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JimInOz
· ·Melbourne AustraliaJust finished restoring my vintage Japanese 'Gem' brand WP tester.
I got it on eBay a couple of years ago and it was in pretty sorry condition.
The plexiglass chamber was almost opaque with dried calcium deposits and crud and the rest of the machine was filthy with years of accumulated moisture, dust and debris. All of the seals were shot and had broken into small pieces.
I thought it would be easy to fix, just undo the three chamber rods and slip the top off and change the seals.
Not so! The clever designers had never envisaged repair for this tool. The two metal air tubes had been epoxied into the upper chamber retainer
. After much chipping with a dental pick and quick bursts with a mini torch I had enough freedom to tap the three rods and loosen the chamber retainer. Here is the problem area after I re-applied the epoxy.
Another problem area was the gaskets to seal off the top and bottom of the acrylic chamber. I could find nothing at all on-line but a visit to my local hardware and much searching in the toilet spares department produced some candidates for gaskets. Although the OD was perfect, the ID was a bit too small, so I used an Exacto knife to cut them to the right size.
The only leakage after that was from the O-ring on the top lid. I pulled it out to check its condition and found it was as hard as a rock, therefore a very poor sealing candidate.
I used one of the seating washers to replace the function of the O-ring and managed to hold 2 kg/cm2 (= 20 Metres) for two hours, so I'm happy with that. I have two FKM Viton O-rings of the correct size on order so when they arrive it's all done.
I probably won't use it much as I have a modern "Bergeon" style tester, but it was nice to save something from some old watchmaker's rubbish tip.
I got it on eBay a couple of years ago and it was in pretty sorry condition.
The plexiglass chamber was almost opaque with dried calcium deposits and crud and the rest of the machine was filthy with years of accumulated moisture, dust and debris. All of the seals were shot and had broken into small pieces.
I thought it would be easy to fix, just undo the three chamber rods and slip the top off and change the seals.
Not so! The clever designers had never envisaged repair for this tool. The two metal air tubes had been epoxied into the upper chamber retainer
. After much chipping with a dental pick and quick bursts with a mini torch I had enough freedom to tap the three rods and loosen the chamber retainer. Here is the problem area after I re-applied the epoxy. Another problem area was the gaskets to seal off the top and bottom of the acrylic chamber. I could find nothing at all on-line but a visit to my local hardware and much searching in the toilet spares department produced some candidates for gaskets. Although the OD was perfect, the ID was a bit too small, so I used an Exacto knife to cut them to the right size.
The only leakage after that was from the O-ring on the top lid. I pulled it out to check its condition and found it was as hard as a rock, therefore a very poor sealing candidate.
I used one of the seating washers to replace the function of the O-ring and managed to hold 2 kg/cm2 (= 20 Metres) for two hours, so I'm happy with that. I have two FKM Viton O-rings of the correct size on order so when they arrive it's all done.
I probably won't use it much as I have a modern "Bergeon" style tester, but it was nice to save something from some old watchmaker's rubbish tip.
.
