mjncad
Super Member
For those of us with the R & B dual axis tiltmeter, we all have found out through experience that the fore & aft meter is essentially worthless since it is not liquid dampened. The important side to side meter works great.
I thought I'd try and make the fore & aft meter liquid dampened, and I figured if I ruined it...no great loss, other then the extra money I paid for the extra axis along with the time and materials I expended on this experiment. Unfortunately my Sony camera doesn't do closeups worth a darn, so I'll do my best to explain it.
1. Obtain a 1/4" black nylon finishing plug from the hardware store for less than 50-cents. Measure the diameter of the plug as you will drill the hole in the fore & aft meter housing less than 1/4".
2. Drill a hole on top of the fore & aft meter between the housing seam and the left or right wall...your choice. I started off with a 15/64" drill bit and reamed the hole for a snug fit.
3. The black ABS housing appears to have been solvent cemented together; but that is no guarantee of it being leak proof.
4. Pop out the clear lens with the decal on it. The easy way to get it started was to blow <30PSI air in the fill hole you drilled in step 2. Be sure to put a piece of tape on each side to mark where the tilt measurement gradations should go.
5. After you get the lens out, run a bead of liquid model cement over the seam on the inside of the meter housing. A hypodermic syringe works great for this; but a fine artist's paint brush will work too.
6. After the model cement dries, I put a thin coat of JB Weld on the inside of the meter housing on the three sides. Keep the JB Weld or whatever you use off the indicator bar so as not to alter its weight balance or get it stuck to the housing. I used a 18 or 16 AWG bare solid copper wire to spread the JB in place. I didn't use silicone aquarium sealer because tooling and controlling that stuff is such a pain.
7. After the JB has cured, tape up your fill hole with electrical tape and fill the housing with water. You want it water tight before even putting the lens back in place. Repeat as required.
8. I have a Brother PT label maker, so I made new labels for the lens decal I destroyed in the process. The labels are 1/4" wide, and one says "Fore & Aft Tilt" and the other has markings from 0 - 40. A dashed line denotes 45-degrees.
9. This is where the process gets tricky. You will find a shallow recess on the left and right meter housing wall. Using a toothpick, I placed a thin bead of JB Weld in the recess, and at the top and bottom you really have to be careful where you place the JB or whatever as there is no recess. After you get the adhesive in place, it's time to pop in the lens.
10. After the JB cured I filled the housing with water and still had a small leak. After emptying the water and drying out the inside of the housing, I then used the syringe to apply liquid model cement to the seam between the black plastic housing and the clear lens. It took about four applications of model cement before I got a watertight housing. I also had a bit of wayward JB that was impeding the indicator bar. I took a finishing nail, ground a sharp chisel point onto it, bent the end to suit, and used it like a dental pick to get the excess JB out of the way via the fill hole.
11. Although the syringe gave me great control of the cement, I still had a bit of wayward cement. I carefully masked off the majority of the housing and lens, and then sprayed a couple of light coats of Krylon Satin Black Fusion to hide the cement beads a bit and provide one last feeble liquid proofing barrier.
12. I applied the replacement labels I made.
13. I then mounted the tiltmeter in my Panavise (multi-axis model maker's vise) and got the for and aft housing level. Then I carefully filled the housing to the 0-degree mark with glycerin I got at the grocery store for less than $2. Unlike the side to side tiltmeter or a liquid filled pressure gauge, you only want to fill the housing to the 0-degree mark. The counter-weighted indicator bar wants to float on whatever liquid is in the housing. This became evident during my leak tests using water. Since the liquid will want to find level regardless of the angle, the indicator bar will float on top and give you fore and aft tilt reading.
14. Put the nylon plug in and let the meter set for a few hours for one final leak test before putting it on your tractor.
In closing, I tested the liquid dampened meter today and it worked as I had hoped for. Bottom line is that if you want a fore and aft tilt meter from R & B, spend the extra bucks and get two regular side to side meters and mount the second one to function as a fore & aft meter. However, if you have the dual axis meter, and don't mind the effort, one can seal up the housing to make it liquid dampened.
