I love to teach my son how to ride and repair stuffs the old fashion way. Here I will share some of our cheap DIY projects and repairs. I will also share some of my experience as a biker and as a pro mechanic. I am not a mechanic anymore but I still do repairs but mostly for my own machineries and this is why I try to keep everything easy and cheap. I also don't race anymore but I still love riding up the mountains where there is little or no help and all I can rely on is my small tool pouch and my monkey repair skills to bring me home whenever my bike or my friends bike breaks down.

If you are a tech-wiz or some kind of high-tech repair guru who likes spending too much $$$s buying stuffs and spends most of your time at a coffee shop posing your best biker battle gear clown costume and talking how great a biker you are then THIS IS NOT FOR YOU... Here we seriously ride our bikes and we try to keep everything simple, easy and cheap. Most of what I will share here are intended for riders who usually break their bikes to peices and may not be needed by other bikers.

I will also be sharing some cheap ways how I repaired my cars and computers. And for laughs, I will also add some weird / funny / odd stuffs that I or we did that worked and didn't work. Sorry about this blog's style, set-up or whatever you may call it, I'm an old school biker and its easier for me wrenching cars and bikes than typing on my keyboard...

Friday, October 1, 2010

How to reuse a used brass/copper washers for pipe fittings

My son is annealing a copper washer while heating the tip of a spark plug... trying to hit two birds with one stone???
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DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK... I will not be responsible for your safety!

On brake fittings, powersteering pipes, etc. brass/copper or aluminium washer are being used at the connection points. I wont be talking about the aluminium washer for fitting but only the brass/copper ones. It is BEST to replace these washers everytime you disconect the fitting but there are times that you have to reuse the washers. Brand new washers are soft but as they age, these washers will become stiff/hard and may cause fluid leaks if reused. The trick is to heat the washer until it turns red and quickly dip it in water (This process is called "annealing"). Let the washer cool down and check it. It should be soft and can be easily bent with your fingers. Now you can reuse the washer.

Use a gas welding torch to heat the washer or any portable burner. If the washer is not soft then you have to heat it again and dip it in water AGAIN. If you over do the heating, the washer will melt. It's basically trial and error at first but any monkey can easily master the technique.

If this is your 1st try, please be sure to have spares. If you are not sure if it's safe to use PLEASE don't use it.
Posted by iWrench at 2:30 AM

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