Yest I did. Even measured 2 or 3 times. Was in a hurry, plain and simple.
Anyways, I cut the steerer once, put the fork in to check it, and it still seemed too tall, so re-measured and cut again, problem is, I forgot to put the spacers that go under the stem the second time! The steerer tube is short by these 2 spacers, and if and when I ever decide to remove these spacers I'll be fine, but until then I have some issues. Btw it is an aluminum fork with a cro-moly steerer.

I now have no spacers above the stem, which is what I wanted, but the steerer is too short, so I put the 2nd piece I erroneously cut back in, to take up some of the stem's compressive force, and clamped the stem back down. Now within the 1 7/8" height of the stem I have about 1 3/8" of steerer and the 3/8" 2nd piece I dumb-assedly-cut. I found a slightly longer stem bolt. Am I asking for trouble here

Ok, if the above isn't going to work, and I need to remove the bottom spacers to ride safely or get a new fork( would rather put the money in a new bike than get a carbon fork for this $700 bike), what stem would give me the same reach/height if it was lower by 9.5mm (3/8")? My current stem is 120 mm 10/80 deg. I run it parallel. I could try flipping my current stem and give that a try..

thanks,
hrv

Yest I did. Even measured 2 or 3 times. Was in a hurry, plain and simple.
Anyways, I cut the steerer once, put the fork in to check it, and it still seemed too tall, so re-measured and cut again, problem is, I forgot to put the spacers that go under the stem the second time! The steerer tube is short by these 2 spacers, and if and when I ever decide to remove these spacers I'll be fine, but until then I have some issues. Btw it is an aluminum fork with a cro-moly steerer.

I now have no spacers above the stem, which is what I wanted, but the steerer is too short, so I put the 2nd piece I erroneously cut back in, to take up some of the stem's compressive force, and clamped the stem back down. Now within the 1 7/8" height of the stem I have about 1 3/8" of steerer and the 3/8" 2nd piece I dumb-assedly-cut. I found a slightly longer stem bolt. Am I asking for trouble here

Ok, if the above isn't going to work, and I need to remove the bottom spacers to ride safely or get a new fork( would rather put the money in a new bike than get a carbon fork for this $700 bike), what stem would give me the same reach/height if it was lower by 9.5mm (3/8")? My current stem is 120 mm 10/80 deg. I run it parallel. I could try flipping my current stem and give that a try..

thanks,
hrv
I would remove the spacers from under your stem and replace the stem with a higher rise model. good luck

Yest I did. Even measured 2 or 3 times. Was in a hurry, plain and simple.
Anyways, I cut the steerer once, put the fork in to check it, and it still seemed too tall, so re-measured and cut again, problem is, I forgot to put the spacers that go under the stem the second time! The steerer tube is short by these 2 spacers, and if and when I ever decide to remove these spacers I'll be fine, but until then I have some issues. Btw it is an aluminum fork with a cro-moly steerer.

I now have no spacers above the stem, which is what I wanted, but the steerer is too short, so I put the 2nd piece I erroneously cut back in, to take up some of the stem's compressive force, and clamped the stem back down. Now within the 1 7/8" height of the stem I have about 1 3/8" of steerer and the 3/8" 2nd piece I dumb-assedly-cut. I found a slightly longer stem bolt. Am I asking for trouble here

Ok, if the above isn't going to work, and I need to remove the bottom spacers to ride safely or get a new fork( would rather put the money in a new bike than get a carbon fork for this $700 bike), what stem would give me the same reach/height if it was lower by 9.5mm (3/8")? My current stem is 120 mm 10/80 deg. I run it parallel. I could try flipping my current stem and give that a try..

thanks,
hrv You can get away with 13/8" of CRO-MO steerer in your 17/8" stem. You don't really need that 'cut off' 3/8" piece back in there. Or do as the OP said and ditch some or all of the spacers and get a stem with more rise.

A simple change from an 80 to and 84 degree will raise the bars about 8mm, which is most of the excess amount you cut off. a 90 degree would raise the bars another 10mm if needed.

Not all stems have the same steering tube clamp length, which also affects the total amount of spacer needed. The shortest are about 35mm and the longest are 45mm. Ritchey 84 degree stems are 40mm.

Next time don't measure the steering tube, just assemble everything as you intend to ride it and scribe a mark using the top of the stem as a guide, then there won't be any mistakes. Just be sure you have a 2-3mm gap between the top of the steerer and the top cap, by making the cut 2-3mm below the scribed line.

A new stem is the simplest option. This will likely cost you $20 and up.

Why not just get a carbon fork for $50? It'll probably improve the ride quality. I don't know of anyone using an aluminimum fork--I had one on my Giant Cadex and it wasn't pleasant. If nothing else, the carbon fork will make your bike more much more marketable if you decide to sell it later.