Headcheese inc.

2010-12-09T19:51:00.002-06:00

the fork I made did not work out.. as well as the green frame.. The old Paramount was fractured beyond repair.. I guess I wore that one out.. I can salvage the rear drops to use for something else... Gonna roll my own frame. It took a while.. three years.. to know what I want. the Schwinn pictured is close but not exactly right for me. I am a critic.. my own worst... Just trying to get it proper. Then It will be the better mousetrap!

But not the better wheel...

Sail on.. C

winter ride...

2010-12-09T19:41:00.004-06:00

weird but a runner though the nasty... stable.. tracks the bumpy ice... no worries here.. 1968 schwinn frame.. this old bike is MADE to run!!!

frame stuff

2010-11-27T11:08:00.002-06:00

retro fitting of new sliding style drops..

where have I been?

2010-11-05T00:32:00.011-05:00

Dear Penfield,

Life happens brother.. and it can become all that is.. However.. no matter what Winter happens!

so here is the afore mentioned Jack Frosty. I thought about building a full on custom frame for winter duty here in Chicago. I designed and noodled over this and that but came to the conclusion that a custom fancy ride was not needed. Rather... back to the basics that inspired me through luck and need. The frame is a 70's vintage fillet brazed schwinn sports tourer.. tough as nails and baby blue in color!! SWEET

The 'need' was a frame that was heavy and one size too small. I did not know this until after three seasons of snow ice and the long cold dark.. I did not appreciate the 'one size too small' until the black ice happened.. On more than a few occations spreading my kickers out to skid the slick pavement came in handy. The problem was braking and lighting. So... for power to the lights (stern and aft) a schmidt dynamo hub... braking came in the same package.. disk!! Gonna roll a Hope hydro system. Mechanical types fail in this salty environment. Cars use 'em so why not me as well???

I ride fixed wheel in the winter. A very low gearing. Gives absolute control on both sides of the pedals. The next key bit was carbide studded tires..Plastic fenders ( NOT fancy aluminum) and cruiser bars for stability and a more 'upright' position. I say upright in quotes because of the frame being one size too small the saddle is still high for good leg stroke and cranking power. The Nitto 'Dove' bars however allow for a comfy reach and position similar to my Hunter roady. good for trans season fit and feel..

Whats new is a custom fork. somthing that could not be found anywhere.. 1" threaded steerer ( at short length) + dynamo disk compatable ( lawer lips and wide enough)+ fenders...

so.. this is the start.. made the crown, tips, caliper tab and mounting fixture. Thanks Anvil and Paragon. Not alot of money here but I do have material and machines... You get the credit here.. I did NOT create these fine bits and tools.. they did.. Buy them!! Made in the U.S. and fine. I am a freak in a unique position to make for myself. so I did.. the crown and tips however are of my own.. will see how they work out.. Hey!! its my own body on the line here!! I would not ask any one else to try before I did myself..

Jack Frosty

2009-09-27T14:09:00.007-05:00

My new Chicago winter ride! and that means ready for ANYTHING the sky,lake and planitary orbit/axial tilt can muster.

The first drawing is of the overall design. You will notice a Paragon machine works sliding drop at the rear of the SS/CS's. this was an excersize in machining but really not useable. Reason is that there is no reason to use unless I plan to run rear disk brakes... and for this one.. no. Gonna be fixed with a really low gear ratio.. something like 32/18 front/rear cog. The second image is the fillet braze forward drop I designed for the task.

The slider design+ crown weighs in at 15 oz.. almost a pound. I also plan to use a SON28 disk brake friendly dyno hub= 1.5 lbs. all by itself.

Sooo, thats 2.5lbs of frame weight before I even grab a tube for the front triangle. The front tri will be of .028" wall strait gauge Cro Mo hand bent by my buddy Steve. The rear triangle is of deda 's' bend cs's and telescopic .625"/.5" strait gauge tube in wishbone shape.

About incorperating the SON28 hub.. the fork blades nest in a custom crown cut by yours truly.. see previous posts....

25.4mm x .9/1.3mm round blades. strait to hub. running a front and rear light powered off the dyno. Both have capacitor powered stand light power.

check 'em out

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/index.html

Thats all for now... Yo.

CWN

Jack Frosty crown redeux

2009-09-27T14:06:00.003-05:00

'Redhead' done..

