So ever since I got those KTM forks my dad and I have been working on making some tripple clamps. I've been modeling them after the Laegers clamps that came with my CR500 conversion stuff. I originally wanted to make them out of aluminum but my dad wanted to do the first set in steel since its cheaper and we had all the stuff already laying around here except a few pieces of 1/4in flat iron which I got for about $8.
Let me be the first to say, trying to keep everything to the exacting tolerences it needs to be has been a royal pain in the ass thus far. My dad has been doing all the machining on our 1930's era southbend lathe that is not known to be exactly in spec and his eye sight isn't what it use to be, so its made things interestingWe were going to originally wait to buy a 2 5/16's hole saw to cut the circles in the plate for the pieces that clamp the forks so it could fit in exactly. Well my dad got kind of a wild hair and decided to drill it out with a 2in drill bit in our old ass drill press that makes the lathe look like something new and shiny. Anyways, after he did that it turns out the one side had crawled a little bit out of alignment, so he bored it the rest of the way with the mill and kind of moved it over a little to compensate it. It worked out pretty good all things considering. He finished up the little holding blanks for the jig this afternoon and I welded it up.
Heres what I go so far, it will be the top clamp. We have to make and weld in the middle bushing for the stem to fit...and also make the setup for the handle bar clamps which has turned out to be a little bit more difficult then I figured. Also have to split the fork holders, and weld on the pieces that the 8mm bolts will be going through. I'm gonna be gone from the house tomorrow but my dad said he would cut out the piece of pipe that goes in the front of the clamp to complete the weld surface to the actual piece that holds the forks. More pictures of the welds and the Laegers clamp I'm using as a reference in the post below this one...
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That one and probably the rest will have to be re-drilled for a bolt to go through it easily. There was also a screw up some how in the place where the groove was cut in the fork holder, and where the bolt tubes needed to be welding on. Its very noticeable and I'm really not liking how the 3 I've got done so far have came out. Its not out of the question for me to whack the tubes I've got welded on one side off with the grinder and weld up that groove, and make a new one in line with the other side. Just kind of a lot of extra work. We'll see.