Welding a CroMo Steering Tube

Thomas Reynolds said:

I'm asking for opinions. I have an unused Trek carbon fork with a
CroMo steel threaded steering tube. It is unused because it was meant
for a real small bike and the steering tube is very short.

What is your opinion of taking a cutoff from another steel steering
tube, welding it to the end of this one, grinding down the welds, and
then cutting and threading it to fit one of my bikes?

As opposed to just buying a fork with a _one piece
steerer_??? You gotta be kidding, right?

Threaded CrMo carbon blade forks still readily available and
popular. Not too expensive either ($225).
--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

On 9 May 2004 19:54:32 -0700, [email hidden] (Thomas Reynolds)

may have said:

I'm asking for opinions. I have an unused Trek carbon fork with a
CroMo steel threaded steering tube. It is unused because it was meant
for a real small bike and the steering tube is very short.

What is your opinion of taking a cutoff from another steel steering
tube, welding it to the end of this one, grinding down the welds, and
then cutting and threading it to fit one of my bikes?

Reality check: By the time you have all that done in a sufficiently
professional manner to produce an acceptable result, you'll have spent
how much? Bear in mind that the welding will have to be done by
someone who's damn good at it if you're going to avoid embrittlement
of the tube and potential cracking under stress, and it's not just the
external diameter that must be cleaned up if the fork will be used
with a quill stem; the *inside* will have to be bored straight as
well.

I'm not saying it's impossible. If you were going to convert it for
threadless usage and didn't care about the extra weight, I'd say that
sleeving the inside of the tube and welding both the old tube and the
new one to the sleeve might have a good chance of success, but that
would probably only work for a threadless setup. What you're
describing, however, strikes me as not a good idea.

I'd peddle the fork on eBay and spend the proceeds on a different one.

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Thomas Reynolds said:

I'm asking for opinions. I have an unused Trek carbon fork with a
CroMo steel threaded steering tube. It is unused because it was meant
for a real small bike and the steering tube is very short.

What is your opinion of taking a cutoff from another steel steering
tube, welding it to the end of this one, grinding down the welds, and
then cutting and threading it to fit one of my bikes?

Crazy, don't do it.

--Paul

On 9 May 2004 19:54:32 -0700, [email hidden] (Thomas Reynolds)

Quoted message said:

I'm asking for opinions. I have an unused Trek carbon fork with a
CroMo steel threaded steering tube. It is unused because it was meant
for a real small bike and the steering tube is very short.

What is your opinion of taking a cutoff from another steel steering
tube, welding it to the end of this one, grinding down the welds, and
then cutting and threading it to fit one of my bikes?

Sounds like an interesting exercise, but not very practical. Having
done lots of fabrication in my car racing days I'm sure it could be
done, but the main problem is making sure the two halves of the welded
stem are in perfect allignment, otherwise you're looking for problems
in the headset.

If you opt to go ahead, find someone who is really good at TIG
welding. If he lays down a really nice, compact bead you shouldn't
have to grind it down at all. Besides, grinding only weakens the weld.
Install the crown race first and hope you never have to change it.
:-)

Last time I had this done (modification to a CroMo stem) I had to pay
the welder extra for the CroMo wire. Since he didn't have any in stock
I'm sure I bought his next year's supply. It turned out to be a more
expensive exercise than I expected. :-(

jeverett3<AT>earthlink<DOT>net http://home.earthlink.net/~jeverett3