[Square Rounder]

So, I have been polishing just about every part anyone has polished and am down to my final 2 pieces, the forks, as they seemed to me to be a huge PITA.

I had started the other night and sanded the finish and texture off of the tube of fork one. I continued working the normal process tonight, when I had a thought.

I went inside an grabbed a beer and came back to the garage staring at the fork, working out a better plan.

Well, here is what I came up with:

Anything you can spin, you can polish very easily.

The fork is round, so you should be able to spin it.

Unfortunately, I do not have a lathe to spin the fork on.

I pulled up a parts diagram and confirmed that the upper fork will spin free of the lower fork.

So, I clamped the lower fork vertically in a vice on the floor, set up my drill with a 22m socket and spun the upper tube with the lower fork clamped in place.

This left me with one problem. Holding the drill, I could only reach the top half of the upper tube, but I will try to get a second set of hands here tomorrow to run the drill.

I figured I should at least test my theory on what I could reach. So, I spun the tube and worked from 600 to 1500 grit in under 10 minutes. I then got a wet rag and used barkeepers friend, a powdered metal polish which leave a very clean brushed finish. I then went to to paste-type aluminum polish on a rag and spun until it was as flawless as chrome.

Total time spinning it (keeping in mind that I had to run the drill and polish with the other hand) was about 15 minutes.

When I get a second set of hands here, I will put together a how-to using the second fork from start to finish.

Just thought I would share

 

[Hink]

Hope your fork seals hold up, as they are known to fail without spinning them at 1500 rpm's for 15 minutes.

 

[Square Rounder]

It is not that I did not think of this, but figured replacing those seals is not that big of a deal if it goes that way, compared to the time I save in a nasty dirty PITA project.

If I need new seal, great. I will just use it as an opportunity to monkey with my forks a little. Maybe heavier fork oil. Maybe lengthen the spacer to stretch them an inch.

If the seals hold up, great.

Rubber parts are there to be replaced and like you said, they can be a problem even without this process.

 

[Zoom]

Sounds like a great idea to me, and obviously easier than disassembling the forks to be able to just spin the upper half.

I thought about taking a long strip of sandpaper and wrapping it around the forks and doing the old back and forth motion, but it takes a lot of back and forth to get anywhere. And no easy way to spin a belt around them using something like a sanding drum on a drill and wrapping the belt inside out around the tubes.

I saw one set on here a while back that was polished without doing a lot of sanding on them. They left most of the texture and just polished them. Not quite like chrome, but better than they are stock.

 

[Phat Bak]

Hang in there...

it IS possible... I didn't do mine...(paid some one) But the work pays off... at least until I can afford to have Liquid Pain do his magic.

 

[jrrose69]

ill be watch this one i like this :bigthumbsup:

 

[Square Rounder]

Oh, it worked out great with no complications. This thread includes everything I did, so I figured no real need for a formal how-to

 

[Batman70]

FORKS

HEY HOW ABOUT A PIC BET THEY LOOK GREAT :bigthumbsup:

 

[godzuki]

LOOKS

LOOKS GREAT - NICE JOB!! Thanks for sharing your technic, and like you said if it needs new seals down the road - so what, the seal fail without spinning them ...

 

[Square Rounder]

HEY HOW ABOUT A PIC BET THEY LOOK GREAT :bigthumbsup:

No pics until the whole thing is back together.

That should be before next weekend if life does not get in the way.