<VV> Cyl Work Bench

[Smitty]

> Subject: <VV> Cylinder Barrel Work Bench
>
> Here's what I have so far : a Cylinder Barrel Bench ~ a little more stable
> place to work on the rings :
> www.yourbuyersinn.com/Cars/Corvair/CorvairCylinderBarrelBench.htm
>  I'm trying a 4" hose clamp that seems to work OK until I get a tapered 
> ring
> compressor ...
>  Charlie
------------------------------------
Smitty Says:  Charlie I have to say you have worked harder to make a job out 
of what is not a job than anyone I have read on this list.  There are at 
least a half dozen ring compressors on the market that I have used.  Some 
you squeeze like a pair of pliers amd some you work a cam lever.  Others use 
a screwdriver to tighten and then of course there are the take-aparts for 
installing the barrel on the piston in the engine.  They all have two things 
in common.  They don't work right if you don't have the tool solid against 
the barrel and keep it there through the installation operation.  The other 
is, they all work fine if you do keep the compressor and the barrel solidly 
together.  In other words it is the operator that must make it work
I have never used a taper ring compressor.  If I am not mistaken they are 
for production work.  Makes no difference.  If you don't keep it solid 
against the barrel,   It ain't gona work.
I am building an engine.  I put the pistons in the jugs yesterday.  My total 
time of doing the 6 was about 15 minutes.  I used a 25 year old broken 
compressor using a worm screw clamp to close it.  I sat the jugs on the vise 
with the rod dangling through the open jaws when I put the pistons in.  I 
probably did this while you were thinking about how to build a bench.  I am 
not blowing my own horn.  I am just saying a better way already exists to do 
this thing.  It has been develped over the last hundred years and has been 
succesfully used by hundreds of thousands of mechanics.
Don't get the idea that I am numb to your desire to tinker and find new 
solutions.  I have made dozens of special tools but none of them existed 
before I made them.  I did not duplicate anything that was already on the 
market.  Good luck with continuing on with your engine.