I was searching for ideas on making my own gaskets and came across this thread. The links lead to more useful stuff too.
Man, I love the wealth of knowledge in this forum.
Man, I love the wealth of knowledge in this forum.
Well, I was sorting out the pics I have for the "projects" I have completed on my bike and I ran across a few I haven't posted yet, so here goes.
Here is a pictorial tutorial (say that ten times fast!) on how I cut a new gasket for my valve cover out of some Fel-Pro Karropak gasket sheet.
Step 1. Gasket material. I used Fel-Pro Karropak #3046 gasket sheet available from any auto-parts store. It is fairly thin, dense material we need here, not the cork-like stuff.
Step 2. Removed valve cover and cleaned all of the crud from the mating surface with a razor blade. Made it nice and shiny clean. I used a detergent removable ink marker to trace the inside edge of the valve cover so I could trace the ink mark to have my inside lines.
*NOTE*
I have heard of soaking the sheet in water and setting the cover on the wet sheet with a 10 lb. weight on top and letting it sit overnight to get the imprint. This is likely how I will do my next gasket.
Step 3. I layed out the gasket sheet on a paper calendar desk blotter to make sure I would have a surface under the gasket which would be smooth and would allow me to cut right through the sheet without destroying the finish on the table. I then carefully placed the valve cover on the sheet, remembering once I start tracing, it cannot be moved until all of the tracing is done, otherwise the gasket won't trace or fit accurately.
*Note*
You can set a weight on top to help it stay put if you are worried about it moving. A friend of mine secures items to the wooden workbench with drywall screws to make absolutely sure things won't move on him.
Step 4. I then carefully put downward pressure on the cover to keep it from moving, and began tracing. I used a .3mm red sharpie permanent marker. I then traced around the entire cover.
Be careful around any areas that may not allow easy acces to trace. You can use the open areas around the center of the cover to trace the hard to reach areas. You don't have to trace it all in one continuous line, use a ruler later to join up the lines as needed.
Step 5. This is a shot of a punch I made from a cut off 1/4"x3" shoulder bolt. I used a dremel rotary tool and a pointed abrasive stone to hollow out the center approx. 3/16" deep. I used a cushioned vice to hold the rotary tool and very carefully began pressing the center of the bolt to the stone, while spinning the bolt with my fingers to get a nice round hollow with a relatively sharp edge on it.
Step 6. Next, I inserted the punch in the first bolt hole in the cover and sharply struck the punch in a downward motion with a medium sized hammer to cut out the hole. Make sure the holes are all cut out!
*Note*
After this, I bought a set of gasket punches, much nicer to use, highly recommended.
Step 7. I then traced the lines on the inside which were left by the ink impression, using a ruler as needed. Then using my favorite exacto knife, I began cutting along the inside lines.
Once the inside was cut out, I then used a set of Craftsman titanium scissors to cut the outside lines.
Make sure the blade is clean and sharp, and don't force it to cut quickly! Gasket material and too much downward pressure on the knife can make a bad combination. At the very least it will make the line wobbly , and at worst, it can make the knife bend and take off on a tangent, cutting through an area that should be gasket.
I know some of us still have a corks on our forks, so take your time, and be careful. I can't imagine blood is good for gasket material.
Step 8. Now I have a new gasket! It only took about an hour to do too.
If you are lucky enough to have access to a large format 11"x17" scanner, you can scan the gasket and simply print the outline of it on gasket sheet next time you need to make one. BTW, if someone has a scan of their gaskets, please share so we can all save some time!ray:
I hope this helps,