2009-09-27T13:52:00.002-05:00

Fistful of seat pin! proper for a flat top.

fork crown

2009-09-18T22:14:00.002-05:00

I am woking on a new Chicago winter ride for myself.. here is the crown.

47mm carbide studded tires

SON20 disk brake compatable front hub

fixed wheel with 32/17 ratio

happy happy

2009-09-18T22:12:00.003-05:00

New Rocket cycle works owner.. He is providing the fork..

binder slot... and DONE!

2009-07-21T18:49:00.005-05:00

Off for paint now.. to Spectrum for Ducati red love. Gonna be sweet!

Sorry for delay

2009-07-18T12:39:00.005-05:00

here is the last... Frame prepped today. Tip***

chase the shell BEFORE paint. If the tool binds and racks the threads.. silver can be added to repair.. Not that I have ever had this problem.. but just saves a paint job if something goes wrong. Also fit the chain stays in the shell ( if using lugs) so that there is minimal material protruding into the shell. This makes for a smooth tap cutting job to full depth. Otherwise the excess material will need to be removed so that the lead in of the taps will clear. DO NOT USE A GRINDING STONE!!! do the job with a file. Fragments of the grinding stone might embed into the steel. this will reak havok on any tap feed into the shell... HSS is fragile and if it sees ANY sort of stone fragments.. the tap will fracture and dull..

The best practice is to build it tight and not have to remove marterial!

Public service announcement over.
Photos..

tips

2009-06-21T13:43:00.002-05:00

crimp

2009-06-17T18:55:00.003-05:00

Made a crimping die to form the drive side CS for gear cluster clearance. Using forward facing tips... first step away from single speed! Need to dial in the male insert to create a form that is pleasing and works. Six tons of pressure later... This effort works and will be encorperated.. just need to fine tune... al things in good time!

Cheers,

latest

2009-06-17T18:52:00.002-05:00

mock up

2009-06-06T18:23:00.008-05:00

today was prepping the ST sleeve to match whats going on with the rest. That and some lug finishing... lotsa file work Yo!! Then to loose fit the sub-assemblies together to make sure what I have in my brain matches the work that is going on with reality. All cool so far! Just a little of this and that to fine tune curve and 'linewise' so it all plays nice!

sub-assemblies

2009-05-31T17:34:00.007-05:00

with some atmo mixed in!! shore lines are good but the wash bothers me. Time and time again working will refine. The fork sockets are half done.. ran outa steam for this day.. now I just gotta match.

2009-05-25T15:06:00.001-05:00

First try at lug work.. Just shaping and thinning little bit

Ahhh spring!

2009-05-23T07:56:00.005-05:00

been a while.. yeah..

Looong winter here in Chicago and because I do not have proper ventalation in the basement... yet.. No open doors and windows to relieve fumes. There are also plans in the works to expand the work space. Additions of work tables, floor mounted park stand and vice for 360 degree access and storage of tool, tubes and components.

For now I needed a new fixture for an easier time of attaching the rear triangle. Here it is... solid and tight! Does what I need it to do!

frame

2008-11-29T15:41:00.007-06:00

Forget the fork in these photos.. I made a new one. Added this one to the 'remember' pile. My first fillet frame.. learning and learning and learning. All are for me and no one else. Not ready for 'prime time'

No delusions here Yo!!

shadetree fork making

2008-11-29T15:17:00.004-06:00

The start... To build anything, one must have all skills available. layout, tool making, forming, filing, fit and hand work. Dont fool yourself.. if you cant even run a file or set up your torch... or even know what torch to use.. stop now step back and learn. I dont really care how you learn.. a few miles of shitty shop jobs or classes. Trust me, one or two classes aint gonna do it. Get over yourself and off the computer. Info like this dont fall off the electronic tree.. so to speak. I am leaving so very much description out of this process. To type it all out would mean volumes. I make mistakes.. yeah.. I have a fork and frame garden growing in my basement. there are errors then there are ERRORS!!.. Most of the time its the steel being just what it is and unpredictable in its minutia. I am learning about frame building which is its own vast specialty apart from basic steel working.

