Originally Posted by
fietsbob
Machine shop around you? Local economy= hire your neighbors to make a sleeve.
Terrible advice.
1- unless you have a friend who owes you a favor, the minimum cost for any machine shop work is $35-75 depending on where you live.
2- it isn't only about a simple sleeve. It has to be toleranced closely to provide a crown seat and tight fit against the fork column, otherwise the bike will have a permanent loose headset, so to speak.
3- the now greater bending stress will be higher on the column than the fork was designed for, creating a serious risk of catastrophic failure.
This kind of non-thinking advice isn't surprising from a rank amateur, but I'm very disappointed to see it coming from someone who purports to be an experienced professional mechanic. In that capacity your role should be to discourage sloppy, dangerous home repairs rather than encourage them.
To the OP- either install a standard fork and live with the changed geometry, or buy a reasonably priced suspension ready fork properly built for this kind of service.