Homemade Shorty Levers

Gonna try to duplicate this weekend. [email protected] is asking $210 for their sorties.

Do you have any tips, suggestions, or lessons learned to share?

KrillOill said:

Gonna try to duplicate this weekend. Wild the art is asking $210 for their sorties.

Do you have any tips, suggestions, or lessons learned to share?

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Mark the levers where you want the curl with a sharpie, use wood blocks in the vice so that you don’t mar the lever, just twist the ball off once it’s hot enough, use a block of wood and pliers to curl/shape the end, and don’t worry too much about imperfections - easy to sand out with 80 grit and a file. It’s really easy to do. It’ll go well.

Hello! Warm up hard? What to heat?

kaskov1975 said:

Hello! Warm up hard? What to heat?

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Did mine this weekend. I would say around 2 minutes of constant heat/flame to lever.

KrillOill said:

Did mine this weekend. I would say around 2 minutes of constant heat/flame to lever.

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Thank you!

kaskov1975 said:

Thank you!

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No problem. And like Jack stated before, heat up the ball near the break-off point and remove it first. I just used a combination wrench to bend the lever (closed end)...like the old "double-wrench" trick.

kaskov1975 said:

Hello! Warm up hard? What to heat?

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Ensure the pointy tip of the blue flame is touching the metal. 3-5 minutes. Heat the lever around your sharpie mark. Then use a block of wood and grab the ball with pliers and bend the lever to 90 degrees - a slow rolling bend. Once you’re happy with your bend/shape, heat where the ball meets the lever 3-5, and then twist it off using pliers. Now on to the file, grinder, and finally 80 grit sand paper.