I posted this on MTBR a while ago and pretty much everyone disagreed with the whole idea. Many believed I was putting my life in danger for such a critical area.
Anyway, the story in short was I bought my vp free used. During a complete rebuild I found the steerer tube to be about 3/4" too short, so it barely stuck into my stem.
I could have bought an integrated stem for $20, pressed in a new steerer for $60 or bought a new lower crown for $100 (rough estimate prices). But... I decided to do it my own way
Short steerer:
First I machined a very simple stepped cylinder at the lathes here at school out of a piece of 6061-t6 aluminum.
Then I pressed it in with a hydraulic press using loctite made for permanent sleeves:
The little thing had a very minor wiggle when it was being pulled on at the end of my bars, so we had to weld it. Our friend did a tig weld all the way around with full penetration (bye-bye heat treatment)...but a few minutes filing off the excess weldment and:
(I also had to round off the inside edge of the top to clear the top cap...)
It's been holding perfectly for several months and I think it's stronger than the original. The added weight from the thickness is negligible. So yea... thought I'd share because I'm bored
Anyway, the story in short was I bought my vp free used. During a complete rebuild I found the steerer tube to be about 3/4" too short, so it barely stuck into my stem.
I could have bought an integrated stem for $20, pressed in a new steerer for $60 or bought a new lower crown for $100 (rough estimate prices). But... I decided to do it my own way
Short steerer:
First I machined a very simple stepped cylinder at the lathes here at school out of a piece of 6061-t6 aluminum.
Then I pressed it in with a hydraulic press using loctite made for permanent sleeves:
The little thing had a very minor wiggle when it was being pulled on at the end of my bars, so we had to weld it. Our friend did a tig weld all the way around with full penetration (bye-bye heat treatment)...but a few minutes filing off the excess weldment and:
(I also had to round off the inside edge of the top to clear the top cap...)
It's been holding perfectly for several months and I think it's stronger than the original. The added weight from the thickness is negligible. So yea... thought I'd share because I'm bored