I thought I'd try and make the fore & aft meter liquid dampened, and I figured if I ruined it...no great loss, other then the extra money I paid for the extra axis along with the time and materials I expended on this experiment. Unfortunately my Sony camera doesn't do closeups worth a darn, so I'll do my best to explain it.
1. Obtain a 1/4" black nylon finishing plug from the hardware store for less than 50-cents. Measure the diameter of the plug as you will drill the hole in the fore & aft meter housing less than 1/4".
2. Drill a hole on top of the fore & aft meter between the housing seam and the left or right wall...your choice. I started off with a 15/64" drill bit and reamed the hole for a snug fit.
3. The black ABS housing appears to have been solvent cemented together; but that is no guarantee of it being leak proof.
4. Pop out the clear lens with the decal on it. The easy way to get it started was to blow <30PSI air in the fill hole you drilled in step 2. Be sure to put a piece of tape on each side to mark where the tilt measurement gradations should go.
5. After you get the lens out, run a bead of liquid model cement over the seam on the inside of the meter housing. A hypodermic syringe works great for this; but a fine artist's paint brush will work too.
6. After the model cement dries, I put a thin coat of JB Weld on the inside of the meter housing on the three sides. Keep the JB Weld or whatever you use off the indicator bar so as not to alter its weight balance or get it stuck to the housing. I used a 18 or 16 AWG bare solid copper wire to spread the JB in place. I didn't use silicone aquarium sealer because tooling and controlling that stuff is such a pain.
7. After the JB has cured, tape up your fill hole with electrical tape and fill the housing with water. You want it water tight before even putting the lens back in place. Repeat as required.
8. I have a Brother PT label maker, so I made new labels for the lens decal I destroyed in the process. The labels are 1/4" wide, and one says "Fore & Aft Tilt" and the other has markings from 0 - 40. A dashed line denotes 45-degrees.
9. This is where the process gets tricky. You will find a shallow recess on the left and right meter housing wall. Using a toothpick, I placed a thin bead of JB Weld in the recess, and at the top and bottom you really have to be careful where you place the JB or whatever as there is no recess. After you get the adhesive in place, it's time to pop in the lens.
10. After the JB cured I filled the housing with water and still had a small leak. After emptying the water and drying out the inside of the housing, I then used the syringe to apply liquid model cement to the seam between the black plastic housing and the clear lens. It took about four applications of model cement before I got a watertight housing. I also had a bit of wayward JB that was impeding the indicator bar. I took a finishing nail, ground a sharp chisel point onto it, bent the end to suit, and used it like a dental pick to get the excess JB out of the way via the fill hole.
11. Although the syringe gave me great control of the cement, I still had a bit of wayward cement. I carefully masked off the majority of the housing and lens, and then sprayed a couple of light coats of Krylon Satin Black Fusion to hide the cement beads a bit and provide one last feeble liquid proofing barrier.
12. I applied the replacement labels I made.
13. I then mounted the tiltmeter in my Panavise (multi-axis model maker's vise) and got the for and aft housing level. Then I carefully filled the housing to the 0-degree mark with glycerin I got at the grocery store for less than $2. Unlike the side to side tiltmeter or a liquid filled pressure gauge, you only want to fill the housing to the 0-degree mark. The counter-weighted indicator bar wants to float on whatever liquid is in the housing. This became evident during my leak tests using water. Since the liquid will want to find level regardless of the angle, the indicator bar will float on top and give you fore and aft tilt reading.
14. Put the nylon plug in and let the meter set for a few hours for one final leak test before putting it on your tractor.
In closing, I tested the liquid dampened meter today and it worked as I had hoped for. Bottom line is that if you want a fore and aft tilt meter from R & B, spend the extra bucks and get two regular side to side meters and mount the second one to function as a fore & aft meter. However, if you have the dual axis meter, and don't mind the effort, one can seal up the housing to make it liquid dampened.
