Disassembling a Hydraulic Cylinder

If you have to drill or cut into it you can buy replacement parts here:

-jsw

It won't come apart. I guess that slot in the side is some kind of locking mechanism that I do not know how to over come.

Then I almost had a good idea... I don't need a cylinder anywhere near as long as this one. Just cut it down on the lathe. It was almost a good idea. My steady rest is nowhere near big enough. I guess making a bigger steady rest is going to get added to the long list of projects I want to complete before I die. LOL.

Maybe something like this:

That just might be it. I'll let you know. Of course I tapped the end in instead of pulling it out. LOL.

On 11/30/2017 12:51 PM, Bob La Londe wrote: > On 11/30/2017 12:43 PM, Robert Roland wrote: >> On Wed, 29 Nov 2017 17:20:54 -0700, Bob La Londe >> wrote: >> >>> I guess that slot in the side is some kind of >>> locking mechanism that I do not know how to over come. >> >> Maybe something like this: >> >>

>> > > That just might be it. I'll let you know. Of course I tapped the end > in instead of pulling it out. LOL. > > Well, yes it was... sort of.

The ring was installed backwards or maybe it was broken off on the end. In either case the cap/plug absolutely would not turn out. It would only turn in, and turning in was the direction to turn the ring out... part of the way. Yep, it would only turn in, and it bottom out with the ring only about 3/4 of the way out. No amount of persuasion will get it to turn in the other direction.

Fortunately I planned to cut the cylinder down anyway. Its to long for my application. Unfortunately its to long for my lathe, so I'll have to cut it down first before I can try to cut the end and see if I can salvage the plug. If not I can make one, but I'd rather not if I don't have to.

As I understand the video, the cap does not have any threads, so there is no in or out. The locking wire can be installed either way. In the video, Keith takes the wrong guess. The only consequence is that he has to rotate the cap almost one full turn before he finds the end of the locking wire.

He talks about a leaded wire. I highly doubt that has the shear strength to withstand the force exerted by the cylinder. Remember unlike the seal which only has to deal with the pressure of the fluid that lock ring would have to deal with the force of the entire diameter of the piston. I know the wire in mine was not particularly strong wire, and it is with 100% absolute certainty threaded.

Well, that was an education and some expensive scrap metal. (not that expensive I guess) There is a huge gouge down the inside of the barrel. No I didn't make the gouge. LOL. I doubt this thing ever worked very well with that. Almost had to be assembled that way.

Did you post pics anywhere? Burden Surplus has cylinders, should you want to pursue it.

Q to all: Have prices skyrocketed, or did just Burden's prices jump? They seem a lot higher, especially on valves, than they used to be.

Some loose piece of metal caught in the piston seal?

A slice of it could be useful as a work support on a hydraulic press or for hammering depressions in sheet metal. I made oversized caster wheels to roll a hydraulic lift around the yard from cutoffs of large pipe, and raised my truck bed crane to lift appliances with some. Ring slices add variety to welded window security grilles. You could even mount a vise on it.

-jsw

Yep, All of that stuff. Won't throw it away in any extent. After I get it off the lathe and get the piston out I'll inspect it again. I can't tell for sure, but I might have been able to feel the end of the gouge. I might still be able to make it back into a short cylinder. Maybe have to go single acting, but I'll see if after I get the piston out and have a look down the bore with a scope and a light. If its completely unsalvageable it still might make a good pedestal for a vise as you mentioned or a belt grinder.... or something else. The piston rod would make a great linear rod for a power hammer.

A local hydraulic cylinder rebuilding shop sold me some short piston rod cutoffs to use for turning stock. A carbide insert removes the black nitride case hardening and the steel below cuts and threads nicely to a smooth finish.

-jsw

The one gouge ends fairly shortly, but there is a lot of other stuff including some grunge, and the oil remaining in the primary side was brown so there was some water in there too. I hope none of the grunge is rust. I think I may run an ultra-fine flap wheel or home made flap wheel made out of scotch brite pads down the bore to see how much is actually damage and how much is just grunge. Maybe chase it down with some acetone to eat away the grunge. If its just grunge I may pass a hone down it and make a short cylinder out of what remains. I managed to put four hammer dents right in the middle of the piston rod so I am limited to singled acting or fairly short stroke anyway. If that works I could still get 10-12 inches of stroke. That's more than either of my bottle jack presses.

I feel kind of silly, spending all this time on this project. I'm not flush but all the bills are paid, I have lots of jobs on the board, and there are a couple dollars still in the bank. I could just buy a cylinder. I found a pretty good deal on a bigger bore one actually. I may buy one just to have it. I'm almost driven though to make something useful out of this scrap, and if I bought a cylinder I'd have to take it apart to weld a flange on it for my application anyway. I want a power hydraulic press to replace the bottle jack presses, but I want to put rollers on top and a flange on the bottom so I can move it back and forth on the frame. That means I have to get the seals out before I weld it anyway.

Be careful with the rollers. I ran the numbers on the column strength of a log splitter cylinder rod and found it was close to the Euler limit for a perfectly centered load. Now I see why double acting cylinders almost always have pivots at both ends - to eliminate the possibility of offset or cantilever loading that could bend the rod. The rollers would try to move when their track deflects.

Jack piston rods are as large as the cylinder allows. They are smaller than the body of the jack because the OD you see is the oil reservoir.

-jsw

The rollers are only to move the cylinder. The force is on the flange in a moveable cylinder press.