Titanium Hot rods...

Such a fun piece to build, but soooo much involved in the process...

Here's a short video taking a look inside the fabrication process, from the weld table...

And the finished product, complete with direct drive ring and spider...

cheers!

Nixie tube clock project...

My son recently graduated from college and I wanted to give him something special.

I've always enjoyed watching evolving technology and have wanted to incorporate some old tech into new projects, so I built Kalten a Nixie tube clock.

Nixie tubes were developed in the 1950's, a precursor to digital displays.  It is a cold cathode electrode inside a glass tube filled with neon gas and just a touch of mercury.  The numerical cathodes are stacked using ceramic insulators and when electricity is passed to the electrode, it reacts with the neon gas and glows, displaying the number.

There is still a small supply of these tubes in the Eastern Block countries, as they manufactured them into the early 80's.

I sourced the tubes from Russia, the board from a gentleman in the Ukraine, and then got to soldering.

The clock allows for 12/24 hour time display, date, and alarms.  I placed RGB Leds under each tube and the color changes during use.

The case is built out of sheet metal and was finished in an antique/distressed paint theme.

Came out pretty cool, makes me want one for myself :)

Mentoring 2017

Each year I try to give back a week of my time to a professional who wants to take their skill to the next level; learn paint, tig, new materials, etc...

This year I had the pleasure of hosting Daan from 11 Ants Titanium Bicycles.  The owners have focused their bicycle design on Pinion and Rohloff builds in titanium, a market segment that has room for growth in Europe.  Their builds for the last three years have been commissioned in China, but due to the stresses of working long distance and inability to control quality, spec, and manage expectations, they want to move the production home to Holland.  Daan came to me with 20 years fabrication and machine shop experience, but no bicycle work.  It was our goal to expose him to the fabrication process and begin to understand the unique difficulties in working with Titanium.

Over the next 5 days, we worked through language and machine familiarization barriers to reach a level of competency that will build a strong foundation for this companies future success.

Bill and I were also able to get an Accuset fixture into their hands, only the third fixture we've sent out, nice to see it go to a good home that can truly use it's accurate set up, repeat-ability, and massive access for joining.

Best wishes to Roy, Jeroen, and Daan as they move to the next step in their journey...Made in Holland!

January/February bars going out...

Ok, so originally I was only going to update this blog with new fabrication tutorial info, but it seems like I continue to do the same stuff over and over that has already been covered.  So, here's a quick post just to see if anyone is still out there...

Spent the better part of the last two weeks knocking out January/February bar orders and crafting up some tasty titanium cranks...

Much like welding a frame, the bars have a systematic welding process to keep them aligned and flat, starting with the linear ends of each miter

The bars are the only titanium item I single pass weld, as the additional heat of a two pass process becomes a bit more problematic with alignment.  To ensure complete penetration, a higher energy setting is used with a brief pulse to drive the arc deep into the substrate and feather out a bit wider than normal...

These titanium cranks are ran through the blast cabinet so that it will provide a mechanical surface for the ceramic to adhere to...

Colored and ready for action 3 hours later...

Thanks for tuning in,

Rody

Frame repairs...it's part of long term business

Whether you have been active in the niche of custom bicycles for a few years or decades, eventually stuff breaks and your creations will find their way back to you for repair.

Creating a sustainable business plan to deal with these, supporting the customer, will build confidence in your customer base and garner long term support.

Check out this short video that looks at the replacement of fatigued tubing/dropout and the business discussion that follows.

This blog has always served as an tool for sharing and teaching the art of custom bicycle fabrication...if there are topics you would like to see visited, please let me know...

rody

How to create custom graphics...

One of the most enjoyable parts of building custom bicycles is the ability to bring the customer's personality out in the finish work.

In this short video, I'll share the process of creating hand drawn graphics and making them a reality in paint.

Enjoy!

cheers,

Rody