Cutting down forks

[1938airflow]

Has anyone ever cut a girls fork steer tube off and weldEd another tube back on.

I have a girls shock ease steer tube and need to cut down to make a men's but the steer tube has a lump where it need to be threaded. If I try to cut the treads down will the die brake or push the lump back down?? Or should I just cut the tube off in the middle and then cut a men's fork threads off and weld it back together where it needs to be???? Someone help me out if they ever had this problem.
The only reason I'm going though this much work is because I can't find a men's shock ease steer tube!!!!!!

 

[the tinker]

I bought a J.c. Higgins springer that someone before me had slipped a pipe over the end it to use as leverage to straighten out a bent steering tube. they sorta got it straight but they ruined the threaded end . Looked like and oval. I heated it up with a torch and beat it back into round. Did not look perfect. I re- threaded it. It took the fork nut with no problems.
After you heat the bump, hammer it back in. Do not "cool" it off with cold water as that will temper the steel .Re thread with your die with plenty of oil and should be ok.
As far as welding a new tube on I have never messed with the shock ease fork. Usually the fork is cut about an inch off the bearing race and welded as not to have any weld slag or bead that may be on the inside of the tube interfere with the installation of the stem.

 

[ricobike]

Special thanks to @the tinker for this excellent How-To. I've had the tools to do this for a while now, but never needed to do it. Well, Ann Arbor this year gave me a girls bike that was a perfect match for my Westfield Paratrooper so it was time to get the hands dirty. I was challenged by the fact that the fender didn't want to come off so I was going to have to do it with the fender on. I came up with a mod to my workbench where I could temporarily bolt my pipe vice horizontally on the bench which solved that problem. I could have done it either way that tink described but I was worried that if I cut off the headtube first, I would have trouble getting it to thread straight when trying to thread from scratch. I did a test on a junk head tube and turns out I was exactly right, it was skewed horribly. So I decided to go the long route and use the threads that were there to help me thread it down straight. Worked awesome, here's a few in progress pictures and a final result. Thanks tink for an excellent writeup, I referred to it a lot while I was working on this.

 

[the tinker]

A question was asked to me recently about re-threading and cutting down forks, so I will clarify it in this post. The easiest and cleanest way to cut your fork after threading it, is to screw the bearing nut down to where you will make your cut. Use the "flat" of the nut as a guide for your hacksaw blade. Don't be in a hurry, always cut it by hand. After it's cut to length, don't take the nut off. Screw the cap nut down a bit. Take a fine flat mill file and slightly , [ very slightly] bevel off any burrs left from cutting, and knock off the sharp edge on the start of the threads. Back off the nut, it'll clear the threads. You're done. You don't need to buy any special tools to cut it off. Always re-check your measurement before cutting. It's a good idea to store unused forks with a nut on the end. I've bought lots of forks at swaps with dented ends from careless storage. They have to be re-threaded. I was cutting down a Monark fork today and thought I'd add this info and photos to my old thread.

Thread it.

Mark the length.

Thread the nut down to where you want. Secure in your vise and cut, using the nut as a blade guide. As always, have fun and remember: This is only a hobby and they're only bikes. Make it fun my friends. On double forks, like the twin spring Monark, or forks that have truss rods, cut a like amount off them.

 

[RustySprockets]

I've been known to collect hardware from the co-op's scrap pile for this express purpose. A nut with pitted races does this job just as well.

 

[frankster41]

Great tutorial Dave as I have done the same fixes many times!!!!