A little Sunday Brunch...

Ohhh, that's nice! Yep, took advantage of having one less kid in the house, a snowy Sunday morning, and too many days getting up before dawn and indulged in sleeping late :)

Had the dog not been barking at 0730ish, I'm sure I could have kept on going.

So, super refreshed and ready to meet the day, it was off to the shop.

The goal today was to get that darned belt drive project out of the fixture so I can move on to customer needs.

First order of business was to get the rear end brazed up and finished so that I could get it welded up to the front triangle. The chainstays are a non-tapering .75" x .035" stock, and due to the large size, get a cap rather than filled with bronze. The seat stays, however, take the filler with casual ease, so off we go...

Although I've only got two hands, I did my best to get an "action" shot ;)

I put a nice amount of brass into the dropout, so that it is a sturdy connection ready for years of abuse and after air cooling, it's off to the soak tank to remove the now glassy flux.

After all the flux is soaked off, I scrub the parts clean with a Scotchbrite, file in a scallop on both sides of the seat stay/dropout connection, and put it all back in the fixture to weld up.

Oops, you must have blinked...because the rear end is now all welded up and the frame is ready for alignment checks. I'm a firm believer in constructing the frame all in the fixture and using a welding sequence that disperses the heat across the frame in subtle movements, both working in a synergistic relationship to produce a piece that needs little if any post fabrication alignment.

Here's a shot of the rear end, checking the dropouts for correct position. Everything is dead nuts right out of the fixture, so no cold setting that will cause the material to yield need take place. That's what I want.

While the rear end was cooling, soaking, and generally burning up the clock, I went ahead and got the headbadge holes prepped.

I first laid out the correct position for the pilot holes and then tapped them gently with a punch to allow for drilling without the bit wandering all over the place.

Then I use a tiny drill bit with a dab of cutting fluid on the tip and drill away.

Finally, fitting up the head badge to insure all will line up correctly.

One detraction to working in an environment with lots of sharp/hot/dangerous materials around is that you'll eventually get bit by the dog you are playing with.

Today, I made a rookie mistake of resting my arm on the frame/fixture while answering a phone call...OUCH!

I got a pretty good burn on my wrist for my careless non-chalante attitude. This baby blistered up this evening...gonna have to wrap it up before working in the shop tomorrow.

See y'all tomorrow,

rody