Stainless Steel parts

Chad R wanted to see his Henry James drop outs all polished up for the Columbus Spirit build. I also threw in 20 stainless steel head tube badges that still need to be rolled and silvered on to your future frame. Wonder how long it will take to use them up.
Cheers,
Hub

Day of stays

I was contacted by a fellow builder that wanted to build his own press and was wondering if I was willing to share the specs on mine. I e-mailed him some dimensions and said I would post some pics on the blog. So Joe, the first 4 pics are for you, hope they help.
A good part of the day was spent on TI stays. The chain stays started out as Haynes 7/8 dia.x .032 wall. After rough cutting them to length, I load them into the press to ovalize the BB end and make a smooth transition to round on the drop out end.












Once the chain stays are flattened, onto bending. This is the first bend, for tire clearance. I forgot to take a picture of the second bend. I must of got wrapped up in all the excitement.
There is a stop on the bender to make sure that both stays are bent the same amount. I also have a stop for length, although it is not in this picture.

I was so excited I forgot to snap pics of mitering as well. Oh well, maybe the next frame. Here the chain stays are loaded into the jig

Onto seat stays. The pair of stays have been S bent up and loaded into the mitering fixture. The cool thing about this jig is that when I adjust the length, the pair of stays maintain the center line of the jig.

Cheers,
Hub

Jess crankin it out in Truckee

Just a quick post, but here is a picture of Jess at Nationals in Truckee CA. She placed 29th in both the short track and the cross country. Funny it was on a 29er. Maybe I could talk her into smaller wheels.

Great job Jess!

We are hoping to give her frame a flashy face lift for the 2010 season, so I would love to hear suggestions.

Cheers,
Hub

4 More Forks

I managed to miter and weld up 4 more forks. In the pic, 2 Fat Yo's and 2 Fat Big One Inch. I am glad they are off my plate, so that I can focus on a couple of frames that I have been looking forward to knocking out. I have a TI frame that still needs a rear triangle, and then onto Ron S.'s steel 29er hardtail.
On another note, there has been a lot of chat on the frame building forums about frame jigs, and I still feel that I have the best jig for set up, rigidity, and accuracy. If a customer wants a 70.5 degree head tube, I loosen 2 bolts, drop in a pin and tighten the 2 bolts. I can set up any geometry in just a couple of minutes, so that I can spend my time fabricating a killer frame. Most other builders only tack their frames in the jig, and weld it out of the jig. I weld as much of the frame in the jig that I can reach, approx 85%. Others will tell you that creates internal stresses in the welds. B.S. I have done this with 800 plus frames and have never had a failure. I can tell you that post welding alignment is almost never needed. I fear that the guys welding out of the jig have to do so much cold setting to get alignment that the frame is compromised or still has memory and will someday move back to the unaligned state. Just something I need to say here, didn't need a bunch of guys on the forum, who never built a frame, to tell me they know better.
Cheers,
Hub

Metal Lathe, not just for round parts.

One of the services that I offer the local bike shops is seat post removal. Something I don't like to advertise, but interesting to look at. I fixture the frame in the tool post and drill out the frozen post with an undersized drill. In the picture, 2/3 of the post has been drilled when it decided to let loose. This is usually how it goes. I am proud to say I am undefeated. Never damaged a frame, and have always gotten the post out. Back to work,
Hub

First Snow!

It is the middle of October and we already have an inch on the ground and it is expected to keep snowing through Saturday. Not very good for the Sunday ride at Allegrippis, but great for production at the HubcapCycles factory.
On the plate, more Fat forks, seat post removal, and rear triangle for a TI frame.
Figured out one reason for the poor quality on recent blog photos, looks like the kids smeared peanut butter on the lense. This picture appears to be better with the new cleaned lense.
I'll post more pics later, gotta get something done. Cheers, Hub

More Retro reproduction forks

Ok, lots of pics, and the quality is not great, but it is late. And they are in reverse order, oh well. Just a few pics of a Yo Eddy fork build. In the last pic it shows the fork loaded in the jig and half welded. Second to last I was trying to show the stack of dimes on the bearing race weld. third and fourth to last is the race being turned in the lathe to the proper dia. after it is all welded up. The first pic I was trying to show the tabs that are silvered on the back of the fork legs.
Fortunately my frame building skills are better than my photography and my blogging skills. Soon I'll be done with this run and i can focus on some frames

Tough weekend

I was hoping to get a ton of work done this weekend. I started by shooting final clear on 2 bars and 1 fork, no problem. Went to do the fusion pass on the front triangle of a TI 29er, no argon for the back purge, problem on Saturday morning. Richard at B and B reproductions was nice enough to hook me up with a cylinder at 10am. Got rolling on the fusion pass, started on the filler pass and couldn't establish an arc. I recalled Rody had a similar problem and it was the torch cables. Thought I was done until Bill called and told me he had an extra set that I could use to trouble shoot. Bam, back in business. So tomorrow is a big trip to the welding supply store to pick up argon, weld mold 880, and a new torch. I did manage to rework Jess's binder bolt in preparation for nationals in Truckee CA. Hope she kicks some butt after winning her last three races.