Bottle jack seals

Or do you think i could just groove the poison and use an oring?
I think an O-ring would probably work, but would require much closer tolerances to support the o-ring. i.e. if the piston is a loose fit in the cylinder it won't provide the necessary support for the o-ring.

Leather has the advantage of accommodating quite loose tolerances.

-Pete
 
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I think leather would have been the most common seal for this sort of application pre-war. I know it was used in hydraulic cylinders, water well pumps and other applications well into the '50's at least.

If the leather is crumbling or disintegrating then it needs to be replaced, but if it is still pliable it can be re-used. As the pressure in the jack builds, it will force the lips of the seal tighter against the cylinder. It really just needs to be tight enough to provide an initial seal so the pressure can start to build.

-Pete
The leather is still pliable. There is a lot of crud build up around the outside sealing surface. Do you think i could use a deburring wheel to clean it? Or do i not worry about it? Thank you again for your input.
 
The leather is still pliable. There is a lot of crud build up around the outside sealing surface. Do you think i could use a deburring wheel to clean it? Or do i not worry about it? Thank you again for your input.
This is a good question. My gut instinct would be to avoid anything that might leave abrasive particles embedded in the leather. I think I would just try a good scrub with a wire brush (I'm thinking hand held "toothbrush" style wire brush). Anything that doesn't remove is probably best left where it is.

A bit disturbed at being considered the resident expert on leather seals, I did a bit of googling. Most of my attempts mostly produced information on leather sealants, but I hit some pay-dirt with "vintage leather hydraulic seal maintenance".

This produced some interesting results...including a worrying Pakistani Truck video. I think their approach to replacing the leather hydraulic seal is eminently sensible. It's the fact the work is being done under the probably inadequately suspended dump bed that looks questionable to me.

An HCRCnow.com website link does mention that hydraulic seals were originally made of leather and rope, but offers no more info on the subject.

@Provincial's assertion that an O-ring may not be up to the task is supported by a description in McMaster's list of hydraulic cylinder seals, where it states that their high-pressure leather u-cup seals are rated for 10,000 psi and that this is over 80 times what the similar BUNA-N rubber seals are rated for. Mind Blowing!

McMaster does have cup seals that look similar to yours but they are also BUNA-N rubber and are only rated for 1,000 psi, which I'm fairly certain is inadequate for your 12 ton jack.

In any event some of those links might be of interest.....

-Pete
 
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When I was a kid we had a twin piston water pump. Only pump at the time that would pump water to our house, 300 ft lift, 1100 feet of pipe. I rebuilt it more times than I can remember. It had seals just like that.
You probably could cut a disk of veg tanned leather, wet it and form it into that cup seal with a piece of pipe or proper sized socket inside a larger tube. That’s what they did. Let it dry and it will hold that shape. Oil it well before assembling.
 
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HCRCnow. I think i am still going to try and reuse the existing ones. I'll hone the cylinders, reassemble and test. I'll let you all know how it goes in a few days.
 

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When I was a kid we had a twin piston water pump. Only pump at the time that would pump water to our house, 300 ft lift, 1100 feet of pipe. I rebuilt it more times than I can remember. It had seals just like that.
You probably could cut a disk of veg tanned leather, wet it and form it into that cup seal with a piece of pipe or proper sized socket inside a larger tube. That’s what they did. Let it dry and it will hold that shape. Oil it well before assembling.
Good idea.
 
Please forgive me but i don't understand your Calc. Is phi suppose to be psi? If so, the i just solve for that right? Is it 1/2Dx1/2dx3.14 or just 1/2Dx3.14? Thank you for the comment regarding lifting equipment. I don't think i will proceed with this regardless of how the Calc turns out but i would like to know for my own knowledge. Thank you
I misspelled pi. Pi R squared is the formula for area of a circle. R is the radius, which is half the diameter. I tried to simplify by saying multiply 1/2D, which is equal to R, by 1/2D. Then multiply that by pi, which is 3.14.

For instance, a 1.5" bore has a radius of .75. To get R squared, you multiply .75 by .75 = .5625 and multiply that by pi, .5625 times 3.14 = 1.76625 square inches. Divide the 24,000 pounds (12 tons) by the 1.76625 = 13,588 pounds per square inch.
 
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