gave those how
welcome back to my channel today we're
going to do a little investigative
project that I've been wanting to do for
a little while and just never really got
around to it so today we're going to do
it what we're going to do is we're going
to talk about gas Springs this is your
typical gas spring it's typically what
you would find on the back of a
hatchback car where you needed
assistance to lift up the rear of the
car you know to open it up and get in
the back
this is that basically shock its gas
powered and they refer to it as a gas
spring and it's a little bit different
as opposed to a typical spring and one
of the things that we can show as a
difference we've got a typical spring
right here and it's kind of a small
spring so we're going to show you on a
small scale it's kind of zoom in if we
can and here is a small spring now one
of the characteristics of Springs that
are made like this is when you press
them down a little bit the strength that
it's pushing against to open up is a lot
lighter then when you push them all the
way down as far as you can when you push
them way down they have a lot more
pressure pushing outwards so the further
down you press the spring like this the
more aggressive it pushes back
contrary to a gas spring a gas spring is
a lot more consistent throughout its
entire stroke in other words it has the
same amount of pressure to push it down
the first couple inches as it does to go
all the way down to the end and when it
comes back out it comes back
with the same amount of pressure from
start to finish no matter if this thing
is pushed halfway down or recorded the
way down or all the way down it comes
out with the same amount of pressure now
the way these are gas Springs work is
actually pretty ingenious
you've got your cylinder here and it's
sealed up it's sealed on this end it's
sealed on this end and it has an o-ring
seal that goes around this shaft
connected to this shaft inside the
cylinder is a piston and that piston
when you push this in that piston goes
on down the road here and compresses the
gas and the oil that's inside of the
cylinder now this thing typically has
nitrogen gas in it which is very
environmentally friendly not a problem
it's also got a little bit of oil in it
for lubrication now the way this thing
works is this cylinder is sealed up on
both ends and the piston that's inside
here that rides up and down here does
not fully seal the cylinder this piston
actually has either a small hole drilled
through it or it will have slits in the
side of it
those slits will be backed up by an
o-ring to give it a little bit more seal
but the idea is that because this thing
has pressure inside of it already when
you press this down the gas that's in it
and a little bit of the oil goes through
those ports to the other side of the
piston and somewhat equalizes however
there is a difference which makes this
thing spring out
when it's not in use when it doesn't
have any pressure on it it's out and
this thing you can't push this thing in
okay this particular gas spring came off
of a tanning bed it's rated for all
probably a lot higher pounds per square
inch than your typical piston would be
there would be on the hood of a car on
the trunk lid of a car or on a hatchback
of a car this thing right here is ready
for almost 3000 things that's life so
it's under a lot of pressure when you
push this thing in the gas licks three
by the piston to the other side but the
pressures maintained on this side on
this side of the piston the pressure
actually goes up now you kind of got a
you kind of got to wonder why is the
pressure going up well the reason why is
because of this road this rod takes up
space inside the cylinder on this side
of the piston because this rod is taking
up space gas cannot fill that space that
means when you push this down even
though gas and oil is leaking to the
other side of the piston not as much as
leaking is what's being displaced by
this rod and by the piston compacting
that pressure over here so the effect is
that this thing naturally wants to go
back out that way actually very
ingenious because of that piston action
and the balance of the pressure on both
sides of the piston that enables this
thing to have the same amount of
pressure to go in whether it's a quarter
inch again or whether it's a full stroke
it takes about the same amount of
pressure all the way
unlike the spraying conventional spring
when you first push it down it doesn't
take a whole lot of pressure
further you compress it the more
pressure it takes to compress it and the
more violent it will release this will
release the same amount it doesn't get
any more violent a release because it's
compressed all the way down it's pretty
much the same let's go step further and
let's take one of these jewels apart and
just see what it looks like on the
inside now I've got to warn you on the
side of these it's stamped on here do
not open so this may not be something
that you might not want to try at home
okay now I know that's not gonna stop
you I know you're going to hit you know
you're probably going to want to do it
some of you guys out there recycle model
and whatnot you may want to recycle
these you may find that a lot of places
will not take this like this you know
you're shocked on your car is kind of
works the same way um the struts on the
car you know work basically the same way
um some of these office chairs you set
in it's got the hydraulic thing you pull
the button and it comes them up in the
air they work basically just like this
so if you decide you want to scrap some
of this out lot of scrap yards won't
take it because it's got oil in it it's
got the gas in it
and you need to disassemble it in order
to be able to scrap it I'm going to show
you how i disassemble this in the safest
manner possible and relieve the gas out
of it and we're going to drain the oil