Here is some more.. dig the high tech method of preventing tube collapse during bending of the blades.

new fork for the recent frame

2008-11-29T15:04:00.007-06:00

These are in sequetial order.. see the above post for pre- fit work

Equally bent blades.. sneak up on the curve if you dont have stops installed in the fixture.

2) ovalized TT bending lever with a 'soft' plactic insert to avoid kinking the blades when moving over the form.
I slot the blades after bending. With two wood blocks in the vice jaws to pad the steel, the blade lines up for better sight lines. This helps with hacking a centered slot to be finished with files.

Pinned and ready for brass

Nice, strait and true!! Both blades fall on center.. no turkey legging here Yo!!

fork and bridge

2008-11-27T13:19:00.008-06:00

More coming once it all soaks for a bit to get all the crud out... Right Mr. G??? pics of whole frame coming up

2008-11-24T17:56:00.007-06:00

Rear triangle.. lots going on but nothing you have not seen before if you have been following this diary of a frame fool. It all goes great until the brass.... I just cant read it. the temps are high, the color different and flux just dont tell me much... It goes fluid way before the brass is ready to flow. Silver/silver flux is easier to see.. It goes grey when the temperature is right and ready... Aaarrggg.. brass.... weird material when used with steel. Keep in mind that this is my own

"A-ha" moment to arrive at.. not yet though. The more I work with it the better. I think I am working too cool, so akin to the dynamic of silver that laying the heat on is counter to what I expect...

Moving on.. Here are some build pics along with the result.. sorry for the slop.

random stuff

2008-11-22T22:21:00.005-06:00

barly held the flux but flowed with 50% silver. Its a good joint and minimal cleanup. nekkid joint for all to see and criticize..

the bits

2008-11-22T20:22:00.004-06:00

Custom brake bridge, caps HT rings and ST sleeve. Walter 24mm round blade crown. Deda round oval round C-stays. Pacenti OS shell.

Dear Penfield... Its been a while

2008-11-22T20:00:00.007-06:00

Its been a looooong time but #4 is on the table. As You can see its a fillet build. It was the intent to use brass but in my rush to get all parts in before vacation time... I forgot flux. So, this is made with 50% ag. I will post geos later.. for now.. Photos!

Sail on...
Creighton

bits and bobs

2008-06-01T16:22:00.003-05:00

finally bringing it all together. Honjos are not an easy install.. not really difficult but one needs to be systematic.. Shimano needs to learn some style. The calipers are solid no doubt but needlessly chunky. I used because they were designed with. I want to find alternatives for long reach.

Gotta polish the badge and clean up a few other parts. Ready to ride this thing.. but gotta finish proper. More later...

Well... maybe a little more

2008-05-14T21:05:00.002-05:00

New fork.. last one did not work out so well.. too long then too short. So I made a new one. Besides.. square shoulders tingle me! Plus a fender mounting boss in the seat stay. Finally time for paint. Just need to find a box to ship.

Aint gots no more!!!

2008-04-27T14:43:00.005-05:00

Just need to slot the ST... Stacy is napping so I cant be pushing files and saws!

#3 is in the books! History will decide. Gonna use powder coat to finish and ride the crap outta this thing! See what shakes loose... #4 coming up.

bridge

2008-04-25T19:17:00.002-05:00

More Cowbell!!!

2008-04-20T14:34:00.003-05:00

new stays and some file work...fork too

2008-04-20T13:12:00.004-05:00

Still have alot to learn about brazing! This crown was different than the previous two, the shoulders were not hollow cast. Plus the steerer I chose is way beefy at the crown end. I think that I am trying to braze at too low a temp... so worried about frying stuff that a proper pre heat is not reached and I fry anyways!

Dissimilar masses are always tricky but I got it flowed.

pulled the stays

2008-03-24T21:55:00.003-05:00

one...
two...

gone.

Yanked 'em because the spiggots of the drops were not perpendicular to the seat stays. Retry to do proper coming up.... once I get the shipping from Nova. More later..

stays

2008-03-23T17:21:00.002-05:00

ready?

2008-03-23T13:27:00.001-05:00

Sunday

2008-03-23T10:19:00.003-05:00

Have not installed forward facing forged tips before and missed the angle to the stays by a little. They match though and are solid. They dont look toooo bad, just off a little... Cant change 'em now.

Chopped stay ends ready to fit. Plus a shot of the blade in the cut crown. Gonna clean up a bit more. The fork will happen later. Working on the frame today.

