Magnus, all the above may put you off thinking laterally around common problems. Don't let it yet, but bear in mind some of the realities of life that make a sound idea far from ideal.
The material science isn't there yet to cope with the concept (even if you're using a double nut arrangement) because the stuff these parts are made of is too weak. You have to go a long way up the bling scale before axles and nuts could stand the removal of material & retain sufficient strength. I'm thinking Royce quality not old Campag stuff, and even Cliff there would frown on the idea from a structural point of view. He doesn't even approve of radial lacing because he knows that metal 'moves' when you give it some welly.
The main practical issue that the idea cannot cope with is the famous london's weather and road shit, as summed up by S Walrus. The pin would seize in it's hole very quickly and refuse to come out. A magnetic steel pin would help, but gravity is too fickle a bastard too rely on here. To remove your wheel after a month or two, angle grinding would be required, and very careful angle grinding at that. Then you need new axles etc. (Unobtainium @ irisque) Just to fix a puncture. It makes a set of Pitlocks look cheap.
Keep corrosion at bay by using grease? The pin wouldn't fall out when you up-ended your bike. Coat it in candle wax, like the Greeks who built the Acropolis coated the famous steel pins? (Yeah, they used lead) Spoke prep? You'd need to carry a plumbers torch to heat the thing up enough to free the pin.
Keep thinking, but don't drill your axles to test this. Concept and practicality are too far apart.
Magnus, all the above may put you off thinking laterally around common problems. Don't let it yet, but bear in mind some of the realities of life that make a sound idea far from ideal.
The material science isn't there yet to cope with the concept (even if you're using a double nut arrangement) because the stuff these parts are made of is too weak. You have to go a long way up the bling scale before axles and nuts could stand the removal of material & retain sufficient strength. I'm thinking Royce quality not old Campag stuff, and even Cliff there would frown on the idea from a structural point of view. He doesn't even approve of radial lacing because he knows that metal 'moves' when you give it some welly.
The main practical issue that the idea cannot cope with is the famous london's weather and road shit, as summed up by S Walrus. The pin would seize in it's hole very quickly and refuse to come out. A magnetic steel pin would help, but gravity is too fickle a bastard too rely on here. To remove your wheel after a month or two, angle grinding would be required, and very careful angle grinding at that. Then you need new axles etc. (Unobtainium @ irisque) Just to fix a puncture. It makes a set of Pitlocks look cheap.
Keep corrosion at bay by using grease? The pin wouldn't fall out when you up-ended your bike. Coat it in candle wax, like the Greeks who built the Acropolis coated the famous steel pins? (Yeah, they used lead) Spoke prep? You'd need to carry a plumbers torch to heat the thing up enough to free the pin.
Keep thinking, but don't drill your axles to test this. Concept and practicality are too far apart.