Home made hydraulic cylinders?

[carp]

So has anyone made some and want to share some ideas? I found a place that sells honed tube and chrome rod but unsure on what to make the piston out of, how deep to cut the grooves for the seals and how to cut the groove for the wiper seal, also how do i make the end caps so that there is space for the oil to come in under the piston? do i need to put a stop of some sort in?

[RCP57]

For my volvo we used seemless stainless tube for the barrels, brass for the pistons, tool steel for the rods, and aluminum for the end caps. To cut the o ring grooves in the end caps we used a modified internal thread cutter. You want to cut your o ring grooves just deep enough so that there is some friction there but not too much. These are the only pictures I have of my setup. It is probably easier to use brass and solder it together but this is the way my father inlaw did it and it works well.

Reg

[carp]

thanks for the info Reg, are both of your end caps threaded to screw on and then solder?

[RCP57]

Both ends are threaded and sealed with teflon tape. No soldering is used on these but I believe that is how it's done on the Vario machines.

Reg

[carp]

so you put the tape on and just tighten the endcaps up? i will give it a try and see how i get on

[Madda]

Do you have picture of that modified tread cutter?
What should be the maximum tolerance ?

[RCP57]

Originally Posted by carp

so you put the tape on and just tighten the endcaps up? i will give it a try and see how i get on

Yes thats right. Pretty simple set-up really, you just have to make sure that you drill the hole for the fitting in the right place so that it doesn't interfear with the threads and also so that it lines up where you want when its tightened. I found that if it was a little out of line you could add more tape to the threads to correct it.

Madda, the thread cutter is just ground on the back side enough to allow it to fit in the hole, and the cutting edge is ground square instead of pointed.

Reg