In a continued bid to try and stay out the LBS for stuff I should do myself…

Need to get a fork cut down as its currently stacker central.

What’s the general consensus for purchase?

I went to B&Q & bought a plumbers pipe cutter.

Forgot how much it cost, had it about 3 years now, & used it to cut down 3 steerers.

thats the sort of thing, do you *need* to clamp to the forks while using it or can you get away with some free hand?

I use a Kennedy pipe cutter that I bought from Cromwell Tools. Pretty well made for the money and easy to source new discs.

You will also need to either cut a mm longer and flat-file, or, as I do, have a round file for cleaning the inside flare and flat file for outside flare and the finish.

You don’t need a clamp as the cutter holds itself in place, and there’s little danger of it going wonky once the first line is complete. It is, however, an easier job with something to hold the fork for you.

Thomson post cut with the Kennedy.

Used mine ‘freehand’. Just took my time, marked up on the steerer where I wanted the cut, & screwed the tool onto the steerer, a couple of gentle rotations just to ‘start’ the cutting wheel into the ally steerer tube, then gently turn the black knob to tighten the cutter on the tube whilst rotating the tool.

The technique I found is to apply pressure to the cutting wheel a little at a time, two full rotations, tighten gently, two full rotations….& so on.

hacksaw – either way you will have to file it ….

I buy one for £3 from Wilkos then chuck it out when it goes blunt. Does many alu steerers or one steel*.

* have to be patient tho – wind up the tension very slowly or the brace on the cutter can crack in half!

cheers folks, useful stuff

hacksaw – either way you will have to file it ….

It’s more about getting a perpendicular finish. I’d use a guide – even if it was just an old stem bolted in place – if I was using a saw.

You don’t need a perpendicular finish, you’ve got a gap between the top of the steerer and the headset top cap to allow you to tension it. So long as the angle of cut leaves you within a suitable tolerance for the size of that gap it doesn’t matter t all form a mechanical point of view. Apparently there are 100 man points available if you use an angle grinder…..

You don’t need a perpendicular finish,

I don’t think I said that you did. It just an easier way to achieve a better overall finish.

mark it all the way around using a paint pen and break out te angle grinder with a thin cutting disc.

Where do I collect my man-points?

Grinding disc for the extra sparks surely?

i guess operating a hacksaw with accuracy was a skill that not all of us were born with 😀 – my self included – dodgy eye. – bit of tape for a guide and all is good though

i guess operating a hacksaw with accuracy was a skill that not all of us were born with

Absolutely. I have numerous weaknesses as a human being, and one of them is sawing. Wood, metal, plastic, whatever – the preparations I need to go through to get a straight cut is just not funny. Combine that with a desire to do a good (read: perfect) job and have things that don’t look like a monkey-baby worked on it, and you’ll understand my use of, and recommendation for, cutting tools and guides!

Saw guide bought from CRC for around £15 and a decent hacksaw. Job done. Or use the old stem approach mentioned above for maximum cheapness.

I kept blunting the cheap pipe cutter disks, so last time clamped the stem in place, then slid on a couple of spacer rings to cut against. They not only stop you chewing up the stem, but also spin against the blade keeping it on track if you “veer off” to much. I got a better result rotating the fork as I cut rather than cutting straight through (ie sawing both opposite walls at the same time).

Also handy reference for when you break out the file to tidy up …

I chewed mine off

I snap mine off using only my eyelids.

I flutter my eyelashes in the general direction of my forks and the steerer just falls clean off.