Owner Change/rotate spark plugs?

At the last annual, my mechanic showed me how to anneal the copper spark
plug gaskets before reusing them.

Is this common practice?

Jon Woellhaf wrote:

At the last annual, my mechanic showed me how to anneal the copper spark
plug gaskets before reusing them.

Is this common practice?

New gaskets cost $.19 each, with a 20% discount on a box of 100. Typical charges
for an A&P's time in this neck of the woods are $50/hr and up. I certainly hope
it's not common practice anymore.

George Patterson
He who would distinguish what is true from what is false must have an
adequate understanding of truth and falsehood.

"Jon Woellhaf" wrote in message
...
At the last annual, my mechanic showed me how to anneal the copper spark
plug gaskets before reusing them.

Is this common practice?

I don't know how common it is but it's done and it's not that time
consuming.

Mount a steel shaft horizontally in a vise and slide the gaskets to the vise
end. Below the open end of the shaft place a coffee can full of water. Slide
the gaskets out to near the open end of the shaft, heat them red, then slide
them off the end and they fall into the water.

Including setup time you can do 100 gaskets in about 10 minutes.

Oh, please, for the love of God, don't do this. This is how you HARDEN
them, not soften them for the annealing process. Heat them red hot with a
torch and let them cool in ambient air to soften them.

Jim



the gaskets out to near the open end of the shaft, heat them red, then
slide them off the end and they fall into the water.

[Top=-posting corrected]
RST Engineering wrote:
the gaskets out to near the open end of the shaft, heat them red,
then slide them off the end and they fall into the water.

Oh, please, for the love of God, don't do this. This is how you
HARDEN them, not soften them for the annealing process. Heat them
red hot with a torch and let them cool in ambient air to soften them.

Well, I guess this depends upon if your gaskets are made of copper or of
iron/steal.
Although, I've never seen gaskets made of iron but of course nothing is
impossible.

jue

I just did a google search on the subject of copper annealing, and I
found this article.

http://www.evergreengardenworks.com/copperwi.htm

I can say that I used to rebuild motorcycle engines, and most of them
had solid copper head gaskets. I would anneal them by heating to red
hot and then dropping in a water bucket. They seemed to be much softer
afterward and did not leak so I guess that is a proper way to do it
(whatever works, right?). According to the article, you can use either
method, but he recommends water quenchung to minimize oxidation.

Regards,
Bruce Cunningham
N30464 C177A

("Jürgen Exner" wrote)
Oh, please, for the love of God, don't do this. This is how you
HARDEN them, not soften them for the annealing process. Heat them
red hot with a torch and let them cool in ambient air to soften them.

Well, I guess this depends upon if your gaskets are made of copper or of
iron/steal.
Although, I've never seen gaskets made of iron but of course nothing is
impossible.


Saw this link after a few Googles.
It shows that others have had this same discussion.

http://www.steamengine.com.au/ic/faq...ng-copper.html
It made into their FAQ's :-)


Montblack

I'm a long time A&P. Back in the old days I used to hang them on a
piece of safety wire, get them red hot, then drop them in water.
Worked great for me and I didn't have to go hunt some up in the stock
room. Of course, for me, the acetylene torch was closer than the
stock room.

Howdy!

In article ,
RST Engineering wrote:
Oh, please, for the love of God, don't do this. This is how you HARDEN
them, not soften them for the annealing process. Heat them red hot with a
torch and let them cool in ambient air to soften them.

Copper and silver (and probably many other non-ferrous metals) are annealed
by quenching. You can't harden them by heat treatment. You harden them by
working them. Yes, this is opposite to how you harden/soften steel.

Google for "anneal copper". One site I found was
http://www.key-to-metals.com/Article25.htm
which seems to cover more than just annealing work-hardened copper.

Now, one can fairly wonder why one would want to reuse old gaskets when
they can be bought fairly inexpensively, but that is a different matter.

yours,
Michael


--
Michael and MJ Houghton | Herveus d'Ormonde and Megan O'Donnelly
| White Wolf and the Phoenix
Bowie, MD, USA | Tablet and Inkle bands, and other stuff
| http://www.radix.net/~herveus/wwap/

"Jon Woellhaf" wrote in message
...
At the last annual, my mechanic showed me how to anneal the copper spark
plug gaskets before reusing them.

Is this common practice?



I take them home and do it in my spare time. Get them red hot with a
propane torch and drop em in a coffee can of cold water.