How far have you torn into a hydraulic cylinder?

Me? Not that far til today.

Leaky seal on my used "gas station" bought push through splitter.



I assumed the spanner holes, that someone destroyed, would loosen the end cap but after looking on line, found they are only to rotate and allow the square wire to be removed or installed through the grove in the side.



Found the culprit:


This place is a God send!



They know what they are doing and got me fixed up the parts needed to get the thing repaired.



They even got me the 3 foot of 1-3/4" chrome piston rod I needed to fix my oops moment in galling the existing rod. I'll turn and single point threads on tomorrow.

 

I never worked on a cylinder like that, but have worked on the others. On my tractor, one of the big cylinders on the front end loader finely blew out a seal, after 20 years, last summer, while hauling round bales. I thought I would just buy a new cylinder, but that was going to be real expensive. I took it to my tractor mechanic, simple enough to rebuild, but he couldn't get the big aluminum nut out of the end of the steel cylinder. This particular cylinder had an big Aluminum nut that had to be removed, but over the years, due to electrolysis between the steel and aluminum, the nut had seized up. He couldn't get it loose. He tried most of the tricks, heat for one, nothing worked.

He took it to a cylinder repair shop, and they gave up on being able to remove it. I mean DARN IT! The mechanic brought it back and told me the deal.
Got to go eat breakfast, will finish this story afterwhile.

Ok, back again. We figured out that we could get a new Aluminum nut, and a new shaft and seals, etc. still yet a lot cheaper then buying a new complete cylinder. So, I took the cylinder back home to my own shop, and I cut the shaft head off, shoved the remaining shaft back into the cylinder a ways, and took a saws-all and carefully cut the aluminum nut from center out to the threads, being careful not to damage the cylinder. After sawing, with the help of a hammer and chisel, and still yet heating it some with my torch, I had it out in about 30 minutes.

I let my mechanic assemble all of the new parts, and so far, so good, Knock on Wood, I have been using it ever since, without issue. I just don't understand why a cylinder repair shop, couldn't have figured out how to do it. I guess, just because you take something to a so called specialist, doesn't mean, they really know everything.

If the cylinder on the other side, fails, I am just going to try to remove the Aluminum nut myself, before doing anything else.

 

What's a hydraulic cylinder? That's how far I've torn into one.

Good on you for keeping at it!

 

I rebuilt three cylinders on my 3 point backhoe after just purchasing it. One of them too good to be true deals.

Getting those spanner nuts out was a bear. I ended up buying the good stuff adjusting spanner kit, putting the cylinder back on the backhoe to hold it, and a 2 ft breaker bar with a 4 ft cheater slid over it.
Then a 1/2” impact to get the gland nut loose.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I rebuilt a set of inverted forks on my dirt bike about 20 years ago, does that count?
Nice job and great to find a small local place that knew how to get you back in business again. How did turning/threading that chrome piston rod go?
Was it just case hardened or was it a struggle to the bitter end?

 

Cause to do that the cylinder shop might have charged you more than the cost of a new cylinder so they didn't even recommend it. Or the chance to damage something is far greater than the 1 hour of labor they would of made to charge you legit and therefore not worth the risk?

 

Probably so.

 

I see the old wire in the hole trick on that one.

Years ago I was in the refuse / truck repair type job. Spent most of my time on the road repairing industrial/commercial compactors ; when not on the road I was in the shop installing and repairing trucks , again mostly refuse trucks but also dump trucks and such.
You don't want to even know what it is like to crawl through the access door on the body trash truck to repair a push out cylinder on a truck full of trash that has been sitting outside for a few days in the heat of summer. The living rice crawling around in there was beyond belief.

Have done a few of each over the years. Wire in the hole , internally threaded , Externally threaded cap , some had a brass packing nut on the rod end you could tighten that sealed around the rod , and the multi stage telescoping that was 5 or 6 cylinders built into one.

Don't miss those days but when younger the money was good ; actually really=really good for a single young guy.

Still do one on occasion but nothing like I used to have to do.

Not overly complicated but can be a messy job for your garage floor at home.
Speedie' Dry and a box of rags before you even think about starting that one !!

 

Cylinder shop could have done it but the cost, well it would end up being high and dealing with Joe homeowner makes for a pia. Sometimes they need a little bit of convincing with a torch, usually pretty easy with the different expansion rates. All meltable bits are replaced anyway.

 

Been there, done that. Lots of different styles. We have a place in the nearest city called "Mechanic's Bliss" and they have or can get anything you need to repair the most obscure cylinder.

 

The Massey, a trip to Georgia and a roofing project jumped ahead of this. I will get to it soon, my wife loves this style of splitter.

 

I’m expecting parts tomorrow for this wheel lean cylinder off an old gallion motor grader

if I can baby it enough to get through the summer I’ll have to do the steering cylinder and one cylinder that lifts the mow board later this winter

 

Finally got the rod stock into the lathe. I buggered up the chrome on the rod taking it apart. Euclid Hydraulics had rod stock. Justed finished threading the piston end of the rod. Single point, with a twist. I saw a guy on the YouTube invert his thread cutter in the tool holder. Run his lathe in reverse and cut from the relief to the right end, away from the chuck. Totally opposite of the way I learned but man, it is nice!



I'm hoping I can get the other end turned and threaded tomorrow. Reassemble Sunday.

 

Sorry to say that is a bad practice. Forces should be down on the compound, cross and apron not up. Example the cross has 2 large flat surfaces for down force but 2 skinny dovetails going up.
Become one with the half nut young grasshopper.

 

How much force is there on a .003 deep 60° included angle cut? Clean up cuts were barely removing any tool stress. I've always cut towards the shoulder or towards the chuck. I won't be making heavy cuts in this manner, but threading? I think I've been converted.

 

.003" a pass ???? Every pass or a spring cut ????

 

Maybe .015 on the first two, but .003-005 after that.I don't take heavy cuts when threading.

 

Yeah, not the first go around with this method. People think they figured out a revolutionary way, like us old crank turners never thought about it.
Honestly I'm not trying to tell anyone how to do there thing, please don't take offense.

 

No offense taken. I want to comment on the video of a dude from Australia who grinds and belt sands on his lathe without covering the ways. In the end, it's his machine and since he mostly does fab work for the mining industry, it likely makes him a ton of money. To him, it's likely a time value thing.