ArtfulBodger.net

The fixture on the right is to hold the rings at the proper gap during heat treatment. The one on the left is bored out to accept the heat treated rings closed, for lapping the edges. They're both sitting on top of the iron lapping plate I used to lap the rings. (I faced the plate on my shaper, then hand scraped it. Good results.) Big...

I used a specially ground parting tool to put the ring grooves in the iron piston. Two rings per piston. Big...

Two finished rings mounted on the piston. Big...

This is the ring compressor for fitting the piston and rings inside the cylinder. It's hard to see the taper, but the inside of this tool is conical, like a funnel. Push the piston through it and it squeezes the rings into their grooves, allowing the piston / ring assembly to slip into the bore. Much easier, for small bores, than the usual automotive kind of ring compressor. Big...

The compressor fitted into the cylinder bore. It rests on the shoulder near the end, where the bore has a slight relief cut into it. Inside diameter of the compressor is the same as inside diameter of the bore. Big...

Pushing the piston / ring assembly through the compressor and into the bore. Big...

The piston and rings in the bore. In this shot you can see the little ledge inside the cylinder, on which the compressor rests during installation. Big...