Ready to Ruck

1) I want to drill a front brake on a track frame. What size bit do I use?

2) Any tips on restoring an old chrome fork?

OLDYELLR

What size is your brake bolt? 1/64" clearance should be plenty. I actually put a back brake on the front and had to make a shoulder nut out of a stainless allen bolt, so had to make the hole bigger in the back side.

A new chrome fork should be cheaper than rechroming the existing one, unless it's a vintage one you want to keep.

spunkyruss

I agree with OLDYELLER, and I would add a few bits of advice about drilling. (No pun intended.)

-Measure several times before you even think about picking up the drill.

-It's generally easier to correctly drill a hole if you can securely clamp your workpiece in the horizontal position, and drill down into it.

-Use a center punch first, to keep the bit from walking away from the carefully measured place where you want your hole.

-Use a cutting fluid, and drill carefully.

operator

That's what a road fork is for.

sunofsand

What is wrong with the chrome?

spunkyruss

If the chrome just has some minor pitting then you can make it look pretty good by slowly removing the rust with some very fine steel wool. You can find extremely fine steel wool at a decent hardware store, because it's used to finely polish wood. A brass or bronze brush works pretty well, too. Brass wool seems to be the most gentle method, but it's often difficult to find.

After removing the rust, use a metal polish on it, and then apply some car wax.

This won't restore it perfectly, but it will change the rust from "orange barnacles" to far less objectionable smooth, dark freckles.

If the chrome plates is flaking off in large pieces then you might be well served by a different fork.

Trakhak

That's right. Plus, some track forks are designed with such tight tire clearance under the crown that even the shortest reach brake caliper won't work. Somewhere around here I've still got the original fork from the Bianchi Eco Pista I bought in 1983 - they built the fork with such short blades that they had to file the underside of the crown so that the tire would fit. Keep the original fork original and get a road fork; they're cheap enough.

HillRider

Brake mounting bolts are 6 mm and recessed Allan mounting nuts require an 8 mm hole. So you would have to drill a 6 mm hole in the front of the fork crown and a 6 mm (for a through bolt with an external nut) or an 8 mm (for a recessed Allan nut) in the rear face of the crown.

As mentioned, be sure the track fork has enough clearance to allow any brake to function before you drill.

Unless you can restore the current chrome finish, having it rechromed will cost much more than a new fork.

poopncow

[QUOTE=HillRider]Brake mounting bolts are 6 mm and recessed Allan mounting nuts require an 8 mm hole. So you would have to drill a 6 mm hole in the front of the fork crown and a 6 mm (for a through bolt with an external nut) or an 8 mm (for a recessed Allan nut) in the rear face of the crown.
QUOTE]


Isn't it great when people know the answer so it is not necessary to pick up a scale?

Just want to ask IF it is necessary to countersink with a 10 mm on the back side?

Hill, you know I value your words, so no disrespect to YOU intended

HillRider

I picked up the scale so you didn't have to.

Countersinking isn't needed. I have seen several new forks (Kestrel EMS Pro among others) where the Allen nut head sits flat on the rear face of the fork crown and have modified a few older forks myself by drilling the rear face to 8 mm w/o countersinking. Countersinking gives a neat appearance but has no functional value.

No disrespect taken. Glad to help.

Ready to Ruck

I appreciate the effort but I'm not asking if I should; just a simple answer. And I don't think I should keep the bike brakeless. I ride fixed with a brake so what's the point of having a bike I don't need? And why should I spend more of my money? Especialy with a frame from the 50s, I'd like to keep it all together. I actually have discussed this bike before in the fg/ss forum and decided to go through with it. It has a slight perforaton where the brake hole belongs meaning I'm sure the manufacturer used the model with brakes as well. The frame looks really good; why would I want to mismatch with a fork (ruining the aesthetics of the bike)?

Thanks to the personwith the drlling advice also.
As for the chrome, thanks for the responses. It's an old frenchy road bike's chrome fork that I picked up at a nonprofit; sort of a project bike. I'll use the steel wool method to attempt to clean up the fork as best I can.