Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Super Duper Mega Post...consider yourself warned.

Ok folks,

I've got to catch you up on two days worth of activity, so here we go...

When we last left off, I had busted out the chainstays on Eric's bike and bent up the seat stays. These were some very precise buggers, as Eric wants maximum room for mud build up but I also have to balance that with meeting the request for canti bosses, which have a very narrow window of spec'd width for proper operation. I was able to get 3 inches of clearance inside the stays while pushing the canti operation into the acceptable zone.

Here's a shot of the mocked up stays...

A lot of folks ask..."just how tight do your miters need to be?" Surface contact the entire circumference of the miter is very important for the strength of the frame. Here's a shot of the seatstays, one of the most difficult areas to get to meet perfectly as you are dealing with compound miters with multiple angles of contact.


A curvaceous rear end... watch out Jaylo ;)

I was all ready to braze up the dropouts on Eric's frame when I quickly realized I was out of Oxygen in the tanks to get the job done, so I turned up the midnight oil a bit and knocked out another 8 Luvs of the October order...never a moment to sit idle.
This morning had me running the blaster before sunrise, enjoying the combination of low lying mist in the farm fields and an incredible orange orb of a morning sun, and meeting the welding supply guys to open up.

Once back, it is back to work on the rear stays.

I vent all the tubes of the frame for two reasons; to allow for internal moisture evaporation and to facilitate rust prohibitive treatment. Here's a shot of how I mark out and drill using a center drill the vent holes in the seat tube where the seat stays meet.

I brazed up the drop outs and scalloped them to a nice finish...

Tacking the stays...
and it's off for welding it in the fixture.

Next stop, I hand miter the seat stay brace. Yep, despite all the cool kit I have to cut tubes, I still use a file for some of the pieces, as it is the most efficient method.

checking the fit...
drilling the vent hole...these are tiny, using a whispy thin drill bit.

The brace welded in and checking the rear spacing...135mm on the nose, no cold setting needed here :)
Notice the new sandals ^... I just got two pair from Germany. I'm good to go for another 5 years

And Eric's roughed in frame...

Tomorrow, I'll attach all the braze ons, slot the seat binder and the EBB, and prep it for paint.

I should have more bars to send out tomorrow afternoon as well, as long as I can get the powder applied in time to hit the post office before it closes, here's to keeping fingers crossed.

cheers,

rody

1 comment:

laffeaux said...

It's looking nice! I can't wait to ride the bike. :)