Can anyone tell me the best way to cut the steerer on a fork? I was thinking a high speed dremmel tool with a very fine circular cutting blade.
Thanks
Go to your LBS who will have the proper guide tool for the hacksaw, ensuring a properly angled and flat cut. Anything less is foolish.
TriBri,
I really didn’t ask for your opinion, nor do I care about it, on my endeavor, just requesting information from people with KNOWLEDGE. I have since found an excellent post on this site by Dan Empfield.
I actually just cutdown a new fork last night. I just use a sharp hack saw.
I scribe a line around the circumference of the tube and very carefully cut the tube with the fork in my vice. Be careful when you get close to cutting through so as not to splinter the other side. I just knock off some of the rough edges with a file and Im done. Im sure this isnt the “right” way to do it but it works for me.
I scribe a line around the circumference of the tube and very carefully cut the tube…
Um - okay, I had taken the time to type out a reply but apparently the editor decided to have it lunch!
Leonard Zinn, authro of Zinn & the Art of Road Bike Maintenance, posted an article on Velonews.com at some point on how to cut carbon steerers. He suggests that even if you have a Park SG-6 Threadless Fork Saw Guide (http://www.parktool.com/tools/SG_6.shtml), you should make two cuts - one from each side - in order to avoid fraying/fracturing the carbon.
Michael
Thanks!
TriBri,
I really didn’t ask for your opinion, nor do I care about it, on my endeavor, just requesting information from people with KNOWLEDGE. I have since found an excellent post on this site by Dan Empfield.
What is up with your attitude? It sounds like TriBri was just trying to help you… Maybe you should learn respect then learn how to cut carbon…
I use electrical tape and a composite dremel blade. I usually tape first a yellow piece for the part you want to cut, then two black pieces above and below (so that you get a nice, clear line with the yellow). If you make sure the tape lines up on each edge from end to end when wrapping (with no tension), you will have a nice, straight, square line. This is how I cut every carbon tube I use. I am thinking of trying to make a nice tool for this purpose.
Make sure, also, that you wear gloves, goggles, and a mask. Carbon flies when cut with a dremel, and carbon fibre does not go away from respiratory tissues.
Toothless hacksaw blades are what I would recommend with a hacksaw, and I would still tape it up to ensure that no fraying happens.
Excuse me, but you DID ask for advice, so I offered mine. I don’t know you from Adam. I’ve seen one too many folks trash their carbon steerers trying to do it themselves. Most folks would be far better off letting the pros do it. And I suspect Empfield has done far more cutting than you’ll ever be called on to do in your lifetime. You don’t like my opinion, so be it. It wasn’t a personal attack. Hope it works out for you. Don’t say I didn’t warn you, though.
Knowledge? You don’t say. . .I’ve wrenched for 15+ years part-time at bike shops all over the country. But then again, I’m sure thats amateur hour compared to your extensive background. Obviously I must have a lot to learn. Perhaps you’d care to teach me some time.
Now THAT, my friend, WAS a personal attack. . . in response to your unprovoked flame.
TriBri and Flytry,
What is up with your attitude? It sounds like TriBri was just trying to help you… Maybe you should learn respect then learn how to cut carbon… My intitial response was harsh and should not have been. I always appreciate and respect advice, but I doubt ANYONE here appreciates being called a fool or a “bitch”. THAT, is what my response to you was about, not your advice. Berating people is never appropriate.
as usual, the answer can be found on the best kept secret in multisport, the website attached to this forum:
http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/techctr/maintenance/steerer.html
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