Rods - Oct 15, 2007

I took a grinder to my rods to get rid of the ridges and porosity left over from the forging process. The main benefit is to get rid of the huge ridges that can contribute to cracks forming in the beam, and a secondary benefit is that it gets rid of some excess weight. Although the weight saving is mostly negligible, every bit of weight that I relieve from the rotating mass helps. I didn't have a scale or a rod balancer to keep track of how much metal I removed, so I tried to concentrate on removing as little as possible while still getting a smooth finish on the beams. Hopefully I was able to keep them all consistent, but I guess I'll find out when the assembly gets balanced this week. I half expect the shop to call, telling me I destroyed my rods. Oh, and they have had ARP bolts installed and the big ends were resized to compensate.

The first picture is an untouched rod next to another rod after rough grinding. The second picture is a rough rod next to a finished rod. The rough grinding was done with a couple of stones, and the finish was acheived with a 120 grit flap wheel.