VW Beetle engine 1/5 scale

[Arild]

Not to take you too far off into the weeds but how much pressure does it take to push the hot rubber into the mould and what kind of connector are you using for the top of the plug? Bob

I cut the rubber to fit into the mould. Not a precize cut at all, just making sure there is more rubber than actually needed. The add temperature and the rubber become very soft. There is not a high pressure needed. You could have done this in a vice if you had hot plate on each side of the mould. I guess some 100kilo for 100cm2 (I dont have a gauge on the vulcanize press.).

I had to use a 1kohm (1/4w) resistor in the rubber boot, if not my microcontroller chrash. I simply make some loops at the end of this resistor to touch the sparkplug. There is enough friction on the rubber, so it wont fall off.

 

[Arild]

It's going slowly, but I'm not in a hurry.
No customer is waiting for me! Last week I've been milling out holes in the crank case for the cylinders, and also turned the last cylinder! Then making studs x 16 (not cut to lenght). It's from Ø2.5mm 316, so pretty hard. The M2.5 die I got is of poor quality, so the threads does'nt looks very good. I have to purchase a better one on Monday. Ghuring or Swiss-tech, or..."Baer"(never heard about Baer, but expensive, is that good?

 

[Peter Twissell]

Nice work.
I'm not sure about 316 for the head studs. It's not easy to thread nicely, especially at small diameter with a die. Stainless threads have a tendency to gall in use.
I would have used EN16T. Higher strength and stiffness and easier to cut a nice thread.