Glyn,
If it ain't broke, don't fix it! You got it sealed. It's not leaking and not
likely to. Here is what you can do if you want to do something additional.
Get your oil can, you know the one with the 30 wt oil in it that seems
always oily on the outside and would leave a ring of oil on the place you
set it. Just put a little oil all around the lip of the cover. Now just like
that oil eventually seeps everywhere out of the oil can, it will wick into
the tightly fastened cover and cork gasket. It often will make the cork
release easily, especially if you loosened the screws, oiled it, and just
left it alone for the oil to wick into the cork! I do this all the time and
several times for about a week or two BEFORE I take the cover off. You'd be
amazed how simple oil will seep into seams, cracks, threads of lug nuts, all
kinds of fasteners, etc. It will slowly go thru metal itself. All metal is
porous. That is why you cannot store helium in anything. Think of metals
like a brillo pad. When you look at metal under a microscope, it is not
smooth, especially casted metals. This is why you cannot weld any oily
metals until the metal is made clean, or so hot as to burn away the oils it
has absorbed like a sponge. The oil of the soaked metal will burn during
welding and destroy the envelope environment during welding, amoung other
problems it creates.
Grease or oil works better than the vasiline and cooking oil.
Everything degrades, but that cork will really like the oil and suck it up.
No, it won't make it leak even while tight. It will make it softer and
swell, further sealing the base and cover. Every time you remove the screws,
you risk the loss of the threads and the screws which are both not very
good. You risk overtightening the cover which will cause the corners to bend
down and the edges to bend up and create a leak-space. It is already fixed!
Stop! You did good!
-Eddie- Houston, Texas
> Eddie,
>
> Thank you for all the great suggestions and validation of what I did.
> The gasket seems to be snug as a bug but I might take it apart today to
> apply Vaseline or cooking oil as you suggested, just to be safe and prolong
> its life.
>
> Thanks again for your help,
>
> Glyn Judson
> 1969 Caravel #508
> Santa Monica, CA