Thursday, June 30, 2011

The seat stays are fully brazed in.  I checked and reset the dropouts as needed and am fitting the brake posts.  I probably won't braze them in until Saturday.
The seat stays are bent.  Now to align the dropouts and cut the miters.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

We have finally amassed all the materials for Major Daves frame and made the last tweeks to the drawing.  Although Devs frame takes precedence, I should be able to star initial blocking in the fixture this week end.
Both chain stays are in.  Next is bending and fitting the seat stays and continued work on the under saddle battery mount.  Dans frame might be back from the painter this week end and the rest of his components have arrived.  Hopefully, the assembly will also take place this week end.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

 The left chain stay is in at 425mm.
 A couple of pics to give Devin something to think about.  The bolt heads on the seat post force the battery too far down the esm for me.  I'm almost thinking a stepped bracket to put the battery farther up under the saddle.
 The front triangle is brazed up and the alignment checked and now in Tinas laundry room sink to soak the flux off

Here is the left chain stay that will be going in the front triangle soon.  Still waiting for Major Dave's lugs and bottom bracket.
Devins highly reworked seat tube lug, sanded, solvent cleaned and ready for braze.  I'm 80% complete on the front triangle brazing, but ran out of gas.  Off to the welding supply shop.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

OK, blogger likes me again.  I finished the cleaning up of the dropouts, including sizing the plug-ins to fit the chain and seat stays.  Here's the completed braze job on them.  They are now finish filed and ready to be plugged into the front triangle as soon as I braze it up tomorrow.  Major Dave came over and we have selected a fork and discussed lug and bb carving options for his frame.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

It's been a busy week with repairs, tune-ups and the grand opening of the BikeBar, so I haven't got as much done on Devins bike as I would have liked to.  Even though the front triangle is mitered and ready to braze, I'm still concerned on how the apron point is going to look in composition with the seat stays.  So I'm going to fully assemble the frame in the fixture and cut the apron last.  Here's a pic of a ready to braze dropout and an as cast one.  Lots of filing.  You can see the exit port for the rear derailer wiring.  It's a curved hole, so I drilled from both ends and then used a very small stone in a Dremel to smooth the transition.
I did some work on Jimbos Tricerahopper and used the new bar tape from Circle P to replace the Fizik tape.  It actually feels pretty good.  Kind of a rip off of the Lizard Skin tape.  We will let Jimbo make the call as to its viability.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Made some progress on Dev's frame today.  Brazed in the 710 mm seat tube and the front derailer braze-on.  It's stainless, so it will polish up nicely.  I positioned it about 3 mm from the bottom of the slot, so Dev can run a larger chain ring in the future should he desire.
And....the front triangle is very close to being braze ready.  Some minor adjustments on the miters and shape the apron on the seat tube lug and it's ready to go.  It should happen this Thursday.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

After eating and drinking my way through every brewery San Diego has to offer, it's time to get back to work.  Here's some shots Zimmy took of my frame on display at the new Bikebar.  Get out there and see all these great frames from the members of the OBCA.  The Paragon website is back up and my PayPal request from Dazza arrived, so all the pieces for Major Dave's frame have been ordered. Tomorrow, actual silver brazing on Devins frame, honest.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Here is Major Daves drawing at about 95% complete.  I need to nail down what his true neutral saddle set back is.  We measured 3 of his bikes and they are all different, between 60mm and 86mm.  I changed the color, maybe he will let me use the Guards Red I bought and put a red pearl over it.  Not shown is that it will have disc brakes.  Cool.