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. :-(

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