Building my new frame - shiney frame pics added!

[makster]

I have just finished the first day of my frame-building course at Downland Cycles.
Some people have asked me to do a write up so I'll aim to record my progress each day.

The day started for me with a crap drive in the rain from SW London. I arrived at the Downland Cycles course centre having had little sleep and no breakfast.
2 cups of coffee later and me and the other trainee were introducing ourselves to the instructor, Brian.
He showed us around the workshop and briefly outlined how the course would pan out over the 5 days.
He then set about explaining the different types of tube we'd be using, and presented me with my Columubus tube-set.
Next was a demonstration of how to make a simple mitre joint, then we were set loose to make our own, using some off-cuts.
I was happy with my first attempt...



It was then down to the serious business of discussing our chosen designs, and putting the dimensions into their CAD system.
I used my current modern bike as a basis, but wanted to tweak a few things. I took the required measurements and it ended up looking like this....



Design sorted, it was on to more tubing choices. I wanted an over-sized headtube and 73mm bottom bracket...



Tubing now selected, it was time to put the earlier mitre practice into use. I printed off a guide templete for joining the seat-tube to the bottom bracket shell and got to work with the files. This took lots of fetlling to get right, but was worth the work...



Once Brian had given this part the thumbs up, it was time to add these parts to the build jig. We set the required lengths and distances from my earlier design and assembled the BB shell and seat tube...





Next was a very tricky mitre, the down-tube to seat-tube and bottom bracket shell. Another print out and careful filing followed...



I then followed this procedure with the mitre for the down-tube to head-tube and offered this into the jig...





There's more minor adjustments to be made to this in the morning, but I'm pleased with todays efforts

 

[jonnyboy666]

Re:

looking good! i take it this is a 29er, and i assume it will have a disc mount?

what are you gonna do about paint etc?

 

[makster]

Re:

29er with disc mount.
I had been planning on using the guy you suggested, in Chichester, but that was when I was thinking I'd have a mix of lugs and fillet brazing.
As it'll just be fillet brazed all over now I may use someone more local to me

 

[Antstark]

Re:

How ace is that! Nice work Mark.

 

[Mike Muz]

Re: Re:

How ace is that! Nice work Mark.

+1

I must go on one of these courses. Where abouts is this one mate ?
Also what is the company in Chichester also mentioned ?
Looks really well done so far

Mike

 

[Antstark]

Re: Re:

I was going ask about the painters in Chi too

How ace is that! Nice work Mark.

+1

I must go on one of these courses. Where abouts is this one mate ?
Also what is the company in Chichester also mentioned ?
Looks really well done so far

Mike

 

[jonnyboy666]

Re:

mark is doing this course at Downland Cycles in Canterbury. i'm also doing a full Pro mechanic course there in about 6 weeks time which i intend to do what Mark is doing, effectively reviewing the course.

regarding the painter in chichester, it's Fat Creations, i used them years ago on my fausto coppi galaxy road bike, epic paint job, still only has one chip and that's now 10 years ago it was painted. the guy there is Alistair, he's the owner/painter, i asked for a quote on a yo eddy fade a while ago and he suggested around £200 to £250 based on a pic i sent him. i would have used him again years ago but i thought for some unknown reason he didn't do bikes anymore but i was wrong.

 

[Grannygrinder]

Re:

That looks like a very rewarding way to spend a week
Are you going to give it an outragous frame number

 

[Antstark]

Re:

Thanks JB...clocked them on google now...will give them a bell Tuesday I think.

 

[makster]

Re:

Another wicked, if long, day today.
The day started with me finishing off the mitre joints on the down-tube. It was a bitch for a while I got it ok in the end.
It was then time for my first brazing experience...the bottle cage mounts. I'd drilled the tubes where I want the mount then, after a quick tutorial and practice session, it was down to business...







My next job was fitting the top tube. This actually went really well, and was the quickest set of mitres I've done yet.





This completed the front triangle, so the next step was to tack it all together. Brian gave a demo, I had a practice then it was straight in at the deep end.
Brian explained the best order to tack the joints in order to limit tube movement caused by the heat.
Tacking the two tubes to the head-tube were the trickiest, because of the differences in tube thickness.
I also had to fully braze on side of the bottom of the seat-tube, as it will be blocked a portion of the down-tube once it's fitted.



With the front triangle now tacked in place, it was time to start looking at the rear. This was the hardest part so far. The software couldn't give me a guide to the mitre profiles so I had to work this out for myself, plus the tubes have to be slotted to accept the drop-outs.
I spent most of the afternoon on this, and still didn't quite get both lower stays in place.
It really was a slow process, but it's all a learning experience!





I'm hoping that tomorrow will see me finish the rear triangle, get it all tacked and then start the fillet brazing