Aluminum Beehive Oil filter - no lathe

[Scott Colmer]

I wanted to see if this could be done. It can, but it is not easy. This was the first attempt. I figured a tutorial could be a launching point for someone else. I may not try this again.

You need:

A Mico Mark punch, small drill, two thicknesses of aluminum sheet, some K&S aluminum tube and a rat tail file jeweler's file and a flat jeweler's file.

Start by finding the type of filter you want to replicate. There are a few different styles on the internet. I wanted to replicate the filter in the Orange Crate. I found some that were a little close. Mine is going to be a cross between these two.

Hosted on Fotki

Hosted on Fotki

Count the number of ribs in the filter and then get out the punch. I had to punch out 11 larger disks of the thicker sheet and 12 smaller disks of thinner sheet. You can see the Orange Crate item sitting on the punch.

Hosted on Fotki.

That's all for now. More TK tomorrow.

Scott

[Dr. Cranky]

Very interesting. Looks like there's lots of potential there.

Very interesting. Looks like there's lots of potential there.

[Scale-Master]

Very cool Scott!

[Scott Colmer]

Part two.

I used the number 11 blade to open up a tiny hole in each disk. Using the blade allowed me to keep the best visual center I could. After the pilot hole was made, I used a drill bit to create a round hole. The hole is still pretty small, but large enough to let me use the tip of the rat tail file to open it up. At this point I was using a piece of styrene rod to stack the disks on. I had to work each one, one - at - a - time. 22 times.

The caps were made from even thicker aluminum sheet. This time the hole was drilled first. One of the punched disks that was already drilled was used to as a guide to file the thicker disk to round. Then the top was shaped with files and sanding sticks.The bottom was made in the same manner.

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After the disks and ends were finished, I decided that aluminum rod was the best option for a guide tube. So I had to go back through the process of opening up all the center holes. This time I added tape to the rat tail file to tell me how deep i needed to go. That worked very well. All the disks were very snug on the aluminum rod. I also used this time to round the edges of the thicker disks on a sanding stick. I tried to be as consistent as possible on angle and number of rotations.

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For final assembly I scuffed the center of the thicker disks and all of the thinner disks. I stacked them bottom, thin, thick, thin, thick thin until I got to the top. A tiny bit of 5 minute epoxy was applied to the center of each layer. Once the sandwich was complete I lined it up in a mini vice making sure it was square, put a little pressure on and let it sit overnight.

I did have to do some additional truing by chucking up up the tail in a pin vice and carefully stroking it with a flat jeweler's file. The depth of the ridges was trued by turning it against 800 sand paper draped over the beveled end of a safety blade. The whole piece was spun against polishing sanding cloth until I reached a finish I liked.

The bung is just more tube the I epoxied into a hole drilled to the right size. The bracket is some of the thin sheet bent to shape and epoxied in the between some of the ribs.

Sorry I didn't take more pics. I almost gave up on this one. It took at least 6 hours. over three nights.

Hosted on Fotki

[Modlbldr]

Very nicely done. Sometimes the parts that take this long are well worth the effort.

Later-

[Aaronw]

Very nice and you have just confirmed for me that this method can work. I recently had a similar idea but using different sizes of plastic sheet to make the finned air cooled piston body of a small 2 stroke motor.

[diymirage]

Very nice and you have just confirmed for me that this method can work. I recently had a similar idea but using different sizes of plastic sheet to make the finned air cooled piston body of a small 2 stroke motor.

like in this here go kart ?

[LAone]

nice tut.

what i want to know, is who makes that punch set?

[Bridgebuster]

nice tut.

what i want to know, is who makes that punch set?

MicroMark has them. Pretty nice stuff.

[Scott Colmer]

Right-O Phil - Micro Mark. - It's identified in the fine print at the beginning of the how to.

Once you get one of those punches, you will find a million uses for it. Don't skimp and get a hand one. Get a punch set and the plastic head hammer. (Thanks for the good advice Mr. Keck.)

In fact MicroMarks is like the Sears Christmas catalogue for modelers.

Scott

[Mooneyzs]

Nice job on this. it looks great. Thanks for sharing with us.

[Foxer]

That came out great looking! Your tutorial was outstanding in explaining the process clearly.

[Scale-Master]

That came out great Scott. And the tutorial is very clear.

I dare say your finished part is as good if not better than a machined version. Personally I like the delicateness of yours. While machining would be an option, your parts breakdown is how I would go at it now...

[Scott Colmer]

"I dare say your finished part is as good if not better than a machined version. Personally I like the delicateness of yours. While machining would be an option, your parts breakdown is how I would go at it now... "

Thanks Mark! Coming from a skilled machinist such as yourself, that says a lot. The funny thing was when I reached my frustration level I thought of you easily turning one up our your lathe. True story!

Scott

[seeker589]

Great how-to buddy!

Thanks for sharing!