Hi all, I feel like I owe the group an update. First off, thanks Mike PromptCritical for your patience and thanks for the support from the group here.

Tonight I finished up the stem for Mike. It turned into a bit more of a project than expected but I'm really happy with where we ended up (aside from the 'reasonable timeline'!). I really enjoy taking on challenging projects like this.

After talking with Mike about his needs, we determined that the best way to approach this was an adjustable stem that I could send to him. He could ride around on it and find the right fit, lock it down and send it back to me. Then I can take measurements and make a real stem. I get the bonus of ending up with an adjustable stem for the future. I figured I'd do a quick drawing. This was an earlier version but you get the idea.


Since we wanted it to be adjustable, I didn't want to paint it. I wanted it to index so that when tightened the bars would be flat so I went with a square tube extension. I wanted it to slide nicely so I created brass shims to grip the extension inside a larger square tube clamp. I used stainless for all of the parts.


Getting the clamp square and brazed together so the binders were square and symmetrical, milling the brass shim and all the other steps to get the clamp completed went pretty well other than being time consuming. I used 50n silver fillet for this part.


I expected the extension part to be easy since it was really just a simplified standard stem. Some will be wondering about the propensity for stainless to stress crack when brazed. Yeah. I can confirm it does. I wanted the joint of steerer clamp and extension to be strong as the extension is quite long. At full extension it will exert some force on the clamp and joint. I used Nickel Silver and didn't consider the stress cracking until it was too late. I was using pretty thick-walled 0.125" square tubing and .065 stainless tubing for the clamp and the combination of heat required to heat the thick-walled extension and the copper-zinc filler just didn't work.

I had to call Mike and tell him that his 'reasonable timeline' was being extended. I offered him an option to cancel the project. He decided to proceed so I ordered 4130 square tubing and we agreed that I would gun blue the extension to protect the finish from rusting. Apparently due to weather that was delayed another few days.

The 4130 arrived Monday and I was able to get all of the fab work done Monday night and then some quick finish work and applying the bluing finish tonight.


I didn't spend as much time getting the fillets as smooth as I normally would since this will live a working life as a tool once Mike has returned it.


This is the start of the real stem made from the measurement of the adjustable stem.

Thanks Mike for your patience.
Duane