I bought a set of new 24" wheels on ebay and mistakenly received a set of 20" wheels. I'm not having any luck with the seller and normally it wouldn't be a [I tried to curse] off as I could someday use 20" wheels anyway but they are fitted with 14mm axles and my 20" frames all have 3/8" dropouts. So I practiced "flattening" or "slotting" on an old 14mm axle using my bench grinder. It seemed pretty simple and it makes me wonder if my modified axle is any different than anything I could buy. Anyone?

-Steve

P.S. The axles I want to flatten are cr-mo and hollow and the hubs use sealed cartridge bearings.

i have done it many times. i just flat the section that fits thru the dropout - not the whole length to the end - so only about 4-8mm worth, depending how thick the dropouts are.

i don't think i'd do it to a hollow axle, though. might be getting pretty thin, especially going 14mm all the way down to 3/8".

I thought I was only idiot who did this - funny


heynow, I needed some wheels for a raider.

longshot but...
anyone know the best way to slot a 14mm down to a 3/8s? i suppose i will start with a fine maonary blade on a chop saw and hand file the rest. does this sound stupid? the axels are solid. if anyone ever sees this tell me what you think. i couldn't be newer to restoration.

thanks
kc

I think the very best way to do this would be to put the axles in mill and take off the majority of the material , then finish it off on a surface grinder, then re-thread it to clean up all the burrs. of course unless you have these tools, you might be better off selling what you've got and buying what you need. sounds like more trouble than it's worth to me.