Back in the Shop

I finally got back into the shop today even though I've been home for at least two weeks now.  I guess I've been unburying my stack of neglect from the past eight months of mostly absence.  But now that's coming to an end...the shop's clean, the firewood is coming along even though its already December, and today it was warm enough to get a good spell in the shop that lasted well into the evening.  That's really why I haven't gone out there...its been cold as balls here and its usually colder in the shop than it is outside.

Anyways I'm onto Shawna's....bike....actually I don't really know what kind of bike it is. That's sort of scary.  I guess I've become partial to building mountain bikes or at least fillet brazed bikes.  It'll be cool though.  Some sort of randoneur/tourer with 650b wheels and lugs throughout with Paul's new racer brakes.  It'll be crazy.  It took a few renderings and I ended up changing it up again today and slackening the angles half a degree and lowering the BB.  I think it'll work out well.

The request back in the east was more pics of what I'm doing and we just got a new internet connection up and running so we'll see if the uploads go a little more quickly.  Here's a show and tell of today's work.

facing the head tube/top tube lug so a head tube extension sits flush

the lugs do not have an even face from the casting injection.  the uneven color is where I started to face the down tube lug.

head tube/top tube lug and 20 mm extension.  The extension is a piece of 1 3/8" x .058" chromoly

both the lug and the extension are faced for a seamless fit.  when the frame is brazed I will sweat silver through the whole unit here and then clean up the finish with a file.  (the extension is slightly smaller)

marking the top tube mitre at the seat tube.  the head tube is already mitered.  I mitre everything with hacksaw and files at this point so I do them one at a time to minimize any chance for error.  These machined tubing blocks are invaluable to me.  from goodtimes bicycles

tacked BB/seat tube.  The discoloring is because I defluxed with a wire wheel instead of soaking.  I'll be fillet brazing the bottom bracket joint and chainstays.  This just seems to make more sense.  Lugs are a very big design constraint (certain size sockets placed at certain angles) and tire clearance is not a place where I want constraints.  Plus nice fillets here just look cool to me.

Mitering the downtube seat tube junction.

the first snow ride on the year on the General Lee.  I had to disconnect the brakes so they didn't pack up with snow as bad.  Enjoy y'all.  See ya.