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Old 05-04-2005, 10:11 AM   #4
ronh72c10
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Mount Forest, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 978
Using a long bolt (5/16"), place alot of washers on either side of the block and loosely bolt them on, the washers should rotate freely but not have alot of side play in them, use another nut to lock the bolt in place while still making sure that the washers can rotate. I used alot of washers because they tend to be slightly irregular, and using alot tends to average out the shape to a rough circle.

Finally using a belt sander I wore down the edges until the washers started contacting the belt, they keep you from going too far since they rotate and as a result wear alot more slowly than the aluminum. I started out with a 60 grit belt and then finished with a 120 grit belt. You don't necessarily need to use a belt sander, you could use a wide file or flat sanding block, just always go in a direction such that the washers will rotate.

After the shape was pretty much done I took the washers off and knocked down all of the sharp edges.

Polish and you're done. One note on polishing I used a green abrasive, but didn't wear a face shield, by the end of the evening I looked like Herman Munster. Use a face shield!

Also I decided to only use the halves to hold the tubing against the frame, but if you use the two pieces together you may have to sand the inner surfaces to clamp the tubing tight.

This should be adaptable for almost any size of tubing, you could also use this technique for more than two tubes. Have fun!
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