Mudguard stays

[keith.hodgenia]

Has anyone got any handy tips on creating nice tidy mudguard stays

[dave.pitt]

If you are crushing 5/16" tube, when it's nearly done, drill a 1/4" hole through the crushed part, and then slide a washer with a 1/4" hole in so that the holes line up. Then crush it up hard and file/grind the end round to match the washer radius.

The best home made mudguard stays I've seen are Selly Oak branch Doug Walker's on his FH special. They are stainless and made so well you'd think they were factory jobs. You'd have to speak to him though...

[Wali.Badger.Taylor]

Steel tube is cheap, I am sure you will have a decent supplier near you, buy loads as you will make mistakes! To bend it I make up a former from MDF to the correct radius and glue it it to a board. I then mark out the shape I need and glue MDF stops to the profile to hold the tube, heat the tube on the area of the rad that needs bending and pull it around the former using a block of wood and a hammer to control the tube as it bends. There will be a lot of flames and smoke whilst you do this, it is very satisfying. The ends need to be flattened, again fire is your friend support the underside of what you wish to crush (in the case of a stay the inner face) on a good flat steel surface (an anvil is ideal) and heat the end of the tube. Do not directly hit it with a hammer but use a block of metal between the tube and your thumping stick to spread the blows evenly as it is well supported on one side it will crush to a greater extent on the side you are working on, the well supported side that is on your anvil will also have heat drawn from it by contact with the cold surface and this will work in your favor as it will harden the metal on that side letting it distort in the direction you require. If you heat the lump of metal that you are using as a buffer for your hammer it will not draw heat from the side you wish to distort and this will also act in your favor.
The lump of iron that you use as a buffer and heat can be further enhanced by plonking it in a machine vice along side a similar piece and drilling a dimple with the same diam as of your tube with a bull nose cutter between them (if you have no nosed cutter drill them conventionally to form a countersink and then grind a drill to a radius an clean up the hole) now when you squish the tube down it will have a little radius just like Ariel intended.
Wali

[keith.hodgenia]

Thanks for the tips gentlemen. If you see a news bulletin that the Wirral is ablaze you will know why.

[ben.mitchell]

Hi
I have made quite a few tubular HS/Cyclone mudguard stays, they have a smaller tube diameter than the standard versions but have end fittings welded on which are of the larger diameter, I get the tubes bent professionsally and then make up the end pieces. For crushing the ends to get the flat bit for the mounting hole, the trick is to crush it on a curved line; if you just put it in a vice then you of course get a straight line so I have made up two curved formers to go in the vice. The difficulty is to keep the formers in line so I now have them mounted to slide on two rods which keep the formers parallel and everything goes nicely. You do have to insert a strip of flat steel so as not to over-crush the tube and potentially split it, this also gives the required thickness of the flattened end. I hope this helps.
Ben