i love dremel.

 

Good job

You probably saved a ton of money and a lot of time via DIY compared to having Jeff Jones do it for you, but one must admit Jeff does a fine job... just fine, as evidenced by the photos below. (Photos stolen out of Whafe's amazing " It's not just about the Bike, but the journey to the bike also....." thread on the 29er board.)

Anyway nice work yourself.

--Sparty

 

You probably saved a ton of money and a lot of time via DIY compared to having Jeff Jones do it for you, but one must admit Jeff does a fine job... just fine, as evidenced by the photos below. (Photos stolen out of Whafe's amazing " It's not just about the Bike, but the journey to the bike also....." thread on the 29er board.)

Anyway nice work yourself.

--Sparty

Nice polished shine on the real ones. Should I even try to round out the edges with the dremel, or is that to much to ask of the fiber wheel?

 

Sure is nice to have all the right tools at ones disposal for projects like that, eh? That polished finish is jawdrpoppingly, achingly awesome.

 

Nice polished shine on the real ones. Should I even try to round out the edges with the dremel, or is that to much to ask of the fiber wheel?

rough in the rounded edges with a flat bastard file and then go to a fine cut file to finish it off. Just make sure you have minimal vibration in your vise system (vise, table/stand whatever) take your time and you'll be fine.

 

A little do it myself project. Let me know what you think...

is that so you can run a smaller chainring it looks good by the way.

 

A little more grinding and filing...

I'm not sure if I'm goining to spend any more time on the finish. I don't think I have the paitence to get it to look like the Jones.

 

sorry to be a stick in the mud, but should we be concernd about the heat from the cutting wheel tempering the spider so it will be significantly weaker and fail?

 

Very nice. Now go out and cover it in mud.

--Sparty

P.S. Please post pix when she's all mounted up. Like to see the whole bike.

 

sorry to be a stick in the mud, but should we be concernd about the heat from the cutting wheel tempering the spider so it will be significantly weaker and fail?

IMO, grinding will not be hot enough and the process is not gonna be long enough for tempering. this procedure requires hard work, not science. IMO, no offence.

 

sorry to be a stick in the mud, but should we be concernd about the heat from the cutting wheel tempering the spider so it will be significantly weaker and fail?

I donno?

I guess I'll find out if it fails.

 

P.S. Please post pix when she's all mounted up. Like to see the whole bike.

I don't have a bike for it right now. I don't think it would look right on an all black Gary Fisher Rig.

I need something titanium.

 

It will not fail due to the work you just did.

--Sparty

 

Im in the processs of singlespeedificating an XTR crank as well, and i was wondering what you used to take off the finish? I ve used Oven off or something like that before on black ano cranks, i havent gotten that far in this project yet.

 

Im in the processs of singlespeedificating an XTR crank as well, and i was wondering what you used to take off the finish? I ve used Oven off or something like that before on black ano cranks, i havent gotten that far in this project yet.

No lie, lye.

 

Have you tried Wizard Metal Polish? Cotton candy like stuff. I've used it to make quite a few vintage parts look like new.

 

My version of the same:

Crank:

Complete Bike (have a Boone ring on order now for about 7 month we'll see if they ever produce it).

I used steel wool and sand paper to take of the finish (I read about the oven cleaner trick but did not want to go through that). A buffing wheel and some time seemed to clean up the part nicely (also I did not remove the rubber O rings, do not think oven cleaner would be nice to these if you went that direction a remove/re-install would be required).

First ride everything is awesome.

 

i've been wondering for a while... and now that i've seen so many people do it, i have to ask.

why!?

why not just get yourselves a nice SS crank?

i'm rather new... lemme think though. can you use a larger array of crank gears this way? easier to swap them out? just to have something uber custom?

 

The older version.

I started with Jasco paint remover then 320 grit paper, progressing upward to 800 grit before switching to lapping compound. 1200 then 1500. The buffing wheel is next.

Why? Because I already had the Boone spiderless set-up on these 180mm arms.

Those 960's look sweet.

 

I am looking to do the same in the future for my 2x9 set up. My I am also including a plan to expand the bolt pattern from the 102 to 104 so I can use standard rings. Was going to do it soon until I found a Truvativ Carbon Stylo GXP set for $100 without the bottom bracket that I did not need.

G

 

i've been wondering for a while... and now that i've seen so many people do it, i have to ask.

why!?

why not just get yourselves a nice SS crank?

i'm rather new... lemme think though. can you use a larger array of crank gears this way? easier to swap them out? just to have something uber custom?

I had the XTR crank sitting around collecting dust. I figured I might as well make a project out of it.

 

My version of the same:

Crank:

Complete Bike (have a Boone ring on order now for about 7 month we'll see if they ever produce it).

I used steel wool and sand paper to take of the finish (I read about the oven cleaner trick but did not want to go through that). A buffing wheel and some time seemed to clean up the part nicely (also I did not remove the rubber O rings, do not think oven cleaner would be nice to these if you went that direction a remove/re-install would be required).

First ride everything is awesome.

Wow. Nice job. Looks alot better then mine. Did you use a Dremel?

 

Wow. Nice job. Looks alot better then mine. Did you use a Dremel?

Dremel, file and sand paper. I follow the curve of the bolt "buckets" (so to speak so it was reasonably easy to get the ends to look nice. Other the only thing I did was use a caliper to get the depths (or heights) at the end of the arms equal. I polished with metal polish and a hand drill (with a buffing wheel of course).

 

Did you guys clear coat the cranks after polishing them? If so, how'd you do it (I tried with auto clear coat and it just ran off). If not, any problems with oxidation?

Thanks,

Dan

 

They oxidize and get scratched pretty easily. That said, it takes about 5 minutes with them still on the bike with some metal polish to get back to the nice finish. I do mine about 2-3 times a year. It's pretty simple really.