MTFCA Forum

Looked everywhere for acetylene line brass tee, then saw where Keith T. posted a photo of the one he made. Here's mine...Thx Keith.

Chit...still can't post photos.

I have one off a 1911 REO I’d send to anyone who needs it. You pay bubble envelope postage .

George, if no one else speaks up, I'll take it, please email or PM me with the total due and how you want to be paid, thanks! I'll use it on my 1912 Flanders 20.

Here's one https://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/2 ... 1351440621

I used a std 1/4 compression T, but found I still had to drill it thru...took a half hour to make. These, the clamps, and the square nuts could be a nice kit for some enterprising other. RV said he was planning to make the hardware...not sure if any were produced.

Scott-
Larry and I have been talking about converting 1/4" or 5/16" T barbs. The outside diameter needs to be 3/8", inside 1/4", and a total length of 7/8"
Cut the ends off and drill it out. Easy peasy. Way more easy than the labor you and I put into making ours. I look for ward to seeing a picture of yours.

Ideally, if the raw castings could be obtained before any machining is done, it would be easy. But right now I've got other projects going on.

RV was going to make some square nuts for me. Guess I'll have to make those for myself too...

: ^ )

Keith

The picture Keith posted will do the job. I did it. Its is a bit smaller than the original, but will work well. They are available off ebay, and have a China origin. I think I paid $7.00 for two.

Mark, Here’s a pic of the tee of which I made mention. I tried a magnet on it with no attraction so it must be brass or bronze. And I’m surprised Original is going to china for his new repurposed gas headlamp tee. I’d recommend cutting the gas line in 3 places about an inch from the tee so you’d have something to grasp when unsoldering. Postage should be about $4 and the bubble envelopes are $1.5 so $5.5 should get it to you .... if still interested.

Hi Keith:
Mine looks like the new one to the left above. Pretty much same approach, and really easy to do once you get to taking off material. As noted, I did have to punch the 1/4" clearance hole...I presume the barbed donor does not require this step.

Now have to get sharp bends in the tubing for the passenger side. Bruce's black book shows as "S" bend for the pass side frame clamp. Was going to try a brake line bender to get these sharp curves, but maybe a coil spring would do better... like used on copper plumbing.

Hi George, yes I'm still interested, I just sent you an email.

Scott what "sharp bends" for the passenger side? There were no sharp bends for 1911.
What year are you working on?

Here is an image of (I believe) Kim Dobbins' 1910 passenger side:

: ^ )

Yep, that's that's the one Keith. Using a coil.spring to bend it vs. brake line bending tool. Pretty much same as Bruce's photo shows. Made the brakets some time.ago, so just about to solder it all up. Did you solder ferrules on your tube ends, and did you use hose clamps or not?

Scott-
Neither. I have a friend who has an attachment for his flaring tool that makes a bulge at the end. We used that and it worked great. Otherwise I would solder ferrules on to the ends even though they not made that way back then. No clamps. When the hose is in place you can't tell the bulges are there. Just spit on the pipe and slide the rubber tubing on.

: ^ )

Keith

Thx Keith. Is there a Red hose resource preferred? Got some years ago,but hose looks pink? Color not a serious problem but rather like the Red.

It would be nice if someone with foundry experience would consider making these Tee's out of brass. The gas lines being used by the Brassworks are incorrect, and are made of copper. Why would they do such a thing?

Castings are no big deal. These would need to be drilled, and then ground and then polished. The level of work required could easily equal or exceed the modifications discussed here. Vendors could put this product out there, but assume these would short run batches, and therefore costly finished product. My experience is that vendors look to 100 percent markup on parts like these.

A little hypothetical math...finished part for lets say 50.00. Casting is a 10.00 part...drilling is a 15 minute operation with one time 15 minute setup time. Grinding takes 15 minutes/part ...polishing takes another 15 minutes. Standard shop rate in this part of Ohio is currently 100/hr. Make 1000 of them, price folds in half, but vendors cannot commit to that quantity.

DAY recommendations provided here are the best value to members IMO. Thanks for the help gentlemen, mine turned out great.

I have a large box full of parts that I thought folks would love, but would not sell even at my cost. I suspect that a really nice gas line "T" would be the same. It was 4 years of failed experiments before my first product really took off.

A good example is Stromberg parts which are hard to sell for $25 to Model T folks, the equivalent part will sell for $150 on eBay to Packard folks. I just chose the wrong hobby car is all.

Contemporary photos including Bruce's Black Book show acetylene hose clamps for headlamps. Curious if confirmable data supports that there were not.

It would seem reasonable that period rubber hose would rapidly deteriorate, where clamps would be protection as much for gas leakage, as well as the hose becoming detached from the line.

Note the 13 assembly line photo found on page 178 of BBB. looks hose exiting the radiator and appears to show a clamp at the ready.

Acetylene generator supposedly creates 3-5 psi under normal operation, but would it not be likely that increased water, raises head pressure under some circumstances, such as startup?

If clamps were used, would clamps have been received with the lamps/generators from those mfr's., or possibly as hardware add on's?

From the research I've done, Ford did not use hose clamps. I've used mine with no clamps with no issues.

Hear what pu're saying Larry, but what about the photos? I could understand post point of sale early photos, where I don't know whether the car came with lights, or possibility that lights were installed by a dealer, but assembly line photos are tougher to dismiss?

In this part of the US, we had gas home lighting up into the 20's. Common were stoves, irons, and table lamps, that ran off a rubber hose from a wall petcock. Some surviving accessory hoses still have hose clamps. Would seem logical that autos could have used them for similar performance/safety reasons. Household clamps tend to be spring squeeze style, vs. requiring a screwdriver.

Not advocating for or against. Seems like these would show up on invoices if Ford supplied them, but could be difficult to track if the lamp/generator suppliers included them.