Plating Question

[FRESNO MAN]

Arms disassembled; removing the roller and disconnecting the arm from the pot metal (later replacing the old step rivet with a new one). Polished the pot metal and had the arm and roller plated then reassembled.

[FRESNO MAN]

Use caution, I've learned the hard way. In general terms (if I'm not mistaken) the rule of thumb when it comes to polishing v. plating is anything a magnet won't stick to; polish and anything that does stick to a magnet is fair game for plating (providing of course a specific piece's tolerances are such that the added plating won't interfere with its function). I've been told horror stories of bottle gates coming back from plating being very attractive, but with the portion that holds the roller being "melted" beyond recognition. Same goes for the 110 linkage; there are pot metal pieces riveted to the metal arms. As such, they must be disassembled, polished & plated appropriately and reassembled. If simply plated and not disassembled and separated, one may have a little glob of goo at the end of their 110 linkage and I know none of us wants that!

[BrianS]

Decided to disassemble the bottle gate.  Took out the rollers and found it quite easy to clean them up.  Drove the pin out one side enough to remove it from the gate and then used the protruding end to chuck the roller into my drill.  Spun the roller at high speed on a very fine grit sandpaper and then spun it on a rag with a dab of metal polish.  with exception of one roller which was in really bad shape to start with, they all turned out great.  Even the really rough one looks pretty good.  Now the stupid part.  Got in a hurry and hit one of the pot metal gates with a miss hit while driving out the pins.  Need a replacement gate.  Anyone got a spare they would sell?  Other than that goof, I am happy with the result.  I can get new  SS compression pins at Fastenal for .20 a piece, so I will be glad to have the old rusty ones out.

[SIGNGUY]

I think I have an extra Gate.. you need the whole thing with arm or just the pot metal part.
PM with your address and I'll get it off to ya...

[BrianS]

PM sent

[BrianS]

Arms disassembled; removing the roller and disconnecting the arm from the pot metal (later replacing the old step rivet with a new one). Polished the pot metal and had the arm and roller plated then reassembled.

Does anyone know of a source for a step rivot similar to those used to connect the bottle gate to the arm?  I have not been able to find anything at the standard hardware stores or at any of the site sponsers.  Even struck out at a couple of local machine shops.  Tried searching a couple online rivet suppliers with no luck either. 

[BrianB]

I did a LOT of searching and sourcing when I was working on my VMC 81 bottle gates and am 95% positive that the rivet you are talking about is a 100% custom job.

There are (2) rivets, one forward attaching the arm to the gate and the rear rivet which attaches the triangular pivot mount. If I remeber correctly, I found a rivet that would work for the rear but not the front.

All of the critical dimensions for the semi-tubular shoulder rivet seem to be built speciffically for it's use. Basically what it boils down to is finding a rivet manufacturer that would be willing to do a smaller run of custom rivets where 25,000 pieces aren't required!

[FRESNO MAN]

I have the good fortune of living near The Soda Jerk Works and Steve did the step rivets, I highly recommend you contact him.

[BrianB]

That's great to hear! I checked the Soda Jerks website and couldn't find any listed. Hopefully he still has some!

[BrianS]

I talked with SodaJerkWorks a while back when I ordered new gaskets and screw kits.  They did not have any on hand but mentioned that they had made them in the past.  Got the feeling that making them is not high on the priority list so I figured I could find a suitable solution elsewhere.  Sounds like thats not the case so I will check with them again.  They were very helpful previously - Sharon was great - so that may be the best solution.  In lieu of that, what do you think of using a post bolt?  The pics below show a brass option that has almost the same dimensions as the rivet.  The only concern I would have is that instead of riveting in place, the post has a screw that would go into the bottom of the post.  My concern would be that over time the rotation of the bottle gate would tend to unscrew the post even with locktight on the threads.  Any thoughts?