of the devise that I have in mind to both press the three finger tool into the cap and then to reverse and press the lock cylinder and white piece out from the other side.

If it works it will really be a one handed operation, I think.

Mark Anderson

I'd be happy to buy one and locals could come by to use it.

Jerry Feather

That's a real good idea, Mark. That may be where the 7th one goes if one of these doesn't fail in the fabrication. In fact I was just thinking that one of these may ought to end up in your shop with your other efforts on keys and such.

Jerry Feather

Here's where I am this morning after working a little after dinner last evening. I have three of the seven tool bodies bored out and will work on the rest in a little while. I am making these new tools a much closer fit than I did with the first one I devised mainly in order to eliminate any deflection in the fingers when they are pressed into the assembled cap.

You can see by one of the pictures that the outer diameter of the tool body is actually quite a bit larger than it will need to be, at least at the point of full release of the locking lugs, so I am going to taper the foreward edge of the tool some so that it both retains its body strength, but also just barely releases the locking lugs at the bottom of the press inside the assembled cap.

When I finish boring the rest of the tool bodies I'll need to work up a bit of tooling so that I can bolt these into my mill in the rotary table and trim the cup sides into the three fingers.

These pictures show the inside of the red cap cover and the actual shape of the locking lugs. Given the measurements of these pieces it turns out that there is not so much overlap of the lugs with the rim on the white/yellow part so that it ought to be easy to seperate these without too much force and/or heat. That is what I am striving for. I want to be able to force the locking lugs out just enough so that the lock, the inner part of the cap and the three finger tool can be pressed out from the outer side, merely against the friction created when the tool is pressed in.

What happens when the tool is pressed in is that the three lugs are, of course, forced outward, but since the plastic does no have much stretch, but has some flexibility, it moves inward between the three lugs becoming somewhat of a triangle from its circular shape, but still having about the same circumfrence. Otherwise, if it would stretch, the press-in tool could be left fully round. It wont, so the need for fingers only.

The three finger tool in these pictures is the original one I made and modified quite a bit to get it to work. It was actually probably working from the start, but I didn't know it. That's why the new version is going to be a much simpler design.

Jerry Feather

Damn, now we seem to have another one of those crappy ads that kills the use of the back arrow. This one looks like Ancestry.com. I hope it can be removed.

Jerry Feather

Here is an array of the seven three-finger-tool bodies that I have turned out of round bar aluminum stock that I cut into inch and a half chunks each of which I more or less "worried" off of the bar. (My metal cutting band saw seems to have a problem with building up chips in the teeth and jamming the blade into the cut.)

After I got all of these turned out in the lathe I made the simple tooling needed to bolt them into the rotary table and milled one of them out into the three finger configuration. Then I pressed one of the gas caps I had apart back together and squeezed the tool into it using my vise grips. Then I think I found myself back at the spot I was in the first time I did this some time ago. I couldn't get the inside out of the outside.

Since I had put the cap back together without the lock in it I thought I would just put something in through the lock hole and tap the white part out. Of course, what I did was just tap a nice round chunk of the plastic right out of the end of the center part of the white piece. DUH!!!

I ended up taking the cap apart with the original finger tool I had made. Then I modified the new one a little so that I could be sure that the lugs were releasing. I put the cap back together, this time with the lock in it, and squeezed the tool back in.

In the meantime I had made a piece of wood with a hole in it to use as a jig to press against so that I could squeeze the tool into the cap and then place the assembly into the hole in the wood and then drive the white part out with a drift on the lock. It took very little pressure, but a light blow with a mallet, and it was apart. Success!!!

Now all I have to do it modify the rest of the tools to match and then trim them out in the mill into the three finger configuiration.

Next, in order to make this a one-handed operation and to simplify it for other users, I am going to refine the "board-with-the-hole-in-it" into a more refined pressing devise that will both provide for squeezing the tool into the cap and then pressing the center out of the cap body. I have some material started for that and will make it out of a combination of aluminum and some red oak.

Mark Anderson

Great work Jerry