Making big strides here at 44 HQ on Patrick’s SS 29er. Got the front triangle completely welded up on Monday afternoon. Things came together nicely. Once tacked, the frame goes on the alignment beam and I check everything to see where the tubes are headed post tack. In this case, the seat tube was leaning about 2 mm to the drive side. So I started my sequence on the non-driveside and used the heat to slowly pull the seat tube back into place:
Seat tube welds at the bottom bracket:
Once this is finished and sequentially welded, I move on to the head tube/top tube/downtube junction:
I use heat syncs throughout to minimize heat input – here is the latest one I machined for 44mm head tubes:
And the head tube fully welded with the heat sync in place:
So that pretty much did it for Monday’s work. Today (Tuesday) I was tied up in a meeting with another client for a design related project but when that was wrapped up, I headed down to the shop to miter, fit and tack up Patrick’s seat stays. I started with a check for parallelism of the dropouts and another check on frame alignment – everything checked out a-ok:
Then it was on to mitering and fitting the seat stays. I typically miter the seat stays at the dropouts first, and then I put them in to a second tool so I can miter them at the same time for the seat tube junction. That tool comes apart and holds the seat stays in place when I tack them. Here the seat stays are all fitted up and will be prepped for tacking shortly:
Once the tubes have been prepped, and are in place, it’s time to tack. I tack them in at the dropouts, and then up at the seat tube (here I am tacking them at the seat tube):
And fully welded:
Tomorrow I’ll finish up the seat stay bridge and braze the rest of the fittings in place. Last will be to do a final face and chase to the head tube and seat tube (bottom bracket was faced/chased before I checked alignment) and I’ll finish the seat tube slot, square up the seat tube and drill/tap the head tube for the head badge. This one will be off to powder by weeks end for Flat Black (aka Black Magic – apparently the name of the powder..) with gloss decals. Then it’s on to Patrick’s FAT bike!
That was Friday… THIS is Monday and Tuesday!
Making big strides here at 44 HQ on Patrick’s SS 29er. Got the front triangle completely welded up on Monday afternoon. Things came together nicely. Once tacked, the frame goes on the alignment beam and I check everything to see where the tubes are headed post tack. In this case, the seat tube was leaning about 2 mm to the drive side. So I started my sequence on the non-driveside and used the heat to slowly pull the seat tube back into place:
Seat tube welds at the bottom bracket:
Once this is finished and sequentially welded, I move on to the head tube/top tube/downtube junction:
I use heat syncs throughout to minimize heat input – here is the latest one I machined for 44mm head tubes:
And the head tube fully welded with the heat sync in place:
So that pretty much did it for Monday’s work. Today (Tuesday) I was tied up in a meeting with another client for a design related project but when that was wrapped up, I headed down to the shop to miter, fit and tack up Patrick’s seat stays. I started with a check for parallelism of the dropouts and another check on frame alignment – everything checked out a-ok:
Then it was on to mitering and fitting the seat stays. I typically miter the seat stays at the dropouts first, and then I put them in to a second tool so I can miter them at the same time for the seat tube junction. That tool comes apart and holds the seat stays in place when I tack them. Here the seat stays are all fitted up and will be prepped for tacking shortly:
Once the tubes have been prepped, and are in place, it’s time to tack. I tack them in at the dropouts, and then up at the seat tube (here I am tacking them at the seat tube):
And fully welded:
Tomorrow I’ll finish up the seat stay bridge and braze the rest of the fittings in place. Last will be to do a final face and chase to the head tube and seat tube (bottom bracket was faced/chased before I checked alignment) and I’ll finish the seat tube slot, square up the seat tube and drill/tap the head tube for the head badge. This one will be off to powder by weeks end for Flat Black (aka Black Magic – apparently the name of the powder..) with gloss decals. Then it’s on to Patrick’s FAT bike!