Originally Posted by
unworthy1
the best results I ever got was when a guy who used to post here (Frank B. in New York) cut extra threads on a CIOCC fork using his lathe and a thread tool, that turned out perfectly tho I was required to remove all the chrome plating before sending it (used emery cloth).
IMO this is the best way to cut them BUT Frank does not have the set up anymore and the only guy in my area who MIGHT have done the same (using a lathe), namely Bernie Mikkelsen, will not do it either.
It would be an enormous benefit if somebody with machining experience and a lathe would offer this service, the cost of a thread-cutting tool is far less than for a good quality die and in the hands of somebody who can use it the lathe does a much more reliable job with less wear and tear (again, IMO).
Oh for sure! I totally agree. I often prefer cutting threads that with a single point on the lathe, especially large diameter fine threads. You can get mighty fine quality this way, and you do more thinking and less working, which I like. With a good setup I would do it, but fixturing an assembled fork in a lathe is a bit of a pain and the lathe bed needs to be pretty long. A further difficulty is putting a centering cone in the bottom end of the steerer, with the fork blades in there. And then they're spinning around begging to tangle your shirt sleeve or grab your hand or whatever, so it's somewhat dangerous. I can think of a couple ways to do it involving some weird faceplate or a long tailstock extension and turning between centers. Fixturing's a bit of a pain no matter how I think about it, though, so I bought a cheap die. And it was fine quality. As good as any die I've ever used.
A bit nerdy here, but 24tpi is super easy to do on almost any American lathe because it factors into a lot of 2s and one 3, so most lead screws (often 8tpi or some other power of 2) will pick up the thread in multiple spots when doing multiple passes.