set

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

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

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

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

New Shell fixture. Square build coming up!

successful failure

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

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.