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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
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