in restoring and maintaining my 1929 & 1930 along with helping a friend with his 1930 I have made many gaskets over hte last 9+ years. most of them i have made by hand using an x-acto knife, then x-acto knife and a hole punch. minus the larger gaskets and head gaskets.
recently got a simple laser cutter/etcher that i have been playing with.
spent some time tinkering and learning how much power and how fast to cut the Fel-Pro gasket materials I have been using.
friend was trying to get his in-laws old mower up and running, as it has been sitting for years, so i decided to make the gaskets with the laser. made a test pattern and ran it at various speeds and power till i found one that cut through and cut clean, no or limited burn through. I always cut a test gasket using manila a folder to test fit and layout. then on to the main material, which for his project was some Fel-Pro 1/16" thick Fiber Rubber, same material i make most of my gaskets out of for oil/fuel items.
was a lot of time and fun but now if i need a simple gasket i can digitize it in AutoCAD then spit it to the laser software and away we go. If you remember i digitized most all the gaskets for my 1929 as i went along. i just printed them out on paper and traced them for cutting by hand. now i can use the digital files and feed them to the machine and cut them direct and clean :)
just a few pictures for reference... wish i had this thing years ago, would have saved me tons of time. but all in learning and fun
yeah yeah i know you can buy MOST of the Gaskets in a store, but there is no fun or learning in that. i like that part, learning and figuring out HOW to make my own. i keep several types on hand at all times, that way i can make one on demand if needed.
