10 replies to this topic

[Anole]

Hey guys! I am making my first AaBow, and I started working on the plunger head. My plunger head is a piece of cylindrical wood with an o-ring around it. Do you think that this will work?
P.S.- I am using silicone grease in my plunger tube.

[Exo]

stuff, wood, lube

Um, sure? We've never really done anything like that, but it should be okay, seeing as there won't be any spring forces acting on the PH itself.

As for the lube...

You may see some degradation or wood-rot, depending on lube and other conditions. I'd suggest throwing a sealant on there before lubing. Let us know how that works out!

[Just582]

You would probably be better off using a washer sandwich, which is a 3/4" metal washer in front (actually, it only has to be less than 1 1/4", but I use 3/4" for the hole size in the middle), a 1 1/2" rubber washer in the middle, and a 1 1/4 metal washer in back and bolting that onto the plunger rod. I'm guessing you machined a groove in the wood, and unless you use a lathe, you probably won't get a very good seal, and the seal will probably be very frictiony, even with lube.

[Anole]

It works so far! The only bad part is that my O-Ring keeps slipping off. I will have to carve the groove that it rests on deeper. It was cheep, as I had some random wood lying around. All I needed to buy was some O-Rings. Pics coming once it works 100% well

[Anole]

It doesn't work. The ring always slips off. No matter what . I will make a washer sandwich.

[Daniel Beaver]

Probably friction that's making it slip off, are you using silicone grease?

[Anole]

I used a ton of Teflon dry lube.

[Just582]

I've never used Teflon lube wet or dry but any dry lube sounds terrible. Go get some super lube from ace hardware or some of omw's silicone grease and you might just be able to get the wood plunger head to work. Hope you figure something out that works for you.

Edited by Just582, 24 March 2014 - 11:28 PM.

[Anole]

I've never used Teflon lube wet or dry but any dry lube sounds terrible. Go get some super lube from ace hardware or some of omw's silicone grease and you might just be able to get the wood plunger head to work. Hope you figure something out that works for you.

I have some silicon grease. I'll try that!

[Meaker VI]

For the record, this sounds basically like what Boltsniper used to do for plunger heads, only out of wood rather than PVC Endcaps. You might need to super glue the o-ring in place to get it to work.

However, washer sandwiches are super easy, cheap, and effective; so going back to the old ways is probably wasting time.

[Anole]

Update: The wood plunger sucks. I shall make a washer sandwich. Once I'm finished, I will post some pictures of my AaBow.