Work is Halted

I am stopping work for at least a week. I have done most of the brazeons on the frame. I have only the brake bridges and cantilever bosses to go. My problem is that I need a 26" wheel to measure where I want to put the bridges that the fenders will attach to. My wheel builder is on a week long bike tour so I won't be dropping rims and hubs at her house any time soon. I'll probably fill my time by filing the lugs down to a nicer shape. The Hank James lugs are rougher than some of the other lugsets I have. I'm not sure that is the bad though. Since I'm not in it for production, file work is OK. I already am planning the next bike. It will be for my wife. She currently has a Brian Baylis frame, but it does not fit her near right. I'd like to build her a frame with 72-73 degree head angle and a slightly longer wheelbase than in fashion with 8cm of bb drop. I have not settled on fork rake yet. I'll probably shoot for a low to mid 50's trail. She'd like me to use the richieissimo lugset. I'm feeling brave so I'd like to use Newvex. My third bike will be a track bike and I'll use the Newvex.

Braze ons

Braze ons, I'm having to figure this stuff out myself. I thought I was getting good with the torch. Tonight I learned a new lesson. Cable guides heat much faster than the BB. I was able to see what was happening with the flux and compensate, but I was very impatient with the whole thing. I need my fender eyelets on so I can install fenders and add the stay bridges. JG

Soak Tank

When in need of a good soak tank just fill the hot tub with fresh water, heat, add bubbles and wait a few minutes.

Delayed update

While waiting for my flight to leave Chicago I decided to start at the beginning and recap the week. I also thought I write a better written summary of the week than what I have been doing.. I’ll spare the details such as where we ate, drank beer etc… This last week really was frame building 101. I think myself and my classmates all had a need to start at the beginning of the frame building process which is fit. We could have just mitered joints and filed away but each of us has a desire to build more than one bike, either multiple bikes for ourselves or others. My interest was/is how does one go from the physical measurements of the rider to a frame that is built rationally. Should I take the measurements off another bike and copy them? Could I make a bike fit better? What should I do to fit my wife who has long legs and short torso? After the last week I’ve decided that frame fit is one of the most inexact parts of frame building for two reasons. No two bodies are alike and component choices are a huge variable. I think that is why frame builders want to know what the current ride looks like. The current ride is the best starting point to use, and maybe very closely copy. Last week Dale Brown asked me if I had made a drawing of the bike I was going to build. I told him no, and that Doug Fattic does not use drawings and he was teaching us how to build without a drawing using his layout fixture. I wasn’t sure in the beginning how Doug builds without a drawing, but I intuitively liked the idea. Dougs fixture allows the builder to set fixed points such as bb drop, standover, seat height, steering axis, fork rake, lower head lug placement, bar height distance from seat and probably one or two more I have written down. Once those points are fixed, tubes can be mitered, lugs fitted to connect those points to fill in the frame under the rider. I have heard Richard Sachs say something to the effect that the three contact points of the rider drive the design, not the angles or tube lengths. I know what he means now. Doug’s fixture allows us to do just that. I think a drawing would force us to stick to a rigid plan. With Doug’s fixture we were able to play with different combinations and ways of getting the same fit. Ideally I think the method to use is to layout the rider measurements in the fixture, then select lugs and tubes to best achieve the desire dimensions. I plan on building a jig like this soon. Our next step was to miter the tubes. Doug Fattic is a machine guy. His Bridgeport mill has an easy to use fixture that allows a mitre to be set up and cut in just a minute or two. Doug uses hole saws in the mill to mitre tubes. I don’t know if he cuts heat treated steel tubes or not but it worked great for my Columbus SL tubeset. I suspect his fixture and mill are both so rigid that it doesn’t matter much. It would have been nice to file more, but in the interest of time we needed to use the mill. We got our measurements for the miters from the layout fixture and what we knew we needed. When the tubes were cut we fit them on the layout fixture with lugs for confirmation of fit. I have already written about the spotting/ tacking/ brazing alignment process so I’ll skip that step. The next step was chain stay fitting. Doug had me braze in one stay with the Anvil Jig and one stay using a standard alignment gauge and a straight edge. It was simple but not always easy. I think that a jig out of 80/20 would be easy to make for this step as the alignment is checked and fixed at each step as in the main triangle brazing. After chain stays I moved to seat stays. I am using the sweet Columbus double taper stays that came with the SL kit. With the skinny profile of the stays a 11mm stay pug was the way to go. The problem was that the hole in the stay was too big for the plug. Big enough, that the silver could not fill the gaps. With Doug’s consultation I went to work doing what I love, machine work. We found some steel rod slightly larger than the inner stay diameter. I sanded it down to a slight wedge that would fill the stay but not drop in completely. I cut the piece off long and brazed it in. I cut what was left out of the stay off, squared the edge and did the other stay just like it. Next I used the beautiful machine, the lathe, to bore the stay the precise diameter needed to braze the seat stay plug in. After brazing the plug it was clean up time. The week was over and I didn’t complete the frame. I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t finish the rear triangle. I’m a little nervous how it will travel. I’m unsure of how dimensionally unstable the frame is without seat stays. I am thinking I maybe should have tacked the stays to travel but that extra heat might have been unfriendly on the alignment anyway. I would have liked to be able to show off a complete frame. I did leave Doug’s with the skills to finish the frame and tackle problems as they arise. It might actually be a blessing as frame building doesn’t seem to be a team sport and I think I need to build without a safety net . I haven’t said much about my classmates as they didn’t take the frame class to be characters in my blog. Scott, Ernst, Robert and Mitch are really good guys. Mitch has a desire to be a frame builder and I think he’ll get there. He has a quiet, focused determination that inspires confidence. Ernst, the Flying Scot, was the humorist of the bunch. He coined our group nickname, the “Fluxing Gassholes”. And being true to his heritage he’d try to cajole us into ending the day at the pub. Scott is like me somewhat. He wants to improve himself. He is quite skilled with Machine tools and works with his hands well, both better than I do. Robert is the least obvious frame builder out of the group. He works in Manhattan, lives in the burbs, has two kids and a very professional wife. He is a graphic designer, but feels the same calling as his grandfather and great grandfather who were both Machinist. Robert is a rock solid person and was fun to have around. Best of all he rides a track bike everyday on his lunch hour in Central park. From here I want to finish the frame quickly. I haven’t decided on paint yet but it will probably be a three color paint job. Mike Swantak is helping me do the decals. I have some ideas that might be interesting. I board in a few minutes and once on board I’ll start sketching some fixtures I want to build. Later I’ll be posting a link to my yahoo site with pictures of the class. Most of the pics are not very interesting, but will allow me to recreate the process. Later, JG

