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This is about fork spring spacers in the forks. Can someone tell me what the differences are between different types of PVC pipes? I am planning on buying some PVC pipe and a cheap pipe cutter to make a bunch of different spring spacers. Any help would be appreciated. If I go to Home Depot or Lowe's, what kind of PVC pipe do I need to buy? Will they cut it down from 20 feet?

Thanks!

Jason,
Schedule 40 PVC is the standard in spacer wear this year! 8) I always ask if they have any scrape and wala! They usually do and they give it to me for pennies or for free. Of course if you are going to make a lot of spacers, you most likely will have to pay for it....

schedule 40 would be your best bet I'd think, it has nice thick walls

they usually sell it in smaller lengths too, like 8' and 10'

A radial arm saw or powered miter saw works great for cutting, if you have one, or a circular saw or hand saw will do the job.

I have a pair of pvc cutters but you don't always get a very straight cut with 'em

Indawoods wrote:Jason,
Schedule 40 PVC is the standard in spaced wear this year! 8) I always ask if they have any scrape and wala! They usually do and they give it to me for pennies or for free. Of course if you are going to make a lot of spacers, you most likely will have to pay for it....

What the heck is spaced wear??

What color is schedule 40? What color is schedule 80? Is 40 or 80 better for making spacers?? I am going to need several feet, so I don't mind buying it. What a concept! :-)

40 is white.... spacer wear was an attempt at humor, it was only an attempt. If it was actual humor it would have been followed by laughter.

it's usually white

OH! I get it now. Like fashion. :-)

I don't have any saws, and I didn't cut my Eibach spacers perfect when I cut them, so I am going to try a high quality Harbor Freight Tools pipe cutter this time. Surely, it will be good enough to cut plastic.

A pipe cutter is going to be a problem if you are cutting anything short. There isn't enough room for the cut piece to be supported.

BTW, schedule 20 would probably work, but cutting it is a pain 'cuz it's so flimsy. No way you are going to cut a 5mm piece using a cutter (PVC or other type). It's pretty flimsy junk.

I didn't see the response if there was one...schedule 80 is grey in color, is used as conduit, not potable water.

Yeah...a mitre box or table saw works great. Again, small (short) space wear (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!) is tough to cut 'cuz it's so...well...small.

The pieces tend to drop thru the blade guide/guard. I just cut a bunch of them at different guesses, picked thru the pile to get a couple that were the same.

I was cutting something like 4mm pieces.

I thought the cutting head would be too wide to make a complete cut of such a small piece, so I was planning on making 1/3 deep cut on one side, then 1/3 deep on the other, then back to the first to 2/3 deep, etc. I figured that if I got the cut started in a straight manner, I could finish it off with a hacksaw if need be. I don't have a miterbox, though that sounds like a good idea.

What kind of PVC is the dark gray kind?

My spacers that came with my Eibach springs are thick. The walls are .15" thick. It is 1" ID and 1.3" OD.

EDIT

OK, I see where it was mentioned that Scedule 80 was dark gray.

I am putting some Race Tech Cartridge Emulators in my '87's forks. I had to shorten one of my Eibach provided spacers, as the Cartridge Emulators make the springs sit higher. I was thinking 5mm spacer, but I should have been thinking about a spacer that would cause the forks to have 5mm, 10mm, 15mm preload. I cut my Eibach provided spacers down to 76mm, which gives it 10mm preload.

I am still going to buy some PVC and make some spacers, so I can try out different amounts of preload. I cut the spacers with my Big Lots deep from the heart of China hacksaw. :-( It came out rough, but a couple of minutes doing figure 8's on a sheet of 60 grit sandpaper took care of it.

Thanks again for the PVC info, guys.