Best Way to Shrink an O-ring?

[AFAustin]

I know I've read this before, but don't remember the particulars and my search turned up zilch.

Is the best way to shrink a loose O-ring to simply put it in the fridge for a while? I don't want to make it brittle, so any tips/tricks would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Flying Turtle]

Don't know if it would work, but rubber shrinks when heated, unlike most things.

Geoff

 

[will]

I have never heard of shrinking an 'O' ring - I would suggest getting a new one, plumbing supply, home depot - places like that.

I have a bunch for the different maglites -

 

[eluminator]

Don't know if it would work, but rubber shrinks when heated, unlike most things.

Geoff

But the rubber will likely harden when it cools.

 

[PEU]

most orings arent rubber anyways... good orings are made of nitrile, viton, buna-n and others, these materials are resistant to a lot of chemicals...

As Will said, you better purchase the proper size oring.


Pablo

 

[AFAustin]

Thank you, gentlemen, for your replies.

Actually, these are a couple of the o-rings that came installed in my new Lumapower MRV. I probably should just request a couple of spares from Matt at Batteryjunction---he is most helpful on this kind of thing.

 

[TORCH_BOY]

Leave it out in the Sun for a few days?

 

[Echo63]

cut a small section out of it and then superglue the ends together
(dont do this if you need to maintain a waterproof seal)

 

[Theatre Booth Guy]

Your best bet is to find one of the quality "old fashioned" hardware stores that stocks everything - take the part that needs the o-ring. Find the right size and maybe pick up a spare too.
IMHO, you would not want to trust any o-ring that has been "shrunk" or changed from the way it was manufactured.

 

[AFAustin]

Thank you, gentlemen, for the additional replies.

 

[eluminator]

You can buy o-ring assortments cheaply. There may be some in the assortment that would fit. I suppose the most critical dimension is the thickness.

Here's a cheap kit on eBay. It looks like the one I bought:
http://cgi.ebay.com/407-O-RING-ASSO...2QQihZ017QQcategoryZ42924QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

What he calls OD is what most people call thickness. And what he calls the sizes are what most people call the ID. At least I think that's the deal.

It's confusing because an o-ring has two OD's and one ID. (outer diameter and inner diameter). To make it worse, they are available in metric and English-American sizes.