Sprayer gasket making 101

3/16 or 7/32 O-ring stock from an industrial supply place. Maybe cheap, if you have one within walking distance. Not so much, if you have to burn a buck or two worth of gas to find the right place.

Cheaper and faster to buy the kit and spend your time wisely. Use your "makin'" time on stuff that has some payback in the dollar value/time equation.

Cheers Trevor Jones

Put a light film of oil on the part you dont want the gasket to stick to and on the other half put a ring of RTV or even put oil on both sides. Loosely screw on the top but do not cause the rtv to be squeezed out but screw it on just enough for the rtv to form a gasket. Wait a day and you will have a reusable gasket.

John

Tire inner tube?

b

I bought some rubber gasket material recently at the local Coast to Coast store. They also sell o-rings in a lot of sizes. You might also try Ace Hardware and your local auto parts store.

Dan

Plumbing aisle at Home Depot or Lowes sell a small sheet of NBR rubber for cutting gaskets. Bathtub drain repair parts use a rubber gasket about that size.

O-ring assortment at Harbor Freight tops out at 2-1/8 OD by 3/16 thick.

Rubber mats are sold as kitchen sink or shower items at Walmart, etc.

None of which are going to really be much cheaper.

I've found rubbery sheets in a hardware plumbing section that were about 4" square and in 2 thicknesses of about 1/8" and 3/16". I dunno what the material is, it's orange, and apparently meant to be cut to size. It does cut easily with scissors or utility knife blade. The individual sheets may have been about 90 cents or not a lot more.

Something I tried when I had to cut open an aged tube of RTV silicone gasket maker/sealer, was to put some of it between 2 sheets of plastic, just to see if it would be usable after curing. I took the sides of 2 liter plastic bottles, and pulled the plastic over an edge to remove the curl.

I put a big gob of RTV in the middle of one piece, and laid the other piece on top, and squished it flat to about 1/8", strating at the center of the gob and pressing outward both ways. Starting with the big gob will prevent voids as the gob is flattened. A day or 2 later I was able to peel away a plastic sheet, and release the RTV from the second sheet easily. I haven't tried this with other materials, but the pop bottle plastic sheet results were very good.

I didn't have a purpose for the flat RTV, I just tried this to experiment, since I had cut the tube open. The resulting sheet of RTV could've been cut into parts such as high temp insulators or small gaskets.

WB ......... metalworking projects

I need a gasket that seals the pump to the tank on a 1 gal. garden sprayer, as sold at Wal Mart. I recall the complete rebuild kit is about $5 but I just need the one large gasket.

...snip.....

What other rubbery materials are easily obtainable to cut or form a gasket? A sheet that I could cut with a pair of scissors or a razor would work fine. Or a strip that I could form into a circle and super glue into a ring would also work. What am I looking for guys?

Follow up for you guys. The sheet of red rubber gasket material worked well for this application. It comes in 1/16" and 1/8" sheets at Lowes and at the local hardware store. I cut the outer circumference with tin snips and the inner hole with an Exacto knife. The dimensions didn't come out as perfectly as I'd like, but it worked.

RWL

On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 23:01:26 -0400, with neither quill nor qualm, GeoLane at PTD dot NET quickly quoth:

I just got a nice 2-gal sprayer from an eBay seller and the tip leaks if it isn't tight. It can spray only a fine mist, nothing else. He's sending another nozzle and o-ring today.

How about a nice, large (1/4" diameter?) o-ring? Your local NAPA auto parts store should be able to build one for you.

Alternatively, a piece cut from bias-ply tire sidewall material oughta work nicely.

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