How to get inside your gauges

By Greg "Nerobro" Teiber
nerobro@gmail.com

I had to move the guts of a good gauge, with a cracked case, into a new case. This will also work for accessing the gauge to put screws back into the gauge face.

The first step is to separate the crystal from the body of the gauge. Most people have suggested prying the metal away from the case. I can't see a satisfactory method of this. Especially crimping it back in place. 

I took a Dremel cutting disk, and arbor, and placed them in my drill press. I set the depth to be about 1/8" above the metal ring surrounding the crystal.  Spin the gauge along the cutting disk trying to maintain a depth sufficient enough just to cut through the plastic.

And here's what you get. If you cut slowly, and don't use much pressure, the plastic won't melt, and you will get this beautifully smooth cut. 

Putting the gauge back together is fairly simple. The cutting disk is thin, so the thickness of material removed doesn't seem to make a difference. I used five minute epoxy to put the gauge back together. Be very careful just to get epoxy on the joining surfaces. Some will squeeze out when you join the sides, so don't overdo it!

Due to the time pressed nature of using epoxy, I don't have pictures of applying the epoxy and smashing the two sides together.

Now we have a problem. Two perfectly smooth mating surfaces with a liquid between them. hey are going to want to slide and moosh. And generally get into bad alignment. However, we have a solution. Electrical tape.

Wrap the tape fairly loosely. Just make sure there are no wrinkles and you will have perfect tension. 

Looks pretty? We considered leaving the tape there. But I got curious. After waiting fifteen minutes for the glue to set well. 

The epoxy doesn't bond to the adhesive on the back of the tape. So it leaves you with a wonderfully smooth surface. 

Sorry about some of the foggy images, but my camera doesn't work so well in the low light conditions I like to live and work in.