In the process of rebuilding the Organ Donor, she needs new axles. The old front end was a springer, and I'm switching back to a telescopic. The rear of the frame is slightly wider, and I want to switch to big-twin style adjusters. What this means is that I need a front spool axle, and an extended rear.
I don't know where to buy a spool axle, the one on LaCucaracha has been with that bike since the 70's. The one place I know to get an extended rear axle doesn't know when they will have more in stock. Time to make some new parts.
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| The front axle consists of three parts: the axle and two end caps. Here's all three, ready to be threaded. For those who don't know all the lingo and mumbo-jumbo in chopper land, when we are talking about "spool" front ends, it just means that the wheel and/or axle are not equipped for a brake. |
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| Running these threads was easy enough. 1/2-20. Drill 'em, tap em. I like to start a thread like this in the lathe and then run the bottom tap down by hand. |
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| Here's the fun part. Single point cutting. I haven't done this for a while, and had to refresh my memory. I also bought a new cutter. These carbide inserts take a lot of the variables out of thread cutting. It's a HELLUVA lot easier than grinding the tool bit like we did back in the day. |
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| More thread cutting in progress. |
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| With the threads all cut, a relief is added to the base of the thread. This only needs to be as deep as the minor diameter of the thread. For one, it looks nice. Second, it allows the female threaded part to turn all the way to the shoulder without interference. |
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| Here's the completed front axle. |
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