TiHabanero

As a noob I don't have the confidence yet to build my own forks so I had one built for me. The fork ends are the cap type where they fit over the end of the blades. They were installed incorrectly so the lawyer tabs were on the inside making wheel install and removal difficult. Instead of having the person fix it, I took it upon myself to correct the error. Having things apart I decided to inspect the blades and found one blade 3mm longer than the other. The ends of the blades were not cut square as well.
It appears the discrepancy in blade length was compensated by moving one fork end to get a wheel to center, so I corrected the blade length and squared the ends. Everything is good and correct now, and I now understand why some use this type of fork end. It is really easy to prep and braze up!

Andrew R Stewart 

So you pulled off the drop outs, shortened the long blade and rebrazed the drops in (on the correct sides)? Hopefully the 3mm+ loss of brake reach/crown clearance isn't an issue. Doing repairs one learns a lot. Andy

TiHabanero

No problem with tire clearance at all. I had it built long to begin with to clear extra large tire, but have since concluded a tire over 38mm is not needed.
mm
One other thing I found is the steerer tube is tig welded to the fork crown at the bottom, and is not brazed in. There is a gap between the steerer and crown where the head set race sits. I know that gap needs to be filled with something to prevent rust, however there already is light rust started at that juncture so I assume it is into the gap as well. Will I have a problem with this?

unterhausen

that's just weird, did you have a framebuilder do this?

Live Wire 

Canaboo

Sounds like the guy you found was overconfident.

Andrew R Stewart 

When I worked at JCPennys (in 1973-1974) we sold a variety of imports as the bike boom had overtaxed the domestic brands. Some were sourced form Europe, some form that new upstart Asia. One day a customer crutched in with his dad carrying the bike whose fork failed. The son hade a severely broken leg and dad was mad. Being a young guy I sank into the back round as the dept. manager quickly called on the store general manager to come down. I saw and head enough to understand that the fork steerer had been only attached to the crown at the top, as in a butt weld. The steerer didn't even overlap the crown, just sat on top of it. The weld failed and the only thing still attaching the frame, with the steerer still in the head tube, to the fork blades/crown and wheel was the brake cable.

This was an early lesson as to the importance of a fork's integrity. Of the complete frame and fork (given a diamond frame) it's the fork that is attached by only one point, one end, one brazing/welding, one bonding (and I saw back then the cable makes for a poor steering control device). I've seen more then a couple of forks with drop outs attached backwards, reversed. Lots have been poorly aligned. Steerers have been damaged by stems and poor installing/securing. Even a very few have had cracks resulting in separation of structure (including a fork on a bike I had bought, not from JCP). But this was the worst, as well as the first that I've seen. The sight of that son hobbling in on his crutches still stays with me.

I agree with others in that this fork shows construction that is too questionable to trust. It seem that every step had had some issue or incompleteness. When you first posted this thread I was willing to go with the idea that the builder had a moment of distraction. I was curious of the name of the builder but was willing to not ask, we all have off moments after all. Now with this new understanding as to the unorthodox construction I feel that the name of the builder be announced. Unless there's more to this story (like we're dealing with a unicrown fork that has no crown) I feel that this builder needs to not make another fork for others again in this manor. Andy

Nessism

You won't catch me bragging about my brazing abilities, but with external socket type dropouts and a stout crown, building a fork isn't overly difficult or risky. And the steerer attachment is one of the easier parts; make sure you have the proper internal clearance and then flow the braze in on end and verify it comes out the other, while not burning the crap out of the flux. Maybe the biggest concern is making sure the blades plug in cleanly to the crown. Sometimes there are gaps, much like there sometimes are with oval chain stays at the BB shell. I'm a fan of crowns with a goodly amount of braze surface area too. Some crowns are pretty minimalistic in that regard which isn't good for us "non pro" builders. Personally, I'm confident in my abilities to braze things like lugs or simple fillets for bridges and such, but I don't like to stray outside my comfort zone for fear of the unknown. That's one of the reasons I like plug in type drops out: they are pretty difficult to mess up. At any rate, I agree that the fork in question may not be ideally constructed. Some photos may help make that determination.

TiHabanero

Considering grinding the weld off the bottom of the crown and steerer to see if I can salvage the thing and braze it up properly.

Yes, this guy sells frames around the world. Runs a clean shop, but something went wrong with this project. I'm guessing he outsourced it?

Cynikal 

I'm surprised you aren't taking it back to him for a new fork. If you want to build a fork, order a kit from Nova and go crazy but don't try to fix a broken project.

TiHabanero

Simply put, I don't trust the work from this person. I'll eat the cost as the cost of a lesson well learned. He will not get my recommendation as a builder.

calstar 

No reason not to name the person who does/did such shoddy work, it can save others from the same experience. Pro builders need to be held accountable for the product they sell, even if its outsourced, especially when an injury may occur(fork failing) from their work.

regards, Brian