is there a reasonable way to convert a........
 

swagged crankset into a single ring SS crankset?? I know they are cheaply made; but the bike is also and I don't really want to spend any money on it. I can make all the other SS changes with no prob; but I hate the look of the extra 2 rings.........I'm gonna Dremel 'em off at the least........

if you dont want to spend any money just use the double ring and deal with it.

triple rings......I don't like the looks; so I'm "dealing with it" by seeing if anybody has a better way of removing the extra rings...........

if you dont want to spend any money just use the double ring and deal with it.

I can see why your handle is Putz..........

Unscrew the the old ones? Am I missing something?

The little ring has its own set of bolts, so get rid of it - no problem. The bigger two rings are attached using the same set of bolts, so you will have to get a set of "short" bolts for just one chainring. Quite inexpensive.

on the cheap cranksets from the mid-eighties; the pieces were forced together by compressing big steel pins; kinda' like giant rivets........no bolts.......you cut the pins and everything falls apart......cheap but effective; never seen one fail.........

i converted an old road bike to FG and it had the same deal on the two bigger rings. i wanted it done and on the cheap so i sliced the smaller ring into pieces and left like two teeth on each little piece, just for *****s sake. they were like little toothed spacers. my brother proceded to paint the tips of the "spacers" red so it looked like blood, lame i know.....little bro's, haha

Got it. If you want to come to madison, WI, I will give you a cheap shimano mtn crank with removable rings. If you don't mind ramps and pins, I will even give you some rings to go with it. Problem solved.

My handle is Pfutz, not putz................................................................................................ ..................dotdotdotdot....dot...

Yes it can be done.
You simply have to grind off both sides of the rivet (without damaging the inner ring).
Then carefully pry them apart.
I've done it twice and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
You can't generally use the outer ring because of chainline and most riveted and welded chainrings hace a pretty wimpy second ring (like 35-40T).
If you got the time, do the crime.

like I said......

And thanks to you guys that had some advice...........especially for the parts up north; a little far for me..........thanks again...........

unfortunately, its normally (based on the one i've done this to and the other two crappy cranksets laying around in my room) the middle or granny ring thats structurally part of the crankarm, so you can do it and ride a 24/26 or 34/36/39 whatever ring with them, usually. drill press works well too. you can also use a hacksaw(real tedious)/angle grinder/dremel(use a million cutting discs) and cut through the most narrow bit of each ring except for the one you want to keep......the only cranks i've seen that you can't do something similar wtih are some old plastic-coated-steel, pathetic shimano guys.