2012 December 13: Polish spokes and nipples (2.30 hours)
Updated:
I removed the spokes and nipples from the degreaser and gave them a good rinse and then dried them. The stainless steel spokes looked quite good, though the brass nipples needed a lot of help. Here is the process I followed:
- I first used the fine wire wheel on my bench grinder to clean the threaded area of the spokes.
- I then threaded each nipple onto a spoke by hand for the first few turns.
- I polished all of the nipples using the spoke as a
handle
to hold them against my polishing wheel. - I removed all of the nipples by hand and then polished the spokes by themselves.
- Finally, I polished the very tip of each nipple, where the spoke made it difficult to get a good polish. For these, I just held the tip of the nipple firmly in my hand.
They turned out great! So, I took my I-Convert on a 200 mile round-trip ride up to Payson and back...a route filled with high speed sweepers. Fun stuff!

Photo courtesy of Gregory Bender.