Piston Rings

[naijin]

Hi there has anyone out there made compression rings for small engines, what materials to use and any other tips and tricks will be greatly appreciated

Regards
Nick

 

[enfieldbullet]

yes! some people have made them.

material used is generally cast iron (meehanite) and they're cut from bar stock

there are several ways how to go about it. you could bore the bar to something slightly smaller than the final ID, then part it off.

cut the ring open , setting the gap.

hold the ring closed and lap the inside to final ID.

then, make a mandrel to hold it closed from side contact so you can hone the OD to final size.

then hone the sides to final ring height.

 

[gbritnell]

As enfieldbullet stated, there are a couple of ways to make them. A lot of fellows use the Trimble method. His work was written up in Strictly I.C. magazine a number of years ago. There might be a link to his work but I don't know what it would be. It's too long to explain here. Basically the rings are cut from iron bar stock to size, broken open, mounted on a fixture of calculated sizes and heated to a predetermined temperature to set them.
gbritnell

 

[kuhncw]

Hi Nick,

For a good discussion on making model engine piston rings, go to Ron Chernich's Model Engine News website. Search for Cirrus Construction Log and also for Feeney Construction Log. http://modelenginenews.org/

Ron has assembled a wonderful collection of information useful to the model engine builder.

Model Engine Builder Magazine has also published some articles on making rings.

Regards,

Chuck

 

[gmac]

A few sites that may help;

http://www.5bears.com/pistons.htm

http://www.jerry-howell.com/PistonRings.html

http://www.metalstop.com/technical/wal-ring/wal-ring-a.html

Cheers Garry