Fork prep and some bits

2008-03-22T18:15:00.001-05:00

Prep for rear triangle

2008-03-22T18:10:00.004-05:00

stays

2008-03-16T11:41:00.004-05:00

Tacked front triangle

2008-03-10T18:09:00.002-05:00

End of a day

2008-03-08T21:33:00.003-06:00

The rod in the above photos was centered in the shell. It slipped a bit for the photo. It is of a diameter that is the centerline of the shell. The seat tube slips in and touches. The rod is removed then the ST is marked for coping. The shell is tacked and will be inspected for true tomorrow.

Been a while indeed!

2008-03-08T15:33:00.005-06:00

Back at it after a long hiatus.. and my brazing chops were found lacking ( thank you for the spell check T.E.) . For all you 'new to building' folks looking at this, here is a case study of the importance of doing every day! Everything went well until the brazing. Using what I learned from finishing the last two frames, I wanted to minimize the tool cutting effort to 'face and chase' and prep the head tube. So I cut to length plus a very little bit. What I did not remember until some flux was fried that A) I just need to tack and B) the centering cones holding the HT are a huge heat sink. flowing the ends of the HT and the lug face proved impossible... Until I removed the tubes from the setup and finished off. I am still using too much silver and pushing bad torch position. The heat is up so.. I got carried away. The joint is fully flowed and strong however and The copes spot on. so all in all, a time for remembering and moving on.. just a bit more cleanup than I wanted to do. Rookie mistakes but the assembly is tighter than the first two so for that I am glad. Moving on... Seat tube and BBshell next

2007-10-17T21:31:00.000-05:00

Go go go!!!

2007-10-17T21:29:00.000-05:00

2007-09-28T19:39:00.000-05:00

Finishing up the last little bits and now to ream and face and prepare for paint.

2007-09-21T22:14:00.000-05:00

pile of frame. ready for the bosses. neat little fixture to hold them in place for brazing.

2007-09-15T21:03:00.000-05:00

2007-09-15T21:02:00.000-05:00

2007-09-15T20:59:00.000-05:00

2007-09-15T20:58:00.000-05:00

2007-09-15T20:56:00.000-05:00

2007-09-15T20:54:00.000-05:00

front end

2007-08-23T20:47:00.001-05:00

Pinning

2007-08-23T20:44:00.001-05:00

Dont forget to add a chamfer/cone to the nail end so that after fluxing the overlapping holes are easier found and alined. The nails are big and what I had on hand.

brazing

2007-08-23T20:40:00.001-05:00

I had an 'Ahaaa' moment. For the longest time I was working the flame wrong. too close and too hot. The blue flame too close. So I stepped back and relaxed and washed the flame feathers over the lugs. Much better! Everything comes up to heat nice and smooth. The silver flows like butta! The shore lines are crisp and the joint fully flowed. Nice!

Okay.. where are we??

2007-08-23T20:18:00.000-05:00

Its been fun but a little weird. Couplers are something else. Somehow I managed to produce a little runout off axis. No big deal. apparently the weirdness lies on bth sides so I rotated the short end in 90 degree increments so that the wobble evened out. I say wobble.. the two halves were joined and the assembly rolled along the floor. The alignment issues were apparent. Little of this and little of that and they were strait-ish.. enought to build with. Really I should not have these things but I do and respect the install. I found some Verus tubes from Henry James that have insane butt lengths. Something like 152mm. still though it was a pinch to nest the couplers into the butts. I laid the entire frame out in Autocad so I could easily see where they were. Then I changed the design a bit. Weary of needing to work around brake caliper clearances.. long or short.. I decided to use canti brakes so I could raise the crown for longer blades. Now I can fit 35's for off road situations. What all this means is that the DT was rotated up to 59 degrees rather than the standard 60. This is a 58ish cm frame so the HT looks a little squat. Its all good though.. FREEDOM!!!

couplers.. As can be seen, I trued and clamped the tubes and couplers to plumb in two planes. All good right? not so much. the tubes ended up being about a wall thickness out. so it goes... I had and have concerns brazing an assembled coupler. However the more I think about it, these are made for retro fit so therefore assembled. Did not have the nerve to try. Now I know.

second frame begins

2007-08-12T08:51:00.000-05:00

For all interested, I plan to document and comment to a greater depth the build of the second build. There is nothing wrong with the first and is being finished by its recipient. Maybe it will finished soon so I can post it here. Anyway...

