Moving right along...

Hang onto your seats, we're going to catch you up for a couple days worth. When we last left off, I was whining about my bumps and bruises and we had started to bend up the brass inner liner for Roy's bike...flash forward to the present.

The next task on the list was to finish up mitering the seat stays. As the stays are fairly large in diameter, I cut one at a time to insure I had enough room in the jig...plus it gives you a better view :^) .

Next up, I silver brazed the seat post clamps, mitered the seat post relief, and then got back on the cables routing.

First course of action for the internal routing is to mark the centerines of the tube and then orient the internal routing to insure that the entry and exits are located within the thicker butted section and are not in the highest stress plane of the tube. I choose a down tube with plenty of beef in the ends as I knew we would be running internal cables and braze ons for the Crud Catcher...evidently those are very needed in the Netherlands, gonna have to go and find out for myself!

Next up was drilling the starter holes and filing to shape; a nice elongated slot that will be easier to feed the cables through.

Feeding the inner brass tubing is a bit of a challenge, as it is very fragile and not very cooperative. Gotta take your time, persuade it here and there, and remember not to cuss too much ;^)

Here's a shot of the Down Tube with the brass tubing in place. I repeated the process for the top tube as well.

Once in place, it was lots of flux, a little 56% silver, a bit of filing and wha lah!

These guides turned out incredibly sexy...I almost hate to give this frame up as it will be very clean and elegant.

A lot of scrubbing, a final check for proper alignment and then I began tacking the front triangle.

I tack the frame sequentially to limit any torsional pulling on the tubing and then weld everything in the fixture rather than take it out to finish as most builders do. I weld in the fixture as it maintains perfect alignment and I end up with little to no post weld alignment to do...that's a stonger, straighter frame for you!

Tomorrow I'll get the frame fully welded up and hopefully (everyone cross their fingers) the final pieces for the Firm-tech brakes will show up so I can start making some custom bosses.

cheers,

rody