Andrew R Stewart 

I got to spend a few hours in the basement today, what with the rain there was no riding. Got a bunch done on my long term 650B MtB project which includes a unicrown fork, my first. Shown is the blades and drop outs after soaking. The drop outs are self milled. When I started to tack the second one I, thankfully, saw it was backwards! Melted the tack and reprepped it. Perhaps in my old age I am getting smarter if I find the mistakes before the work is done Also shown are parts for the soon to be completed blade mitering jig. That's a pair of Alex Meade's nice tube blocks on a cross plate and my home designed/made drop out clamp. The base plate is coming from MSC soon. Then I have to decide the frame's steering geometry before I cut and determine the rake. This will be completed next winter I hope.

Not shown was a pretty common chain stay silver brazing in a shell for my urban bike that replaces the screw up I did with the home made lugged frame of a year past. At least that step went well. Andy

unterhausen

Dropouts are interesting.

Tandem Tom

Andy a question. How come the fork blades are not the same? I thought both would have a curve and be brazed to the the steerer.

Andrew R Stewart 

Back side of same scene. You can see my sharpie marks on the curved tops of the blades where I MIGHT be mitering. In time I will cut the tops to mat and tack then together before running the hole saw through, to better tie things together during the mitering. This project is a bit challenging for my experience and I discover new possibilities as I dwell and dabble.

Eric- I milled a slot and counter bore in some 1/4" bar for the drops. I wanted to use common QR skewers and thought that a lip would be good insurance (no other of my bikes have them...) Puls I have a mill so why not play The drops will get further cutting down and filing to look less angular.

A vareful eye will see that the drops are not perfectly centered WRT the blades. But this is a MtB, for me, thus will get little use and not be seen by many in the wild. Andy

unterhausen

I would never see such a thing

So you have a way to hold the blades at an angle in the mill?

Andrew R Stewart 

Yes, I think... Been working on it for a while, tossing various set ups about in the brain during riding and going to sleep. As I see it now the challenge will be the distance between the angle vise and the hole saw, the DRO strip I installed a couple of years ago will increase this as I hope to hang the mitering "jig" off the side of the mill table at the needed angle. Soon I'll see if this holds water as a set up. Andy

Andrew R Stewart 

After some grinding, cutting and filing I have better looking drops. A mix of blocky and organic. Still some fine sanding needed but I'm happy with these. Andy

Le Mechanic

Looking good! I built something similar a couple of years ago. 650b klunker with a fork that I wanted to look like a mid 70's Redline type. It was my first fork build, so those early wishbone style forks seemed like a pretty easy place to start. I cobbled together a jig to miter each tube seperately since they would both be symmetrical, and welded the dropouts on later in the process. I made a YouTube video of the fork build.

Andrew R Stewart 

LM- Funny how what's a challenge for one is easy peasy for another. The first paint jobs I did were Imron and later over the years (after I learned that I wasn't a good painter) I read of how hard Imron was to work with. What did I know when i just got those paint jobs done...Andy