It is no secret to those who know me that I love stuff made from copper and brass, but especially copper. I think of it as "poor man's gold" and when I can I like to incorporate it on a vintage build. Vintage and copper seem to go together, in my mind at least.
A few years ago I did some experimenting with an idea on making my own fuel filter out of copper. The result is pictured below with filter #1 installed on the Villiars engine sitting in an Atco mower frame which will power my hybrid delta trike. Although the filter was made a long time ago I never used it, having made it originally for what became the Indian Hiawatha tri-car.
What I'm going to show you today is how to make one that is twice the length of the original. It has room for a bigger one on the 3 speed Elgin velocipede which already has a copper headlight in the works and copper jewel tail lights in back. I'll do a similar tutorial on the jewel lights later in a different thread.
Pictured are the pieces you need to make the filter. I am using 1" copper water pipe fittings. There is a section of 1" pipe from which two pieces will be cut, a coupling to join two sections of pipe together and two end caps. Also pictured is a section of brass tubing from which I will cut two short sections which will connect to the fuel line. I searched this morning for some 1/4" soft copper tubing without luck and didn't want to make a 25 mile round trip to town for a few inches of tubing. In my search I ran across a non functional propane torch so decided to use it as a donor, removing the fittings and cutting two straight sections from the brass piece you see. I used a Dremel type of rotary tool with a cut off wheel to do this.
SB
(cont.)
A few years ago I did some experimenting with an idea on making my own fuel filter out of copper. The result is pictured below with filter #1 installed on the Villiars engine sitting in an Atco mower frame which will power my hybrid delta trike. Although the filter was made a long time ago I never used it, having made it originally for what became the Indian Hiawatha tri-car.
What I'm going to show you today is how to make one that is twice the length of the original. It has room for a bigger one on the 3 speed Elgin velocipede which already has a copper headlight in the works and copper jewel tail lights in back. I'll do a similar tutorial on the jewel lights later in a different thread.
Pictured are the pieces you need to make the filter. I am using 1" copper water pipe fittings. There is a section of 1" pipe from which two pieces will be cut, a coupling to join two sections of pipe together and two end caps. Also pictured is a section of brass tubing from which I will cut two short sections which will connect to the fuel line. I searched this morning for some 1/4" soft copper tubing without luck and didn't want to make a 25 mile round trip to town for a few inches of tubing. In my search I ran across a non functional propane torch so decided to use it as a donor, removing the fittings and cutting two straight sections from the brass piece you see. I used a Dremel type of rotary tool with a cut off wheel to do this.
SB
(cont.)
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