The plan has always been to build a pack/travel bike for myself. This means using couplers. Why I did not use the couplers for the first frame was that I was very unsure about brazing. The couplers, being the first parts brazed into the frame, proved daunting to a newbie. So I waited and learned from the first effort. So that said here we go!

First order of buisiness was to map out the location of the couplers in the butted sections of the tubes. The tubes I used for this application were thus..
Double butted Verus 28.6mm TT ( 102-51-309-51-152 ) x .8/.5/.8 wall
31.8mm DT ( 102-51-324-51-152 ) x .8/.5/.8 wall

I am 6' even so the frame dimentions lended themselves well enough to land the couplers in the thicker butt ends although the coupler points do over lap into the taper transition. If there is any concern about not landing the couplers over the butt sections of a chosen tube, move up to .9/.6/.9 walled tubes. Little heavier frame but the couplers are not exactly light either. Better safe than sorry right? S&S machine suggest installing in the thicker butt lengths although sometimes doing this is difficult based on frame geometry cut lengths.

Cutting the tubes. This is all done old school with two types of tools. Hacksaw and files.. although I did order a pair of tube cutters from Andy Newlands of http://www.strawberrybicycle.com/. Nice tools that will help with dead on copes. Having filed tubes of my first practice front triangle and then the second full build, I would like to try these. They were a bit of a pinch to afford but will last a good long while. I would however suggest that everybody who would build a frame hand miter the tubes for the first few frames. Doing this will teach much. Anouther reason for getting tube cutters is that I want to do fillet brazing later on. However for both lugged and fillet frames, the copes must be spot on for optimal fit and strength. I do however all of the other fitted joins by hand. I just want to see what cutters can do so I have a given that I can tweek otherwise. I will use a mill to cut the tubes at the proper angles.

Strait cuts.. I use blue tape as a cylinrical line and a 1/32" kerf 32TPI blade. I like to work around the tube creating a score all the way around, rocking the blade along the line around the tube. Try to stay close to the tape but not cut it. I mean right against but not on. Takes practice and a steady hand but marking the line this way is MUCH easier to see and follow than a scribed line is. Also the tape, because it is thin and wide, it will naturally want to lay a strait edge. If the winding angle is off a bit, the two ends of the tape at the 360 degree overlap will not line up. Unwind, correct the start angle and re-wind. This process creates a squarely aligned groove for the blade to follow. Working around the circumfrence the wall is cut thinner and thinner until it cuts through the I.D. . At this point, even a 32 TPI blade will grab the super thin remnants of the cut line. However because a path of least resistance for the blade was created all the way around the tube, the blade will follow that path through. square cut.

Couplers laid in loose and aligned with a strait edge. be sure to mark the long taper end so there is no confusion as to where the long taper end is.
Un mitered tubes test fit into the couplers. The next step is to braze the couplers onto the tubes. Because mitering occurs after the coupler fitting, orientation of the tubes does not matter. Just braze 'em in square otherwise a nasty twist will be built into the frame from the start. Not good. This is why I waited until a later frame to attempt couplers. After the lay out and installation is done, treat the tubes like normal with coping and buildin. Extra care to align the points of the couplers and lugs should be taken.
I like building flat. Although the setup takes a bit longer, this system offers much flexibility from sub assembly to final fit. Not the only way to do things but an approached based on what I had available. The saddle blocks were made to be of consistant height and center. The saddle cuts are truly hemishperical so that the center line of the tube lies at the top plane of the block. I can then use these to support a strait edge to create two lines 180 degree opposed. These lines are for indicating the tube center for mitering so that when the lugs go on, the points will line up.

set

2007-07-17T21:22:00.000-05:00

fork is done! WOW !!! much different than the frame. Lots of meat to get warm and no real visual cues to indicate full flow. The bending jig worked well as did the fixture. The blades moved around some but no too bad. Maybe .05" was the worst and that was side to side. I am working on brazing sequence to minimize distorion but really a good first attempt. Flowing silver is tough especially when I am chasing a heat and gravity around the crown. Going through the process is really the only way to see what happens. I dumped too much in but it is stout. Lot of cleanup but stout none the less. What you see on the bending jig is a '170 lb.' rake. No lever just me balancing on top of the blade on top of the table. The blades do get stiff in a hurry! The rake actually came out to be right on. still though I need a lever. something to compound with a roller and a hoop to pry under. Pinned the drops, solid! drilled vent/ drain holes. Doing all of this I wonder about fillet brazing forks. That is alot of work and to keep everything aligned?? I will stick with lugs for now. crown and steerer went together then drop outs and blades. then glued the two together.

