metallurgist consult, please?

lukek · Post by **lukek** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 1:51 pm

My jack hole plugs are not staying in (I know it sounds like a personal problem). Some of the clips holding them in under tension are broken, others badly rusted. I am trying to renew them.
The plug itself is chromed "puck" of sorts and it is fine. The spring clips are the things that I need to address. They seem to be made of spring steel, bolt to the chrome plug and are bent (with a radius at each bend) into an italic letter U....
I went to several machine and sheet metal shops locally (Bay Area, CA) and did not find spring steel. A search on the web yielded a few companies, but they either do not sell small quantities, or have so many varieties that I am not sure what I need. I am probably considered a time waster if I need 4 strips, roughly 4 inches long, half an inch wide, and 1/32 inch thick.
One guy told me that nothing would work, unless I were to heat treat after bending (I will buy flat strips, drill a hole in the middle with a carbide bit and then bend them, hoping that they do not break and stay "springy").
What do I need for this application? Anodized, pre-heat treated, 1095, 1075, argh....)

thx
luke
1963 250 GTE, with naked jack holes

Olio · Post by **Olio** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 3:17 pm

Luke,

I may be able to help you out. E-mail me a sketch/photograph and i'll determine if I can morph a found object into what you need. The material is 0.018" Stainless Spring Steel that has a high yield point despite not being tempered.

Cheers,

Andrew
(Ptomacpool@aol.com)

lukek · Post by **lukek** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 5:05 pm

Andrew,

Thanks ! (I love this forum).
I will crank out the camera tonight and post pics the next day.
Once flattenned out, the pieces are 4 11/16 long, 3/8 inch wide and almost 1/32 of an inch thick. The whole is dead smack in the middle and seems to be about 1/4 of an inch.

thx, luke

Yale · Post by **Yale** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 6:09 pm

I bought a replacement one of these jack hole plugs from Kilimanjaro (601)638-7856. As you mention about the steel in the "tails" of the plug were not of sprung steel (as far as I could tell anyway), and as such there was no way it was going to stay in. Parker suggested I silicon in the plug but in the mean time I was able to source an orginal one which stays in without resorting to other means. Best, Yale

Post by **330GT** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 11:31 pm

I've found that www.smallparts.com has an amazing selection of items, including metric sizes. They do carry a variety of sizes of spring steel.

lukek · Post by **lukek** » Fri Mar 07, 2003 4:04 pm

Here is a pic of the plug to add to the dimensions I posted earlier

thx
luke

Olio · Post by **Olio** » Fri Mar 07, 2003 4:13 pm

No dice Luke. Perhaps it's my server, but I cannot connect to your tripod site, nor the guigui link. Could you email the pic to me?

Bon Vendredi!

lukek · Post by **lukek** » Fri Mar 07, 2003 5:06 pm

I sent it via e-mail, but this URL might work better:
http://lukekowalski.tripod.com/plug.jpg

lukek · Post by **lukek** » Mon Mar 10, 2003 1:33 pm

I took some dimensions of the clip and the bolt. While they are not to scale, I was very pleased to have put my digital calipers to use.

[img]http://www.guigui.com/clip.jpg

thx
luke
1963 250 GTE[/img]

Michael Bayer · Post by **Michael Bayer** » Mon Mar 10, 2003 4:16 pm

Luke: I recently bought a replacement from ALGAR, and as shipped, the clip material looked remarkably like the material that forms the corner spring clips that hold the pictures in some styles of metal poster frames. Heaven knows where they get it, Michael Bayer

ROMANPC · Post by **ROMANPC** » Mon Mar 10, 2003 6:54 pm

Michael, stop putzing around with your toys and get back to work.
Signed, The King of Pyrotechnics

Olio · Post by **Olio** » Tue Mar 11, 2003 12:32 am

I hope I can get this to work. I have uploaded a .exe file showing a re-creation of the jack plug.

http://members.aol.com:/ptomacpool/TomYangsFerrariSite

Post by **tyang** » Tue Mar 11, 2003 10:10 am

Olio,

I changed some links on your post, and it worked for me after I saved it to disk as a *.exe file on a windows machine. Looks great! Now the question is will these things be cheaper to make than what is already available?

Thanks for the effort! It looks great!

Tom

Olio · Post by **Olio** » Tue Mar 11, 2003 10:20 am

Thanks Tom, my FTP skills are a little rusty. I am going to shop this around when we get it straight and see what I come up with. If this is truly a "problem" part, perhaps we can get enough interest to necessitate a buy. It's a pleasure being involved.

Cheers,

Andrew

Sleeper · Post by **Sleeper** » Tue Mar 11, 2003 11:26 pm

Why don't you just buy some? Try Tom Shawnessey, its gotta be cheaper than trying to build them.

www.tomyang.net

metallurgist consult, please?

metallurgist consult, please?

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