I’ve been really busy on top of building bikes with making new tooling and adapting my existing tooling to accept back purge for welding titanium and stainless. I put together this new head tube heat sync for the new 44mm head tube standard:
First welds with the new heat sync:
Also a favorite drawer with all the heat sync and purge fittings:
Here’s all the purge lines on the frame jig – it was pretty quick and simple as all I needed to do was drill and tap holes. When I built the standoffs and cones, I knew I’d be doing this in the future, so I driller through holes in the cones and standoff’s so that a hole could be drilled and tapped at a later date. If you’ve been following me, you’ll most likely notice I do this sort of thing often both with my tooling and the shop build. Definitely have to consider the future even if you don’t have enough funds to do everything at once in the present:
Here’s the routing of the fittings/hose on the backside of the jig. I consulted a few builders (Sean at Vertigo and Drew at Engin – thanks guys for all your info – very much appreciated!):
And if that’s not enough, I’m starting the process of rebuilding my main tube mitering setup. Nothing too special, but it should allow for quicker setup with the tubing blocks all being keyed in place and having an adjustable indexing mechanism halfway down the tube – this will NOT index the tube at the end however. I’ve been using a tube block in the center of the tube that follows the tube through the mitering process. I found with other setups that the end of the tube can rock on the round indexing mechanism if you are not really careful. With the tube block, it’s bolted down, and an entire flat section is clamped down to an extension arm that’s been indexed in phase where the mitering occurs. More than one way to skin a cat as they say. Here’s the start of making two identical base plates (one will be indexed while the other will not which clamps the tube block midway):
You’ll notice I have a stop setup on the vise. Each hole I drill I line up, get things tight and then make that operation twice so both parts are dead on instead of making one part from start to finish, and then the second one which is identical start to finish. Again – more than one way to skin a cat. More on this shortly as I’ll most likely be building this and perhaps the start of a seat post jig next week…
Tooling Time
I’ve been really busy on top of building bikes with making new tooling and adapting my existing tooling to accept back purge for welding titanium and stainless. I put together this new head tube heat sync for the new 44mm head tube standard:
First welds with the new heat sync:
Also a favorite drawer with all the heat sync and purge fittings:
Here’s all the purge lines on the frame jig – it was pretty quick and simple as all I needed to do was drill and tap holes. When I built the standoffs and cones, I knew I’d be doing this in the future, so I driller through holes in the cones and standoff’s so that a hole could be drilled and tapped at a later date. If you’ve been following me, you’ll most likely notice I do this sort of thing often both with my tooling and the shop build. Definitely have to consider the future even if you don’t have enough funds to do everything at once in the present:
Here’s the routing of the fittings/hose on the backside of the jig. I consulted a few builders (Sean at Vertigo and Drew at Engin – thanks guys for all your info – very much appreciated!):
And if that’s not enough, I’m starting the process of rebuilding my main tube mitering setup. Nothing too special, but it should allow for quicker setup with the tubing blocks all being keyed in place and having an adjustable indexing mechanism halfway down the tube – this will NOT index the tube at the end however. I’ve been using a tube block in the center of the tube that follows the tube through the mitering process. I found with other setups that the end of the tube can rock on the round indexing mechanism if you are not really careful. With the tube block, it’s bolted down, and an entire flat section is clamped down to an extension arm that’s been indexed in phase where the mitering occurs. More than one way to skin a cat as they say. Here’s the start of making two identical base plates (one will be indexed while the other will not which clamps the tube block midway):
You’ll notice I have a stop setup on the vise. Each hole I drill I line up, get things tight and then make that operation twice so both parts are dead on instead of making one part from start to finish, and then the second one which is identical start to finish. Again – more than one way to skin a cat. More on this shortly as I’ll most likely be building this and perhaps the start of a seat post jig next week…