[help] Protecting chrome bars

 

With the weather getting cooler (which happens earlier here
in western Canada) I have been working to fit windscreens on my bikes.

They're partly supported by metal clamps that attach to the handlebars.
I used to have plastic clamps (which got sold with previous bikes)
and now all I can seem to buy are metal ones. So I want to protect the
bars' chrome finish with something. Plastic electrician's tape doesn't
work; the metal just tears right through it. What's the best thing to
use (and the easiest to scrounge)? Inner tube material?

I already have some metal clamps but most of them are some metric size
that's less than 1/2" radius curvature (ie for bars less than one inch
diameter). Measuring the bars on the CX500 I read 0.871", nominally
either 7/8" or 22mm (?)

However both the S40 and the Dnepr have one inch bars like Harley uses,
so I want to mill out the smaller clamps to this size.

I'm not a machinist but I've got a hobby metal lathe with a milling
attachment. In my tool box there's some kind of milling cutter, marked
"DORMER No 808 HSS" which mikes at 1.010" OD. I figure this 10 thou
oversize would work ok with thin enough protective spacers between
the handlebars and the clamps.

Which brings me back to what spacing material to use. Any help
appreciated.

TIA, SQ
'06 Zook S40 / '85 Dnepr MT-11 / various has-beens and once-was's

 


It's a T-slot milling cutter:
http://www.made-in-china.com/image/2f0j00aMnteAQPJUrhM/T-Slot-Milling-Cutter.jpg

These things are expensive, worth more than a whole new windshield
mounting kit (if one were available for 1" bars, which I haven't yet
found), so if I needed to, I could modify this tool to be 1" OD by
grinding it.

I'd chuck it into the lathe and then clamp a Dremel with a grinding
wheel onto the toolpost and feed it towards the milling cutter
a few thou at a time, running it back and forth with the feed screw.
I'd need to take only 5 thou off each cutting edge.

 

Sean_Q_ wrote:

http://www.made-in-china.com/image/2f0j00aMnteAQPJUrhM/T-Slot-Milling-Cutter.jpg

DON'T DO THAT !!! Put a shim .020 between the halves . Bolt or clamp it in
an appropriate device to suit the machine you're boring it with . This will
leave you with an ever-so-slightly egg-shaped opening when you remove the
shims . Wrap the bar with a single thickness of decent bond paper , lightly
oiled . Clamp will hold and not mar the bars .

--
Snag
Were you planning on
hand grinding the relief
on that cutter ?

 

The machinist who sold me the S40 is going to help me
with this project.

SQ