Temperature gauge preservation

[Jesse]

Putting a small copper tube on there is actually a pretty good idea, it would have a smaller area to heat when you need to solder it up. Now that bulb probably draws a lot of your heat away when you are trying to seal it with a standard iron.

-Jesse

[stony]

If only I knew then what I know now, LOL.� OK so have been thinking about how to do this thing.� Went and got some heavy duty soldering stuff, and was trying to figure out how to keep things cold and hot at the same time.� Then said wait a minute, this should be something that anybody can do and do it cheaply, so scrapped the whole solder idea and did some research.� Changed tack to see how to seal the capsule without solder.� Figured that my bottle of ether came in a aluminum can with a plastic top, and a plastic seal, I needed to just make a gasket out of somwthing to seal with a screw.� Drilled and tapped the end of the brass reservoir for a 8-32 machine screw, smoothed and polished the area around the screw as best as I could.� Found out that Teflon is insoluble in ether.� Cool, got my roll of Teflon tape and took a look.� Didn't think it would seal on the threads, but might make a gasket with several layers.� Was looking for something a little thicker, then BINGO!� Teflon valve packing rope.� Perfect!!� Thought I would make a practice run, wrapped a piece tightly around a screw that I had cut down to about 1/4 inch long, and screwed it into the reservoir tight enough to deform the Teflon.� Cut off the tag ends with a razor blade and took a look.� It looked like a perfect gasket.� Why screw around, lets go for it!� Tossed the can of ether and the gauge in the freezer to cool down.� Pulled it out, filled my (just arrived from e-bay) blunt neeedle syringe with ether and filled the reservoir.� Screwed it down tight as I dared.� Let it sit for a minute or so and gave it the sniff test, could not smell any ether escaping.� Mixed up a batch of JB Weld for a final seal.� Will test it out tomorrow.� I am dying to see what will happen.� Photos are the screw and gasket, installed screw, and epoxied reservoir and blunt syringe I used to fill.� Anyway so far so good

Update:� Came back after an hour and there was a tiny bubble in the JB, did not even break the surface.� Scraped the JB off and gave it another 1/8 turn, reapplied JB.� The gauge reads a little over 100 now, where before it was bottomed out.� This is going to work!

Update 2:� Another tiny bubble, cranked it down another tiny bit, another 1/2 hour looks good!� Let er set up.

Update 3:  Dang!  Another tiny leak.  Think I know what went wrong.  Should not have preformed gasket.  Started over.  Looks good, so far.

[stony]

Think I got it !!

[BMIC]

Great work and a very interesting read... Thanks Terry

[1955CJ-5]

Very nice! 

Where did you buy the ether?

[stony]

I bought the ether on e-bay.� Problem is that the smallest amount I could get was 500 ml, and that was $35, and $15 for shipping.� So payed a lot for the 15 ml or so that was actually used, but it was the challenge .� Anyway, looked at automotive starting fluid MSDS's (material safety data sheet) to see % diethyl ether and it was about 30% in the ones that I looked at, which was not enough (IMHO).� �Have since found this: http://www.greenpartstore.com/John-Deere-80-percent-Premium-Ether-Starting-Fluid-RE556468.html MSDS says 80% diethyl ether, 10-20% lpg.� That I believe would do it.� I believe that as long as there is liquid ether in the bulb the gauge should be reasonably accurate.� The lpg/ether mix may have some impact on the boiling point but it is probably not be enough to cause problems.� For $4 a can what the heck.

So this is what I wound up needing:

Various tools to clean out the rust.
Vice (or pliers) to uncrimp the flair.
Dremel tool to cut back the wire.
5/64 and 3/32 drills to drill for the tube. ($6)�
Soldering iron and solder to reattach the tube and remove solder from end of reservoir.
Couple of drills and taps, started with 6/32 wound up with 8/32
Blunt tip 3ml syringes from e-bay. ($7)
Teflon tape ($2) and valve packing ($3) (used 3/32 but would have used 1/16 if I could get it)
JB Weld ($5)
8/32 screw
Ether ($50) but the JD 80% is $4

So there it is, should be able to do it for about $15.� I don't see any reason why this should not keep on working for a long time.� Just need to clean up and paint the bezel.

[scoutpilot]

I was under the the impression that these were filled with alcohol. At least that's what I put in one years ago and it still works today. I will never do that again.