narrowing the leaves

[curly head]

i have just bought a narrowed beam and now need to narrow the leaves :shock:

as its sprung steel is it ok to cut with a grinder etc and i assume it is a very hard material and virtually impossible to drill the dimple out. is there an alternative solution?

if anyone could give us a clue it would be appreciated :?

 

[ground hugger]

Hi curly head
Yes just cut them with a cutting blade,take off any burs.I had one of the old locating bolts drilled 6mm.put the leaves in the beam ,popped the arm on drill down the bolt hole.This marked the position for drilling(bit long winded I know)removed the leaves and pillar drilled them.You can just measure back for drilling if you want

slow speed and some kind of coolent helps

 

[dubdubz]

measuring is slightly better - as the dimples are very slightly 2mm?? inwards - what I mean is when you tighten the screw it seats and pulls the arms into the beam and therefore making a seal against the seal! assuming your narrowed beam runs seals.

I would, doing it again get the cut down yourself [easy] and then take to a machine shop and get them to do it, it needs a slow pillar drill really and decent drills. If you have these then go for it - a 18v decent battery drill was painful, I can telll you.

I did find a link - I'll see if I saved it.........

 

[ground hugger]

measuring is slightly better - as the dimples are very slightly 2mm?? inwards - what I mean is when you tighten the screw it seats and pulls the arms into the beam and therefore making a seal against the seal! assuming your narrowed beam runs seals.

Interesting point dubdubs,I wasn't aware of this.I knew they should be tight against the seal and made sure that they where before tightening the pinch bolt.so should be ok in my instance,good pointer

So to recap :lol: measure twice and drill once

 

[dubdubz]

nope nor me...the prev 2 beams I did as you assemble mark and drill!!

only this time did I measure the dimple from the beam tube end and I thought I had f*ed up as when I put the arms on the dimple wasn't in line...so I swore a bit ....and just tried the grub screw.
as it tightened down it pulled the arm inwards.

so more luck than judgement and I don't know if its actually built in to the design or just an accident? possibly 3mm pull in at a guess?

What I mean to do is get a stock beam and see if that does the same thing...compress the seal that is

I wrote some measurements down but have mislaid them - the dimple to beam tube , as could see if its a common measurement