Homemade truss rods

[us56456712]

I had the fork and bracket, no rods. Got hot rolled steel rods, chrome nuts and acorn nuts at the hardware store. Cut a slot in the end of the rods and inserted a axle centering washer in them. Welded the axle centering washers in the slots using 2 batteries, 2 sets of jumper cables and some 6013 electrodes. Bent the rods and cut threads with a die.

welding rig


Metal rods with slot cut in and axle centering washers, one already welded in.


Start of the bends.


Rough bends before using a copper headed hammer to smooth the bends.


Rods bent, threaded and installed. More refining of the bends with the copper hammer is still needed.

 

[Dr. Tankenstein]

Those look awesome sir!

 

[Robertk]

Outstanding!

 

[schwidiot]

I just used map gas to heat the axle ends and flattened them with a big hammer, and then drilled a hole for the axle, and to get smother bends the first time I used ply wood cut in a circle and held in a vise, heated and bent, either way, hand made truss rods are cheaper and tougher than any thing old or hollow.

 

[user 15387]

Very clever stuff.

 

[BARTO]

I just bought a fork this past weekend tat I plan on doing this with. One question....what the heck is a axle centering washer?

 

[Bendix]

I just bought a fork this past weekend that I plan on doing this with...

Spend some time searching the forum, there have been a lot of cool truss rod ideas over the years!

 

[us56456712]

I just bought a fork this past weekend tat I plan on doing this with. One question....what the heck is a axle centering washer?

 

[Kevin Kanouff]

They come with certain bikes so the front fork can center itself when you put the wheel on.

 

[BARTO]

They come with certain bikes so the front fork can center itself when you put the wheel on.

Thanks Kevin, I've see these in the past but didn’t know what they were called nor did I recognize them in their "flattened" state in your thread. Again, thanks for the tip, really interested in trying this.
BART

 

[Kevin Kanouff]

Yeah same here, didn't know name or that is what he used.

Very cool reuse of parts.

 

[Bendix]

Not that it matters, but those are actually meant as a safety device on bikes with a flat fork end (BMX, cheap MTB) that don't have a recess combined with 'lawyer tabs' to keep the front wheel from falling off easily if the nuts become loose. If anything, on a poorly made fork they hinder wheel centering... ;-)

 

[OneHorsePower]

i guess a washer could do the job , but these are great , gives you a little play to adjust