We tackled the steering tube today. But first, I forgot to add a picture of the finished tab. I like it because we made it look like an original Super Stock tab. A pointless detail, but it's those little things that make these recreations special for me. I'll notice it, so...
Here's the tab of a 24" Super Stock
And here's my tab
On to the steering tube. You may remember the donor fork came from a Gremlin, so the steer tube is too short. So taking some tube from the original fork, and adding it to the Gremlin fork...
As a reminder, the original forks will be measured to fit the 22" wheel and fender, then attached to the Gremlin fork. We're going to cut the legs off right below the lower brake bridge to keep the spring unit whole.
My friend recovered a monstrous lathe from the Rohr Aircraft company years ago. It's a 1947 Monarch 10EE. He says it's one of the greatest Lathes ever built. This one helped build fuel tanks for the Spruce Goose, and now it's making parts for me.
Here he's cutting an internal sleeve that will align the two tubes together.
Sqeezing it in. It has very tight tolerances.
He did what is called a "Rosette Weld" (I think). Basically he just zapped the hole real quick.
Following yesterday's bullying comments from Luke (I'm just kidding) I asked to give it a try, but I ran into the same problem I did the last time I tried to weld. When I put the helmet down I cannot see a thing! I don't know how you do it. My bud told me he just stares exactly where he wants to start, gets his hands in place, flips down the helmet with a jerk of his head, and starts... then he can see. Since I can't see, and don't know what to look at, going blind freaks me out. So... maybe I'll try again on something less important. (Like my Mother-In-Law's car)
This is the tube all finished and cleaned up. (No, the top isn't crooked, it's just a long pic and the camera made it look weird)