On Fri, 18 Apr 2014 20:00:16 -0700, SteveB wrote:

I need to make a gasket. It will be about 2 x 3 inches. Pretty simple
stuff. I made one before for my welder carburetor. IIRC, I laid a
piece of paper on it, and rubbed it with dirty fingers until I got a
pattern, then carefully cut it out. It lasted a long time, and would
have lasted longer, but I left it full of gas, and it varnished.

I have cleaned the carb really well, and blown out all the channels and
chased them with pipe cleaners.

I figure to use the piece of white paper again. There are only four
bolt holes, and they have a lot of room for error. I figure this time,
I'll use an X-Acto knife to cut out a lot of the bigger pieces, and a
improvised punch to get the bolt holes.

Any tricks to gasket making? I have enough material to make about four
in case I mess up. Just go slow and easy, I guess. I was going to use
a tiny ball peen to cut off at the outside edges, but decided to leave
about 1/8+" sticking out so I don't have to worry about having too close
tolerances, and having a potential leaking spot. I can just cut outside
the line with scissors, and get it pretty close.

I thought of taking a digital picture, and enlarging it to exact
duplicate scale, and then using that for a template to cut the gasket on
a flat piece of plywood. Might take a little time, but I think I can do
it easily, just include a tape in the pic, and keep adjusting and
printing until it prints dead on.

What would you do?

Steve

I'd start by going to a decent auto parts store and getting some 1/32"
thick gasket material.

You'll know it's a decent auto parts store if you say "do you have 1/32"
thick gasket material?" and they say "yes".

--
Tim Wescott
Control system and signal processing consulting
www.wescottdesign.com