Slowly but Surely

With the Holidays and all it's goings ons, work on the frame has been slow. Today I got the seat stays on. I still need to add the cable stops, some braces, and Brake Tab. Then the clean-up begins. I started doing some of it to get a good look at what I've done. So far so good.

So far so

Been busy with other things lately. So hopefully I should be able to pick up the pace. I don't expect to get my parts till the end of this month, so I'm not in too much of a rush.

Frame sans seatstays. hopefully I'll have those and possible the rest of it done this week. Not a lot to say so far. All is going to plan. I do say I need to Practice, or not stop brazing in between frames. I'm getting better at this heat control business, but I'm not where I'd like it to be, or where I think I can take it.

I've got a lot of sanding still to so. I haven't had any surprises so far. I think if I had it to do over again, Where the downtube, and top tube crosses I'd braze it with Silver. I just flowed so brass on it. Probably too much.

-

My camera doesn't work well with the closeups, so this is about as close as I can get without posting a blur. I still need to file and sand a lot. Hopefully I'll be able to us my friend's camera and show some of what is going on.

One of the down tubes

I've got one of the downtubes almost done. Now for the next. I'm going to guess this frame is going to be stiff. I've also got to clean up that top tube miter a touch.

Top Tube, the other white meat

This top take a lot work to get done. The first one I under estimated and cut too short. It a learning process. Now for the Down Tubes.

Head Tube & Top Tube

I hate setting the head tube on this jig. It's an almost never ending process of elimination. My camera's batteries went south, so all I have is this picture. Tommorow I'm going to weld all this together.

The top tube meets the rings about right in the middle. This miter was something I could have done without. It's not bad, but not perfect. More pictures to come.

If your thinking something looks funny, It might be because the top tube, or at least this tube joins to the bottom of the head tube. Remember this frame is supposed to emulate a Quad Angle. It got a couple top tubes . . . just in case I guess.

The 1-1/8" Head Tube Trick

I decided to go with a 1-1/8" head tube. 1-1/8" really refers to the steered tube of the fork, and kinda contributed to my problem.
-
A frame that is refered to as having a 1" head tube probably has a 1-1/4", or 1.25" diameter tube with a .035" wall thinkness, leaving 1.18", or 29.97mm. Whichs work perfect because bearing cups for 1" head tubes are 30.1mm.
-
A frame using a 1-1/8" head tube requires bearing cups that measure 33.9mm in diameter, so the inside diameter of you tube has to be around 33.9. So what are your options? not many if you going with straight gauge 4130. Oh sure you can buy tubing that is cycling specific and save yourself the headache, but what fun would that be? . . . I mean this is almost like bending your own chainstays . . . who would want to do that? . . . oh yea me . . . crap!
-
OK back to choices. 1-3/8" with .035 leave you with a wall thinkness of 33.15. If you ream that out, it will leave you with about 0.35mm of thickness. Since almost al head tubes need to be .9, 1.0, or 1.1 . . . 0.35 might be a little thin.
-
you can go 1-1/2", but the wall thickness needs to be .095" or 3.05mm thick tube, about x3 the weight. too bad nobody make 1-7/16" diameter, .o35" tubing . . . oh yea, cycling specific tubing.
-
OK I have a plan. 10mm reinforcment rings made from 1-1/2", .058" thick tubing at the top and bottom of the tube. the outside diameter of 1-3/8" tubing is 34.925, and the inside diameter of 1-1/2", .058, is 35.15. This leaves a gap of .1125mm, or about 1/10th of a millimeter. That oughta do it.

The Rings . . . There can only be two!

A little clean up, a little Flux . . .

and there you have it. I guess the technical term for what I did was sweat them on. I appplied the brass to the top of the rings, and then flowed the brass behind the rings, then it came out the bottom. It looks like a brazed both sides of each ring, but I didn't. This is how I know brass is behind each ring. It the same process for joining a bicycle frame with lugs.