Hi all, what is the pipe made of for the oil pressure gauge. Contrary to the pipe to the rocker box it doesn't seem to be made of stainless steel.
Cheers, Thomas
copper tube
So, both not original then. But why do they look like steel?
Possibly they are plated cadmium, or even coated with solder or I suspect have been made out of car brake pipe material.
They used such material in the 30s? I don't know, of course nut that's hard to believe.
what makes you think that pipe has been there since 1930s?
what do you think brake pipes on cars are made of?
1930s would have been copper, either plated, unplated, cadmium plated or even satin chrome plated
Quotewhat makes you think that pipe has been there since 1930s?
All respective pictures in the internet show no copper pipes. So, I would exclude pure copper.
Quotewhat do you think brake pipes on cars are made of?
I have no idea for the 30s.
Quote1930s would have been copper, either plated, unplated, cadmium plated or even satin chrome plated
So, it should then be cadmium plated (doesn't look like chrome). Never heard of that. Are such pipes available in the market?
The clue is in the word PLATED
Yes, I understand. Because I am no expert in material coating I would appreciate a source for such pipes.
There is not any source,you will have to make it yourself.
Working with cadmium...? Better not. I would prefer to find an expert workshop who is familiar with this stuff from the devil.
It does not have to b e cadmium, these days it is zinc, if you wipe solder over copper it ages to look about right.
Or see if you can find some plating firm who knows what satin or dull chrome is.
Or nickel plate. Some people claim though that chrome plating small copper pipes made them brittle. I don't know
I been handling cadmium parts for 50yrs I'm not dead yet,same for asbestos. petrol, dirty oil.
Funny how all these plating processes are availiable in the USA for instance, especially chrome plating processes yet here it is harder and harder to find a chromium plater.
Just more EU meddling.
Ok, thank you. I'll try to find somebody close by. Cheers from the EU! Thomas :)
Cadmium plating seems only to be legal for the aircraft industry these days.....so if you are a passenger on a plane the it's ok to be poisoned??
Seems so, but UK is save when Airbus stops its production in UK after no deal BREXIT. ;D So, nickel will probably be the golden bullet.
The oil pipes are bent up of copper tube and brass unions soldered in place (after a nut has been put on the pipe) The whole pipe is then plated normally nickle plate or chrome depending on year as mentioned earlier you can get different finishes to the plate dull or bright or even dyed. You will notice the pipes are not straight but have bends. This not only allows the pipe to miss bits of the bike but keep some flexability. So the soldered joints are not under stress.
The oil pressure gauge pipe is of smaller gauge pipe and from memory has an odd shaped union on it to mate with the gauge.
Here's a picture of some pipes we bent up during a total nut a bolt restoration and showing them after plating.
(https://i.postimg.cc/0NHJJ2Jc/pipes.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://i.postimg.cc/9MZFFWP4/plated-pipes.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
This one was a 1930/31 model 9 so Chrome plate was used.
Hope this helps
Kind regards
WM
My tubes seem to be nickel plated but quite corroded. The first picture shows the part close to the tank. The left side (exposed to the weather) is corroded while the right side (inside the tank hole) looks much better. I carefully sanded it with 180/240 paper and then applied Autosol. The two other pictures show the result. One can now see some copper shinning through but it looks much better than before. I first thought the outer corroded pipe needs a replacement but it is still fine. No new nickel application necessary.
Cheers, Thomas
Use silver solder for joints,soft solder is no good.
I have decided to nickel plate the pipes. They came back from the galvaniser today and look like new. Thanks for all comments and help.
Hello. First, do not excuse my english. I wanted to say that a good alternative for unrestored original machines would be tinning. The lines then look like old lines. Simply clean the wires, put tin paste on them and heat until they form little bubbles. then wipe off. The whole thing can be done before or after bending. Incidentally, I use salt to bend salt as a filling. Then wake up with warm water. Some use sand that likes to settle in bends and sometime dissolves in running engine ... I've had to make several attempts ... bend too small or too large (original template I had) then when everything is bent, I found the wrong bent around gift .... the moments (!)
They look good Claudius.
Salt is a good idea, much better than sand.