out of it then we're going to cut the
end off of it
take it apart and take a look inside
okay hopefully we are recording this
will be basically got setup we've got a
chops are sitting out here we put the
off the gas spring in the chops are
clamped it down in device we put a piece
of steel in front of it just in case
this thing blows up and shoots that way
it'll hit this piece of steel we tied a
rope to the handle and we
around this tree and I'm going to go
back here behind this tree and I'm going
to pull this rope down I'm going to let
this abrasive chop saw cut a slit right
into this gas ring and relieve the gas
pressure
I took some Bob now on zip ties and just
zip tied the trigger to turn the saw one
I've just zip tied it on one so we're
just going to take an extension cord and
as soon as we plug it in this saw is
going to start up and start running
you're going to go back here and start
pulling this thing down and we're going
to cut this cut a slit in there and
release that gas now
the solder is fully extended so we're on
the bottom into this thing we know the
gases is that's where the gas is we also
know that it's other than cutting right
across the top of where the piston is
we're going to have the least amount of
pressure right here if we cut just above
the piston at the other end so we can
actually let the gas trickle out through
those passages there is a math equation
to figure out exactly where that all
point is but I'm really not so much
worried about that honestly I don't
think this thing is I mean true it is
near three thousand pounds of pressure
in this thing but we're going to be
filling ways away and I've got to clamp
down pretty tight in the vise
set up on the steel cable and I've got
this block off I don't think we've got
any danger a camera on catastrophe for
repositioning the camera here 57
okay as you can see this thing goes
right on the in and out now so we have
relieved the pressure let's take it in
there and whack the end of it off and
check it out okay so we got a little
slit cut let's zoom on in there and take
a look at that little slit if it'll show
up I'm not sure if it will or not it
will have real good lighting in here but
I guess it's alright see if we can do
something like for Ken but you can count
see that little slip right there
and that's pretty much all we need to
relieve the pressure we're going to
stick it in the lathe now and try to
open this open this thing up a little
bit take a look in here and see what it
looks like
we're going to use a pipe car to all
open this thing up just because we got
it and we can
kind of makes fast work of it now since
we use the pipe cutter on it we've got a
little bit of a bevel and there on the
inside so we probably [ __ ] dog go ahead
and bring that out in from kin so let's
uh see if we can get something so you
might be good with this let's see
all right
oh yeah that's good enough maybe we'll
knock any shark
you
you know I'm really surprised because
this thing is not as heavy a wall
thickness on the solder is what I
expected it to be I kind of expected it
to be do a heavier heavier wall but it's
not but hey it is what it is okay so we
make it a little bit of old coming out
of here you can actually listen you
gotta hear that my ceiling there but you
know this ends sealed up and what's
holding it back and that whistling that
is those passages on that piston
allowing the air and when this thing
sealed up it's actually allowing the
nitrogen to slip over to the other side
let's see if we can get him out got a
little bit of oil coming out right at
the end right down so I'm just going to
kind of bump it let's see now we'll bump
it on the table that is bump it here you
don't want to come out some reason
yeah Hamill all right
let's see my favorite ham ball-peen
hammer
what well that did it didn't it all
right so we got me out got him out of
here and this in here you can if you
look up inside there you can see the
seals up in that thing pretty good
pretty good okay let's go
ring wipe them all
pipes on this hydraulic over off here
and let's try those in my own hand a
little bit and see
I don't know if this is going to show up
or not but I'm gonna try to try to get
it to show up and tell I'm just going to
come rotate this thing around in the
light and hopefully the light will hit
it just right your slits cut and
actually you can see these big slits in
this washer right here actually line up
with these ever-so-slight slits that are
on the piston and that's the passage
that the gas and oil slips by and you
know you got the bigger ones on this
washer right here and then you've got
this o-ring right here
sealing it it just slips by that o-ring
and then it slips by these little these
little slits in the piston this is the
actual piston part right here and then
goes on over to the other side and that
creates your pressure on the other side
hopefully those slits will show up as
I'm turning this thing in the white not
sure if it is or not but that's
basically how this works now some of
them have you know a whole board through
them a little small hole but I'm not
seeing any hole on this side over here
so I'm going to assume that this
particular kind just allows it to slide
by by these ever-so-slightly slits right
here and hopefully they are showing up
on the video
anyway this was just something that I
had been wanting to do for a while was
cut one of these things open and you
know see how it was made on inside learn
a little something about it and see if
there was any scrap to this medal that I
could use for future projects or
whatever because still it's not getting
any cheaper and a nice rod like this
with this nice finish on it everything
is so probably kind of pricey so
appreciate you watching hope you enjoyed
the little adventure taking this thing
apart nobody got hurt
that's always plus thanks for watching
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