Yesterday an old mate who loves Bultacos called round. Had a couple of crankshafts and a cyl head in his hands, so no work on my bikes then. The Bultaco crankshafts have pressed-in parallel crank pins and the cranks weren't running true. First up was .012" out and a real bugger to set right. Don't think I've ever had to use so much violence with a 2lb copper hammer (I always correct the rotational errors first, before springing the flywheels closer or further apart to finish off). Took a good hour. That crank hadn't had a new big end, but was serviceable. 2nd crank had just had a new big end installed by a well-known motorcycle organisation in southern UK and was better at .005" out. That one was much easier - only took about 15mins (I aim for less than .002" runout) How anyone does pressed-up multi-cylinder cranks I've no idea. Seems to me aligning 2nd or subsequent crank throws would probably upset the previous ones. Happy to leave that to someone else!
Lastly, removing broken exhaust studs from John's cylinder head. He wanted to drill - I prefer heat. Trouble is, plenty heat is required, but how close is one to melting the alloy? I succeeded, but could just detect some sharp edges losing definition. Must get some of that heat tell-tale paint.