Seat Stays

I got the seat stays on last night. I filed a slight grove with a rat tail file on each side of the seat lug. I took an old toe strap and squeezed the stays in the right place. Installed a spare wheel. Next step was to braze the drop outs to the seat stays and then the stay plugs to the seat lug. I pulled the method from the Patarek manual. Doug Fattic would have had a cool tool to hold the stay in place for brazing, but the toe strap worked just fine. I also got the brake guides brazed on. They were easy. It went like this.....sand, clamp, flux, braze, done.

pics

Pictures are now posted at my yahoo site here. They are pretty boring, but be sure to check out the 5 Fluxing Gassholes.

Class Over

Yesterday was the last day of class. I fly out of Chicago in 8 hours. I was not able to complete the frame as I had wanted which is a bummer. I just ran out of time. It was like one of those makeover shows where you come into the last few hours with too much to do. I got the chainstays fitted with the rear drops brazed in and the seat stays cut to length with the seatstay caps brazed in. I'll braze on the seatstays when I get home. I'm a little worried how to get the frame home though. I'm soon going to home depot to get some supplies to protect what I have done. It's hard to believe the week has gone by so fast. This blog entry is the worst ramble I have ever put together. I'll post something on the plane much more thought out and concise.

Alignment

A few weeks back a pal sent some pics of Ernst Czuka of Singer aligning a frame on his table by using a long bar as leverage. His measurement device showed he needed to move that frame an inch. I privately wondered if that would be the results of a rookie. Well the results are in........But first I should explain how we brazed the front triangle. After all the tubes were mitered I tacked the front triangle in six places while the frame was in the layout fixture, but leaving the down tube untacked from the BB. I then put the frame on the alignment table and aligned it. I was off less than the thickness of a penny. I then placed two silver spots on the lower head lug and aligned the frame again. Almost perfect. I brazed that joint and check alignment again. It was almost perfect. I then spotted the upper head lug in two places, and aligned the frame. it was almost perfect. Next came the seatlug then the BB. I probably checked the alignment 12-15 times in my brazing sequence. Everytime it was almost perfect. The frame is in perfect alignment, or as least as close as I can measure. Next time your reading some quarterly news letter about the superiority of old french bikes and how great their builders are please take it with a grain of salt. JG

Front Triangle

it's 12:40 am and I'm done for the day. 16 hours and 10 minutes of work time. I got to the shop early to get a running start. And it was a good thing as I needed all day to get the front triangle brazed. I had to separate my brazed in seat tube fron the BB and start that step all over. After I got that done it was mostly smooth sailing. I feel like today I really got to the point where I really understand brazing and heat control. I can move the heat were I want it, push and pull silver up and over a lug edge, and flow silver where it needs to go. I'm sure someone who has been brazing 30 years doesn't think twice about that, but it feels good to have control over the process instead of the other way around. I'll be doing chain stays and hopefully seat stays tomorrow. I should say a few words about Doug Fattic. He IS A TASK MASTER. I don't know how many times he's come over and shown me a more right way to do something. It doesn't seem to matter if I'm doing something 100 times better than the last time I did it, he still pushes us to refine our technique. Tonight as I walked out the door he said "good work today". That was nice. Today I felt like a frame builder. JG

