Thursday, January 17, 2008

ray's bike, keri's bike, and attempt to awnser lee's question.




first - a couple quick pics. ray was by this morning doing some assembly on his touring bike. looking sweet! pretty much an all 2008 deore xt build with some thomson and chris king goodies. a sensible, durable build. also, got keri's bike all brazed and soaked the flux off. looking good! gonna go biking tomorrow and start polishing it up on Saturday. i think it's gonna go to the handmade bike show as a raw frame so folks can see what's under the paint. next, preskit matt's bike is up, then frank from washington dc and cameron. {frank - get ahold of me!} sooooo...... in the last post's comments lee from reno asked about heat distortion from welding and brazing. does metal distort from these methods of joinery? you bet! how do you minimise distortion? 1: make sure everything fits really tight. gaps in your miters are a big cause of mis-alignment, and to eventual frame/joint failure. 2: always follow a "welding sequence", the series of events when tacking and brazing or welding that produces the same result - usually that of ending up with a straight frame. everyone seems to have a different one that works for them, and you follow it religiously to have repetitively reliable results. 3: knowing your joining method and having it down. a quick braze with an even pre-heat and even distribution of filler will result in less uneven pulling on the structure as the filler returns from it's molten state to it's frozen state. {see keri's frame - the brazes are all even width} 4: heat distortion that has occurred must be taken care of before you receive your frame. the bottombracket threads are chased, the shell faces are faced parallel to each other, the headtube is faced and chased, and the seat tube is polished - i don't get distortion in it due to my hand-made seat tube sleeve. 5: you notice the seemingly obsessive use of the alignment table every time something is tacked? that's to make gradual tiny adjustments to the frame to adjust to the small amounts of twist and pull imparted to the structure due to distortion so the result is a straight frame not needing a big amount of post brazing "cold setting" {a fancy way to say "bending"} anymore questions? i'm more then glad to help field frame building Q&A's to help you all understand what's going on here, and it's good brain exercise for me as well! any of you frameforum guys lurking here??? steve.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

"any of you frameforum guys lurking here???"

I got my eye on you, baby!

The touring rig looks schweeeet! Another fine fabrication from the Hobbit shop. Keep it hot Steve.

rody

Andrew Campbell said...

Nice detailed post, Steve! And great to see you and Denise last weekend and get out there in the red dirt.

Hope the tunes are rocking in the workshop!!

Andrewu

Anonymous said...

So what did you use before you had the alignment table?

Keri's frame looks sweet, very bmx like! Remember discussing the Coconino 24" cruiser!? Nothing to do at work today so I think I'll be fantasizing about that cruiser a lot.

Jason

Sabrosa Cycles said...

I really dig that touring rig. Very practical, and good looking to boot.
What is happening with the forum? How long is the outage scheduled to last?

steve garro said...

howdy, all! JR: not sure about the forum. i know neil got the nahbs site back up. as you know, he has had ongoing heart issues including a series of surgeries, and was trying to move to the country for a more tranquil lifestyle...... hope it comes back up soon, the mtbr forum just seems to be heavily skewed in the opinion side with not much real info trading hands, and the phred list template leads to pecking parties, imo.

steve garro said...

as to alignment before the table: i used everything i had at hand! i would measure off the jig, use strings, be real creative......basically burn alot of time going in circles. i threw the last frame i built without it on the table when it was set up and it was damn near perfect. it sure does save time, however! steve.

Chauncey Matthews said...

I guess Ray has ditched the nail polish for a more manly look? ;)

-Chauncey

Anonymous said...

Boy oh Boy, Caustic Spray is aging very well. Im getting fat, kinda like a snake that swallowed a bowling ball. Cant wait to see ya Steve, Im going to be the Wolfhound booth BEECH for nambla, but Ill still rock some coconino wear while Im there.
cheers, Vulture