Friday wrap up; tubes, eggs, and drinking straws

Well the week has spun away from me without much posting, so I'll try catch you up on all the happenings.

Wednesday I planned to knock out the last of Eric's frame, working on the rear end so I can put it all together. I made some nice progress right up until the time that I got a visit from the Chief of my department...seems that Vice Presidential Candidate Joe Biden was making an evening visit to the College of Wooster and I got pulled into the fray to work the event as the Medical Command. A few interesting perspectives...

The Secrete Service guys are pretty cool folk, but they don't allow themselves a lot of a sense of humor

Make sure you pee before entering the secured/protected area, standing for 7 hours without leaving your post is hard on the bladder.

These events are geared to the media...of the 5000 people who showed up, maybe 1000 could see Senator Biden, the rest had their view hidden out of site by the media stage and strategically placed tents.

And my final item... Snipers do not like you looking up at them and pointing, proclaiming, "see, there he is behind the second roof turret" ;)

Anyways, back to regular programming. Here are some shots of Eric's rear end coming together...

Slotting the rear chainstay to fit the flat dropout tabs, I use a double slitting saw with a custom turned spacer...

A shot of the slot with the center remains to be removed yet, the final width fits the tab width perfectly.

A rough check of the fit, the piece will still need filed and sanded before securing.

Once ready to rock, the pieces are placed in my Anvil chainstay fixture for welding.

I tig weld the stays in place and then will later come back, fill the ends with silver, and miter in a scallopped edge for a clean transition from tube to dropout.

Once the ends are in place, I can measure my final stay length and miter for the eccentric bb.

Eric will be using an older XTR bottom clamp front derailleur and spacing between the tire and the unit was a concern of his. After doing some quick measurement, I ended up increasing the chainstay length .25" to insure plenty of room for mud without comprimising performance.

Next, I went to work on the seat stays. Below is a shot of the straight stay and after some bending, the final shape for the frame.

Both stays bent to fit...should be plenty of room for big rubber and mud in here ;)

Of course, while bending the stays for the belt drive project, I was interrupted by a phone call, and when I set the stay down on the bench, it fell off putting a slight dent in the outer tubing; it was my last stay :(

Thank goodness Joe Bringheli lives pretty close, as the importer for Dedda tubing, I ran up there today and picked up another 5 pair. I had been trying to avoid getting more, as I have a big order of custom bent stays on the way from Italy, but when you need them, you gotta have them.

I took Joe a pie from the Amish bakery in the alley behind me to say thanks for fitting my visit in. On the way out, he yelled.."wait Rody, I've got something for you!" Back he came with a dozen fresh layed eggs from his chicken coup...quite a versatile guy :)

Now that I'm back in the shop, I could not leave you without this final pic...

This is what one of the locals did when his cable housing cracked and had to be removed, somehow, the performance was not quite the same :)

I figure the drinking straw allowed the frayed cable to pass back through...does not shift well though.

cheers,

rody