Results at last

when I left the shop at 12:30am I had a front traingle mitred. YEEEEHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was another 15+ hour day. we even ate lunch in the shop today. I also had a major setback. My fork blades are not pointing staight. I purchased a columbus SL tube kit with pre raked blades. I cut the fork blades down to fit a 26" wheel and we brazed the tang pieces( suit of cards) from the richieissimo crown to the blades. I think sachs does the crown and tang pieces all at one time but Doug thought it better for a rookie to do it the other way. Oh well, once I fitted it all together it was apparent the monkey at columbus bending blades was not paying attention cause the right blade has some serious attitude to the right. I've decided in the interest of time to fix it when I get home by brazing new blades in the current crown. One thing I'd like to say about frame building is how hard it is. One might see a richard sachs or pacenti lugset and see how well they are finished in the raw, but there is sooooo much work that goes into making each piece into a frame. Nothing goes together right without planning, skill and a little good voodoo. Several times tonight I remitered a joint just to get 1/4 of one degree more angle for the tube. The clock just hit 1 am and I'm logging off. I miss my wife and kids, we have been on a death march and I haven't been able to hear much from home. I have a wonderful wife that has encouraged me to do this. I look forward to repaying the consideration when I home. I appoligize if I have rambled or misspelled I'm tired and don't have much energy to spell check. Leave comments at the bottom and tell me if you'd like me to give any observations about any part of my experience. JG

day 2

It's 1 am and I just got in from the shop. Frame building is hard dirty work. The next person to complain about frame prices gets a bastard file in the eye. I'm too tired to post other than to say I'll have a fork and part of a frame before lunch tomorrow hopefully. I just reviewed the post from last night. I must be tired because of the number of spelling errors I found were pretty funny. My fingers also need a rest.

Long Day

It was a long day. 14 hours of instruction and practicing. My class mates Robert, Scott Mitch and Ernst made it all go pretty fast. We started out the day reviewing the steps of frame design and construction. That step lasted until lunch. After lunch Doug reviewed with everyone how to use a torch. Then we put flame to crown and stirrer. I think I did pretty good on my first and second attempts. I got the silver to flow pretty easy and filled all the spots it needed to go with with very little charring. It was cool. After our brake for dinner at the local micro brew pub I attempted the real crown. Things didn't go well so we pulled the crown from the steerer and i'll do it right in the morning with some sleep. Were going to need to get things going to finish Friday so I'll not be posting here like I thought I could. Check the pic above to see my best work of the day. Goodnight.

First day

I landed in Chicago last night in the worst weather I have flown in. The drive 100 east to Niles Michigan was not much better. We stayed around Doug's shop last night getting acquainte till almost midnight. This is going to be a fun group of people to take a class with. We start out this morning learning the basics such as design and brazing. I should be ok with the brazing piece because I already do a little. Time for breakfast, I'll post back tonight.

8 days to go

Last week Doug Fattic and I finalized the details of the bike I'm going to build.

To start with, I'm using 26" wheels. When measuring my current bikes it is apparent that there is no way to get enough clearance for wide tires and fenders if I use 700c. The tire selection of 650c and availability of 650b also makes those choices less desirable.

With Doug's advice I'm going to use Henry James lugs. Well be using 74 degree headlugs. We'll be slanting the lugs back creating a sloping top tube and 72 degree head angle. The lugs will be connected with Columbus SL tubes. I'll also be using Henry James dropouts . One big advantage in the James dropouts for me is the ease of brazing the plug style drops and also they are made of stainless. I'll polish the faces. Paint chipping on the DO faces is a pet peeve of mine. I'll be choosing between a James forkcrown and Sachs fork crown when I get to Dougs. Whichever has more room between the fork legs for a fender is the one I'll use. We like pal Richie Sachs here so we'd like to use his stuff.

Which brings up why we are using Hank James lugs( Hank has been helpful too)......I think(as does Doug) that a standard size tubeset is better for my first frame. I'm currently 155lbs and to use an oversize tubeset with the wall thickness that a rookie should use would be building a tank. This bike will also not be the only bike I build so there is no rush to build perfection(like I could anyway). Oversize thin wall tubing will come later.

The other small details of the frame will be Canti bosses for Paul centerpull brakes, bosses for honjo fenders, and bosses for nitto racks front and rear. I'm still toying with the idea of using a dyno hub. I'd braze on light mounts to the rack if I go that route.

JG

Cost

Things got expensive this weekend. I bought a new set of files for my trip to niles next week. I bought an economy range of bastard files and Grobet Swiss pattern files. It's hard to believe that one file can be $30. Being a tool guy it's not to hard to tell why when you get it in your hand.