REFLECTOR: Float Balls and U-cup seals

Jim Agnew jim_agnew_2 at yahoo.com
Mon Oct 29 17:01:11 CDT 2007


True, however since I machine titanium I could have recommended it for more durability<G>
 
Jim
 
James F. Agnew
Jim_Agnew_2 at Yahoo.Com
Tampa, FL
Velocity 173 Elite Aircraft Completed & Flying 



----- Original Message ----
From: Chuck Jensen <cjensen at dts9000.com>
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list <reflector at tvbf.org>
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 3:13:13 PM
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Float Balls and U-cup seals


Jim,
 
That would certainly work too, but way too clean and sophisticated.  No shade tree mechanic or McGiver component to your solution.  :-)
 
Chuck Jensen 

 
 -----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org]On Behalf Of Jim Agnew
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 10:21 AM
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Float Balls and U-cup seals


Or take a piece of aluminum rod or rivet that is a tight fit and drill a 1/16" hole and push the resulting item into the fitting.

Jim
 
James F. Agnew
Jim_Agnew_2 at Yahoo.Com
Tampa, FL
Velocity 173 Elite Aircraft Completed & Flying 



----- Original Message ----
From: Chuck Jensen <cjensen at dts9000.com>
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list <reflector at tvbf.org>
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 10:31:01 AM
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Float Balls and U-cup seals

It works. This weekend I took the two little red fuel balls that I bought from Vance Atkinson, a new chunk of polyurethane hose (ACS) and a stainless steel scubbing pad (Kroger) and undertook fixing my fuel sight indicators.  I stuffed the top and bottom 90L fittings with stainless curly-cues and then cut to length and marked 3/4, 1/2, 1/4 fuel levels on the new tube with a Sharpie (transferred from the cloudy tube that was removed).  Attached the tube bottom, dropped in the ball, attached the top and called it good.

When I leveled the plane and the fuel flowed back into the right tank, the fuel level as immediately obvious.  A secondary benefit was rocking the plane resulted in a very muted sloshing in the sight glass...maybe 1/2" up/down.  Prior to packing the fittings with SS curls, the fuel would slosh up/down 2"-3"--big improvement.

The only follow up suggestion is that it is simply impossible to pack too many SS curls into the fitting.  No matter how much one packs them, it will not block off the fuel from the sight tube but will sharply mute sloshing.  The only word of caution; it's probably not possible to jam the curls around the 90L of the fitting and into the tank, but use long curls and good common sense and no problems should be encountered.

Chuck


-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org]On
Behalf Of Bob Kuc
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 10:59 PM
To: 'Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list'
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Float Balls and U-cup seals


You can try mixing a little micro, stick in a BB and you will have your self
a float.  Make it a tear drop or round and just grind away to the size you
want.  Add a florescent pigment to the micro and it will shine if you use an
LED light or any other light. 


Bob Kuc
(727)418-3370

-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of Tom
Sent: Sunday, October 14, 2007 8:16 PM
To: reflector at tvbf.org
Subject: REFLECTOR: Float Balls and U-cup seals

Thx Chuck, another good suggestion. While I've been playing with this I've
also had 3 other possible float types submerged in avgas. A shellaced wooden
bead, another bead with paint, fishing bobbers (little painted suckers with
hooks (removed), also,  regular cork plus another cork painted. By the way,
all of these items listed are perfect size--will fit in 3/8 hose but too
large to get stuck in brass fuel fiitings. Both wooden beads sunk by day
3(the paint held up OK). The fishing bobbers started to disintegrate by day
5 (I thought they were cork but looks now like they were a closed cell
foam). Both regular corks are doing super-even the unpainted one has not
absorbed any gas, swelled or lost any buoyancy. Guess this makes sense as
many older aircraft had cork floats in the fuel systems. Anyhow, I've
trimmed two corks to the perfect size and have painted them bright orange. I
will try these out in the sight tubes and check them every day for a couple
of weeks to make sure there are no issues. Tom
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