Tooling:)

I finally got a 100mm dummy axle to set up in my fork jig.

That’s the old setup, it’s just an axle and there’s nothing to keep the dropouts in phase. The pointy things are for building seatstay wishbones, the ends of the tubes rest on the points as I fit everything up. I’ll keep those and refine that setup as well. I can switch the fixture out to do either job.

So I took the new dummy axle and stuck it straight into the lathe and started turning a 1″ section in the middle down to 1/2″ diameter.

The block that’s going to hold it is 1″, so that center section will mean that when it’s in there it’s centered.

The 3/8″ hole gets drilled out to 1/2″, and the block gets cut in two.

The axle sits in the half round trench in each side of the block and the bolts squeeze everything together.

Now I just need to make some big fat washers for the axle to hold the dropouts down nice and tight. Then I’m set. Like I said, I’ll keep the tube points, but I think I’m going to replace the old rusty axle with a 1/2″ rod turned down to 3/8″ on the ends. It’ll have a 1″ center section just like the dummy axle, and fit nicely in the block. A lathe is a wonderful thing, indeed.