Suggestions for scraping glue out of my fork?

[FastforaSlowGuy]

Getting ready to glue a metal insert into a used Alpha Q fork. The old insert is out, the steerer is cut down, and the new insert fits perfectly ... until it hits a long blob of old glue about 8cm down. It's too deep to get in there without tools of some sort, so I'm hoping someone has recommendations for how to do this without damaging the carbon steerer. This is the only thing standing between me and a nice ride this weekend, so I'm anxious to get this fixed.

File? Metal brush? Other?

[11.4]

In my experience with AlphaQ forks, the glue never stuck very well to the inside walls of the steer anyway. Probably mold release compound or something like that. So almost anything is likely to just knock it off. If you want to be careful, I'd get a foot-long piece of copper water pipe or galvanized steel pipe just small enough to fit inside the steer, file the end so there are no burs on the outside and the inside is tapered out to make more or less an edge at the outside diameter, and then use it strictly by hand - no hammer or whatever. The point of a piece of tubing that's a close fit to the inside of the steer is that you aren't going to point it sideways into the steer and potentially gouge anything.

I've had to use a bur mounted in a pneumatic tool, an oval file, and all kinds of other tricks from time to time, but they all risk the steer a bit more. It's not like that steer isn't pretty sturdy, but it's not an area where I want to play around at all. The tubing method has nearly always been a reliable, idiot-proof method for cleaning up a steer. That being said, you can see why those inserts fell out of popularity.

[buldogge]

Flap of sandpaper on a wooden dowel...knock off the glue and rough the surface at the same time...then wipe down with acetone.

Rough and clean the insert, epoxy, install and wait 24 hours.

-Mark in St. Louis

[R2D2]

Getting ready to glue a metal insert into a used Alpha Q fork. The old insert is out, the steerer is cut down, and the new insert fits perfectly ... until it hits a long blob of old glue about 8cm down. It's too deep to get in there without tools of some sort, so I'm hoping someone has recommendations for how to do this without damaging the carbon steerer. This is the only thing standing between me and a nice ride this weekend, so I'm anxious to get this fixed.

File? Metal brush? Other?

I've been following you journey with the Alpha Q so am curious where you found the insert. Thanks....

The answer with the dowel is the way to go.
The dowel may even knock the blob off the wall pretty easily.

[FastforaSlowGuy]

Buldogge machined up this beautiful replacement, which is substantially better than what Alpha used.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/10/26/ebe3a7ar.jpg


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