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.

Thanks for sharing your experiments and success. I firmly beloved that technology like this is going to be more critical in the restoration and preservation of these classic cars.

The big boost will come as the cost of 3D printing metal parts gets within the reach of speciality and restoration shops. Major companies are already using it for older, lower volume service parts.

Rusty I Agree, and being in the Mechanical Design Field last 20+ years i have lived the evolution and see it daily. 3d Printing (Additive Manufacturing) is taken off. we used to have to order castings in batches, now we can order 1 or 2 if needed. Key was that all the old patterns were wood, and they had to be cleaned, prepped, etc... tons of work plus transport from storage to foundry. now we have done most of our items in 3d models. so now we can send the model to a foundry, they 3d print it out in a simple plastic. then make a cope & drag, put in the 3d model pack the sand, pull it out, make the vents, gates, risers, etc.. and then pour. the 3d printed part can be recycled, and depending on what they printed it out of and what material is being cast the print could be left in and disintegrated when the molten material goes in. fast easy no storage and we can tweak a model each time we cast it if needed. can also do one offs, custom items. one big thing we have evolved into is lost foam, making patterns out of EPS foam. you get a really nice finish and can cast near tolerance !! very little waste and requires very little machining !! and can make complex parts which were nearly impossible before.