I can’t believe how fast the first week has gone. We’re flying through the course and starting to envision what our frames will look like. When we got into the shop on Friday Doug gave us the lesson on determining steerer length for a fork. Simple to calculate and carefully noted on my notepad! I was able to get my bottom bracket brazed the seat tube completely. This was our first real test of skill on our real tubes and lugs. It went pretty good. I didn’t blob any silver over the edge of the lug however the lug window gave me a challenge. I’ll need to do some filing later to clean things up. So far the brazing is getting easier than it was on just Wednesday.
Once this braze was complete I was able to spend a little time on the Bridgeport getting my downtube in check. The mitering was getting easier to calculate although we had to really thing about it hard a few times. Splitting degrees to make it right took some extra time but it taught us a thing or two about proper methods. The Bridgeport is in action below:
Once I had the downtube set up and happy with it’s place in the bottom bracket I was able to focus on the fork. I got the steerer brazed in and learned that you really can pour on the heat with the fork crown. The long tangs on the fork required a lot of filing. More than I had expected by far. It took a couple hours until I was satisfied with the look and angle of the file work. Below you can see the challenging fork crown. Persistence paid off and I was able to get it cleaned up and ready for the next step. Fork legs!
Day 4 was a review of bottom bracket brazing and the importance of proper technique with the torch. We learned several secrets of seat tubes that you’ll have to take the class to learn. I’ve seen the alignment process of a frame done and today we got to do some preliminary alignment so we could ensure our frames came out correct.
My new bottom bracket arrived and I was able to start filing and filing and filing.
For lunch Doug took us to Berrien Springs for a haystack. Being an SDA Doug is a vegetarian so this was right up his alley.
After lunch we took a drive over to Muhammed Ali’s house and took a touristy look at it. We also took a slightly different route back to Niles and saw a lot of damage from the storm on Monday. Lots of trees were down and crews were cleaning up the mess.
My lug work was nearing completion so I was able to get all of my tubes into the fixture with all of the miters cut. It’s starting to come together.
Tomorrow we’re getting into the fork. Ready!
Today we got to play with fire! Brazing with silver is the method we’re using to join the tube to the lugs. After a lesson on oxy-acetylene we did some practice brazing on some old tubes. No need to risk drama on the real stuff just yet.
I have experience welding with a MIG welder and I did some brass brazing about 16 years ago so using silver and the torch was new. I was slightly excited, more nervous really, to get to brazing. A lot of people say things that make you think brazing is easy, but, it is not. Carefully maintaining proper temperature to avoid roasting the flux is vital. All three of us got into the brazing with care and learned a lot. Here I am brazing a practice seat tube to a bottom bracket for real! This is probably the 2nd easiest braze you can do on a bike. There isn’t anything to get in the way and you can move around the work easily.
After the brazing of the bottom bracket was done we got back to working on our top tubes, head tubes, and seat tubes. Cutting miters into the top tube was starting to make sense. Doug had us checking and rechecking the tubing and making us use brain power to figure out the process. We got to use the Bridgeport vertical mill. It is a big, hulking, old looking beast of a machine. It’s function is simple = Cut tubing to the proper degree. The first time around is intimidating. The Bridgeport looks like it could survive a nuclear blast however Doug showed us how it can be broken. I loaded up my tube and got it cut properly and put it in the fixture with a lug. This seemed to be a milestone in the process however it truly was a baby-step. We have a long way to go. Here is a pic of the top tube in place with both miters cut.
The never ending filing continued. At several times during class there were moments when Doug was helping another student so we had time to do some lug work. Using a crafty tool called a lug vice we were able to get our lugs looking good.
It’s hard to believe we’re on Day 3 already. The time is flying by. The jet lag is fading and I’m getting used to routine of being a pupil.
