anyone with luck shaving fork lowers without a lathe?

[Beemerboy]

hi i have not shaved xs650 legs ,,,yet,,, but i ran a workshop with several polishers doing work for me ,,, and cheaply a polishing wheel is the go ,,, ,,,the used too have several polishing wheels of different grit,,, start coarse,,,, don,t be heavy handed then down to fine grit ,,,you can use a super fine grit which will nearly polish the legs regards oldbiker

Thank you guys for all the advice. Me thinks that with all of the experience I see in the replies to my and other's questions, I've come to the right place for my cafe project.

 

[bobadame]

I'm not sure that a lathe is the best way to do this anyway. The lowers are cast somewhat round then the inner surface is bored somewhat concentric with the outside. If you try to get the outside concentric with the inside you might have to trim the whole outside surface. There isn't much extra metal there to work with.
Saw the offending chunks off, (if you must). Then wrap the legs with a couple layers of thick duct tape. Use a big coarse single cut rasp to trim the lugs down flush with the tape. Remove one layer of tape and repeat the filing. Finally remove the last layer and carefully draw file the remaining few thousandths. Use sand paper to blend the surfaces. Then polish.

 

[cros36]

there are a ton of people who have used a lathe on these lowers. in the end, a person with a lathe will know not too take off anymore then needed. a person with a 4 dollar file or angle grinder from harbor freight is the guy that is gonna gouge and fuck up their lowers. but your right, using a file and using it correctly is very satisfying.

 

[XS1961]

Ive always de-lugged with a hacksaw followed by filing & various grades of Emery & wet n dry.

 

[inmotionphotog]

I also did mine the old fashioned way, as I don't own or have access to machinery.

I initially used a grinder to hack off the unneeded brake and fender stay tabs.

I then grabbed a hand file and just started filing away, until such point a dremel could tidy any areas that I couldn't reach with the file.

Sanding back with wet & dry got them to a point that I was ready to coat them.

270

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Cheers

Steve

http://inmotionphotogxs650.blogspot.com/

 

[1974jh5]

I did mine the old fashioned way too. I cut the lugs off with a coarse tooth hacksaw then used a flap disc on an angle grinder to get close. I then switched to an air powered grinder with some 120 grit Roloc discs to 'blend' the legs. Once that was done, I wrapped the leg in some rags, clamped it in a vise and used some long strips of emery cloth to finish smoothing it out. I didn't go completely smooth because I was going to paint them anyway. Shot them with some gunmetal spray paint, let that dry overnight then clear coated them.

 

[section8joe]

I cut my tabs off with a hacksaw, used a flap wheel to get it close, then a hand file to make everything nice and smooth. I then polished them using this tutorial. I'm pretty happy the way they turned out.

 

[Seattle51]

Thanks for all the responses! I ended up doing it by hand too; started with a hack saw, went to a couple files and then wet sanded starting at 220 and working up to 600. I'm probably going to end up powder coating them but until I decide for sure I'm not going to polish them any further. I think they turned out really well.

 

[inmotionphotog]

They look great Seatle51.

Do yourself a favour and research out-gassing before choosing a powder coater.

Who knows, you may not have a problem, however, mine where crap after they were powder coated due to this very issue.

Cheers

Steve

http://inmotionphotogxs650.blogspot.com/

 

[Seattle51]

Thanks for the heads up Steve, I'll definitely check into that with the place I've used in the past for powder coating and let them know about the issues you had with the same parts

---Yours look great by the way!