probably the same people who say you cannot build a sports car for £ 240, except for the whipster who reiterated how I understood the bleed screw to seal.

So the gauntlet was thrown down, I picked it up, washed and ironed it and embroidered little snowmen on it.

Made the bleed screw as mentioned - concentricity in the drill press is not an issue as there is more wobble in the threads. It did take a fair bit of time getting the angle pointy enough so that a ring of marker was rubbed off.

Once brakes were bled, and screw fitted, they are rock solid - no signs of leaks, no undo torque needed to tighten. As a final test I will put an elastic band on the lever for about 1/2 hour to see how it goes but the signs are good.

Caliper is alloy with stainless steel socket screw BTW.

In photo you can just about see the rubbed off marker pen.
Rescued attachment DSC04133.JPG

im sure its £250

p.s did you know that bleed nipples are about a pound to buy, save yourself the hassle next time


[Edited on 18/12/08 by omega0684]

quote:

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Originally posted by omega0684
im sure its £250

p.s did you know that bleed nipples are about a pound to by, save yourself the hassle next time

[Edited on 18/12/08 by omega0684]

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I'm still trying to understand why you wanted to do this??

Is it just so that the screw presents a lower profile, maybe to avoid clearance issues??

Or just for the sake of seeing if you could??

Sean

stainless steel in alloy is only any good if you want to destroy the calipers. They will sieze solid

quote:

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Originally posted by alistairolsen
stainless steel in alloy is only any good if you want to destroy the calipers. They will sieze solid

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a close up of the embroidered snowman
Rescued attachment snowman.JPG

RE:

You guys are so lucky. Here in France you cannot buy bleed nipples or copper brake pipes. If you need a brake pipe to replace a corroded one you go to the main dealers and if you need a nipple (well brake nipples mainly!!!) you need to go the local scrap-yard for it.

I say this as it seems that France is consulted a hell of a lot for consultation for new EU laws for old/classic cars and this may be the kind of thing we will see in the UK in years to come.....

I still dont understand why. Surely the purpose of a bleed screw is also so you can put a pipe on the end. Additionally surely the larger hex allows more torque to be applied when things get older and a little more attached. So are you just cracking it loose and letting the oil drip all over the place when doing the brakes now?

Stainless and ali will corrode eventually due to galvanic corrosion, it will take a long time though, but its worse if water or salt can get at the joint.

You will get a seal with stainless cone into ali as you will simply distort the sealing face on the aluminium caliper to fit the cone. Fine until you fit a normal bleed screw again...

Still mystifies me as to why you would bother. Last time I looked bleed nipples were about 25p each. To me, my time isnt worth that

Plus it makes it almost impossible to bleed the brakes properly, i dont understand how you could do it without making a big mess!

I dotn doubt it will work, but its still a bodge...

Ok, I'll spill the beans.

You only need bleed screw fitted when you bleed the brakes, otherwise all that is required is for the braking system to be sealed.

Magura brakes have this arrangement.

I needed to bleed my front brake and found that Shimano bleed screw fits which I took off a bike I intend to sell - hence reason for making these. The Magura bleed kit costs £ 20 - which I will need to return; the Shimano bleed screws cost a fiver inc postage - so in the end I saved £ 30 for about 1/2 hours messing about.

[Edited on 18/12/08 by 02GF74]

Just put your finger over the hole with a rubber glove on while you pump pressure up on your bike caliper.

Yeah, it may have saved you £30, but a new nipple was about 25-50p. So that half hour has only really saved you the price of a new nipple and gained the extra faffing about you may well have in the future.

PS, even though you've said why you did it, I still don't see why.

no, new nipple is £ 3.40; then there is the postage.

you could argue why build your own chassis or ....

quote:

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Originally posted by 02GF74
no, new nipple is £ 3.40; then there is the postage.

you could argue why build your own chassis or ....

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