Grinding Valve Shims? Material? Hardness?

[Recreational_Anxiety]

Does anyone know what material the valve shims are made from?  And are they case hardened?  I was thinking about  possibly grinding down any of my  shims that are too thick to the correct size.

[tkm433]

Does anyone know what material the valve shims are made from?  And are they case hardened?  I was thinking about  possibly grinding down any of my  shims that are too thick to the correct size.

Buy the correct shims.  The heat of grinding the shims will most likly weaken the hardness of the shims and cause them to fail or wear quicker.

If you know what size you need someone on theis board might have some of the correct size and might let you have them at a good price.

[GeeP]

Buy the correct ones and save yourself a whole bunch of trouble.  

A piece of steel that thickness will be through hardened, if it's hardened at all.  

If you absolutely have to grind them.  Die hard???  :mrgreen:  Then epoxy them to a piece of steel flat and put them down on a wet knife grinder, or lap them by hand.  If using the latter method you'll be there for a while.  When you reach the desired thickness, place the steel flat in a tray filled with Acetone.  Cover the tray tightly and leave overnight to dissolve the epoxy bond.  Scrape off the remaining goo and there 'ya go...

[Recreational_Anxiety]

We have a precision grinder at work that will grind within a 0.0001" tolerance, so I though hey why not put it to good use.... customer pay crap can wait till later...   :lol:

[Blueknyt]

shims are really hard dude, they would take along time to be ground down and would have to be PERFECTLY ground as the cam lobes hit em. they are also cheap enough to buy new, or toss in our exchange program,  Kerry has a collection of shims and valve specific tools bouncing amung Twins members now, they toss in their old ones if they need to buy any that isnt in the kit, if nothing else, its free tool rental asside from shipping to next person that is.  just not practical to recycle them any other way then tossing them in the kit for another to use.  i shop i deal with exhages or discounts depending on amounts of what sizes.

[cernunos]

If you do use a surface grinder then I would probably grind the side next to the valve. Don't know if the shims are magnetic but if they are then, of course, you can just chuck them up in the surface grinder and take 'em down to whatever you want. It's done in manufacturing all the time and it's most likely the way the original shims are finished anyway. Like Geep says, they are probably thru-hardened so you don't have to worry about cutting through the case. Wish I still had a good surface grinder. Love the little bike and this forum.

C.......

[GeeP]

Oh well, Hell!  I didn't know you had a surface grinder at your disposal.  That makes things simple.

Don't stand behind the wheel with something that light on a magnetic chuck.  

[Recreational_Anxiety]

Oh well, Hell!  I didn't know you had a surface grinder at your disposal.  That makes things simple.

Don't stand behind the wheel with something that light on a magnetic chuck.  

Usually I just rest my balls on the chuck to catch anything that slips out           :lol:   OUCH!!!!!!!!