Ringing gas cap with wood float.

[WorldChamp1914]

Has anyone ever used one of these? Did the wood float hold up with the ethanol in the gas?

[Mike Silbert]

Wood and cork and all porous floats have to be sealed with something.
In the old days that was normally shellac.
Shellac is an alcohol based product and does not like modern gas, or maybe it likes it too much.

I would test it with some cheap alcohol to see if it holds up.
Or you could just run it and see what happens.
The float can be coated with a thin epoxy to seal it or replaced with modern materials if desired / needed making it safe to use.

Looks like a cool accessory
If it were mine I would think it's worth the effort to fix it right and run it
Others options and ideas may vary.
Mike

[Allan]

Looks like a good candidate for a brass float from a Stewart vacuum tank.

Allan from down under.

[WorldChamp1914]

What does the brass float look like?

[Mike Silbert]

Here is a really good document on vacuum tanks
http://hudsonterraplane.com/tech/1927/S ... -11-27.pdf
Maybe it will fit and maybe it won't.

Finding a brass float is a great solution but they are intolerant of modifying.
It has to fit in the hole of the gas tank so somewhere about 2" diameter and 2" to 3" tall
Then about a 1/4" hole in the middle.
I scaled the screen shot and this is where I got my rough measurements so they are not accurate.

Any other ideas of matching floats that are are out there?
Mike

[DanTreace]

Had one of those for a while, didn't use it. The large float was heavy dense wood, probably too dense to get more soaked with gas, if it did would just be heavier and work to drop down, that is the use of that float, to fall down and ring the bell.

You wind up the spring and when the float drops too low, indicating low fuel in the tank, the alarm bell rings! Wasn't a very loud ring, like typical wind up night table alarm clock. Think if you were bouncing along in your rattle trap T, you would never hear that ring under your seat!!

[Scott_Conger]

it is not intended to "float"

it is intended at best, to be neutrally buoyant while retaining mass/weight enough to tug the release open when no longer suspended in fuel