Time for a fork

2007-07-14T10:40:00.001-05:00

Yippy!!! to finish the frameset. Being the chronic knucklehead that I am, I forgot to order a steerer tube. This one was made the hard way... It started life as a 1" solid bar of 4140. lots o' chips! anyway.. the big ass post in the back of the fork jig is to hold in the vice. eventually I will modify it to fit a duty made, multi purpose floor mounted post. It can rotate 180 deg. to make the best of gravity. I might make anouther after using this one. The plate is good, I just dont know if I have enough travel in the drop bracket to do all needed rakes. The bending jig has two radii.. 13" and 15". that is easy to change ( make a different base ).. I just created a curve based on the plans for this one frame. Stops will go into the "V" groove for consistency.

Its been a while

2007-07-07T23:53:00.001-05:00

Good front triangle this time and good rear triangle too! Now for the fork... I have not yet decided what I think about the wishbone setup. I like the looks. Either a person does or they do not. The traditional method of attaching the stays to the ST lug is a level less of fit work. It is way easy to cut the transition from the bone casting to the ST lug too short. Which is what happened here. I would have liked the stay to reach the lug. I am working on designing a wishbone lug that does the same thing but spreads the load out more. This will be fine for this frame as the ST is a Verus and thick. The seatpost will carry the load. although the constant hammering will make a set that will bind over time. I think... First frame being sent into the wilderness. It is built for my wingman Hagen so it will be close so I can observe.

post

2007-06-12T21:11:00.000-05:00

Here is a photo overview of work. Being a single person in the shop, its difficult to capture every detail of process and usually after the fact. All of the fixturing is obviously to build flat. I have yet to decide if this is a prefered method as there are some pros and cons. Pros.. My arms dont get tired holding the torch up and whatever tools needed to do the job at hand. cons.. access. but reall not much is needed. I think a new steel surface plate is in order. then again a pro fixture would ease set up of the tubes. Lengths are what I am having a difficult time with. the drawing from the first post.. crap. Too much info but a good exercize none the less. Drawing something out gets a person in the groove of building. sort of like meditation. It is easy however to generate incorrect angles and lengths. I dont propose that a computer drafting program is needed. Rather known lengths and trigonometry and a subscale drawing. Unless one has access to a machine shop, miters will be cut by hand. Lug lines will get you close then move to a nice quality protractor and a half round file to dial in. I do have access to a shop but it is far away. if something is not cut properly I have to do fitting the old fashioned way. Filing is a good good skill to have. Nothing wrong with it. What else are you going to do? Watch T.V.?

2nd

2007-06-08T21:52:00.000-05:00

New Shell fixture. Square build coming up!

successful failure

2007-06-06T20:15:00.000-05:00

First attempt was all wrong. well mainly the BB shell. did not lock it down and its out. No way to move it as its very well brazed. Maybe it can be, I don't know. That was the main goal. to braze. Lots of fried flux later I now feel comfortable running a torch. Geometry was wrong as well as tube lengths. So pouring morte resources into a wonky frame seems a pointless endeavor. Missed the lengths by very little but the differences were enough. On to the second try!!! more specific fixturing and a much better understanding of whats what. Stay tuned. W

Back track a little

2007-06-03T14:16:00.001-05:00

Here are some process photos. The prep work photos were done by me and after the fact. I.E. no extra hands to run a camera during the fileing and stuff. My riding buddy Hagen who is truly one cool cat, came over last night and helped out with documenting the brazing of the first joint. The frame will be his when finished for the stuff to practice with was gifted to me so I will pass it along. Plus I talk alot with freinds so he has endured many random fireings of synaptic conversations. So it goes... here it is so far.

What ugly looks like

2007-06-02T23:42:00.001-05:00