Custom rod glands, pistons, piston rods, gland nuts, and O-ring plugs for rebuilding hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders.
When a hydraulic or pneumatic cylinder is rebuilt, the worn turned parts get replaced: the rod gland the rod slides through, the piston, and the gland or rod nuts that hold them. On legacy and odd-size cylinders those parts are no longer stocked, so they get machined one-off. Pick a part type and your bore or rod size to load it into the configurator with the O-ring seal grooves pre-dimensioned to the Machinery's Handbook gland data (SAE AS4716 radial glands and AS6235 face glands). You stay in control of the exact bore/rod fit, the seal series, material, surface finish, and tolerance class. The drawing's title block stamps the source size, and we confirm the seal grooves and fits against your cylinder or a sample before cutting.
These cards are a representative starting point; bronze glands and vendor-specific lip-seal / U-cup glands aren't on the cards yet. The piston-rod cards ship unplated (1045, 16 Ra) — for hard-chrome hydraulic service, supply IHCP chrome bar and we machine the ends; we don't plate in-house. Need something else now, or working from an old part? Send us the cylinder, the old gland, or a print and we'll quote it directly.
Cylinder rebuild parts
Custom hydraulic and pneumatic cylinder parts: pistons, piston rods, rod glands, gland nuts, O-ring plugs, port flanges, and NFPA-T3.6.7 tie rods, sized to your cylinder. Each card loads a part with its diameters, O-ring seal grooves cut to the SAE AS4716 / AS6235 gland design, thread, bolt circle, and bore into the configurator as an editable starting point. Machined from 1018, 12L14, 1045, 303/304 stainless, or 6061 aluminum. Click a part to begin.
By the part you are replacing. A piston is sized by the cylinder bore, and a plug by its thread. A rod gland or gland nut has two independent fits: the bore the rod slides through, set by your rod diameter, and the thread (or OD) that mounts into the cylinder head, set by the head, which follows the cylinder bore, not the rod. Pick the card that comes closest and the part loads into the configurator with its diameters, seal grooves, thread, and bore dimensioned. Measure your old part and the cylinder, then adjust any dimension; they are all editable and the rod and head fits move independently.
The seal grooves are cut to the SAE AS4716 gland design reproduced in the Machinery's Handbook O-ring tables. We pick the O-ring cross-section to suit the size: the 0.139" section for cylinder bores up to 2-1/2" and rods up to 1-1/2", and the 0.210" section for 3" bores. The groove width and radial depth come straight from those tables. Send us the seal you intend to use, or your seal chart, and we set the groove to it before cutting.
These rod glands are the screw-in style: an external thread on the gland OD threads into the cylinder head. The gland carries a rod seal and a wiper in the bore, where the rod slides through, plus a static O-ring groove on the OD that seals the gland to the head. If your cylinder uses a bolted flange gland instead, send us the bolt circle and we build that version.
Yes. The two fits are independent: the bore is set by your actual rod, and the mounting thread (or OD) is set by your cylinder head, which follows the bore. They do not have to match the standard rod-to-bore pairing, a heavy-service cylinder often runs a larger rod than the standard for its bore, and a repaired rod may be a hair under. Measure your rod and the head thread the gland screws into (or send the worn gland or nut), set both in the configurator, and we build to your numbers. The gland nut works the same way: its clearance bore follows the rod, its thread follows the head.
The cards default to 1018 cold-finished steel, the rebuild-part workhorse. Switch to 12L14 free-machining steel, 1045 for higher duty, or 303 / 304 stainless for washdown service in the configurator; 6061 aluminum is a good choice for light pneumatic pistons. If your original gland was a bearing bronze, tell us the cylinder and we will quote the right grade. Material certs (MTRs) are available on request.
No — we do not chrome plate in-house, and the rod cards do not pretend otherwise. They ship unplated, machined from 1045 cold-finished at a 16 Ra running finish, which serves pneumatic cylinders and light hydraulic duty well. For hard-chrome hydraulic service, the standard shop practice works here too: supply induction-hardened chrome-plated (IHCP) rod stock — mark the material as customer-supplied in the configurator — and we machine the piston-end stud, the rod-end thread, and the wrench flats on your bar. 17-4 PH or 303/304 stainless are unplated alternatives for corrosive service.
Yes, that is what these are for. Set the bore, rod, thread, and seal grooves to your measured cylinder in the configurator, and we confirm the critical fits against your old part before cutting. Send a sketch or the worn part and we reverse-engineer the rest.