Finished up Hayride’s segmented fork today. I’m thinking it’s lookin pretty darn good! From where I was a year ago, to where I am now…it’s been a long trip but I can finally say I feel comfortable with my fabrication to make stuff for friends. He’s been riding my 1st frame for a few weeks trying to break it and it’s holding strong. Now it’s time for a new fork on his Spot 29er and this should be a good change from the Surly fork.
This fork build went well. I feel myself settling into things a bit better now, and things come together faster as well. The main part of this type of fork build that I need to streamline is the top caps. This time, I silver brazed them, with oh so little silver to fill the tiny gap that the 0.025″ sheet makes over the leg. I do the caps differently every time and so far this was the best way. They are not structural in any way so just getting a tiny bit of silver in there is more than sufficient. I held the steerer in the bike stand as level as possible and laid the circular caps on top after lightly brushing some flux on all surfaces. Then, I put some heavy(ier) steel cones on top to hold them in place while the torch introduced some turbulence into the equation and the flux heats up making things a bit slippery. Things stayed put very well and I was in and out of there pretty quick with no overheating of the top caps (like I have done the last two times with brass). Anyways, I think it looks pretty sweet! Almost seamless transition between the top caps and the legs. I’m sure there’s a better method so any people out there got any advice?
Next in line is my wife’s frame and fork. I’m a bit nervous honestly…imagine if something goes wrong! The consequences! It’s going to be a 26″ wheeled bike and smaller in size than my first 3 frames. Pics to come soon…
All the little things take awhile to finish – top caps & crown race & disc cable brazons, cleaning, wire-wheel to clean, prime and paint. I don’t know how anyone makes money selling forks. They are fun to make and ride though so I’ll continue to make them for me and my friends.
nicely done. beautiful forkus
But what coukd possibly go wrong?
🙂
Mrs meriwether