Mickeyspinn
rBotM Winner
Oh crumbs ...without going back through the thread again your race isn't 27 tho? Any small engineering firm thats got a normal man-size lathe will have a chuck that'll take 1" up the spindle bore and isn't scared of fork blades wanging around you'll probably end up with a more true cut aswell! It's literally a 2 minute job. I just think you've got the issue uptop with a compression ring for the bearing that's going to be sitting over a threaded steerer I know you intend a workaround here but there will be a limit to how much you can get away with ....two lots of homebrew workarounds one at the bottom and one uptop is really not a great start for a headset......Just need someone with a lathe that's big enough and can mount the steerer through the headstock. Any gunsmith should do, as they need to turn barrels.
Problem is, by the time I drove to the nearest gunsmith, I'll burn more in diesel than a £11 27.0 race.
Also, we're assuming that the 70 year old steerer is true to itself and to the fork.
Don't see any issues with 27.0 ball race or cartridge race really. Given the number of JIS headsets around, you'll still be able to get one in a 100 years.