Sunday, December 22, 2013

at long last...

This place is finally making bikes!


853 tubeset just waiting to be a randonneuring bike.

Measuring and marking the butts on each tube to properly locate the miters.  Never trust the tube specs, my dial indicators don't lie!


Measuring and marking the bow in each tube (yes, they all have some bow).
I like to keep the bow in-plane with the frame so that it doesn't interfere with frame alignment measurement

Machining the head tube extension.  I make these myself to ensure they match the upper lug perfectly.

Shaping the headlugs.  In this case the front of the headlugs are carved to match the Mitsugi crown.

Engraving the BB shell with serial # and customer name.  I like the little touches like this to personalize the frame.

Front triangle mitered up and jigged.  Once the rest of the lugs are prepped this will be tacked in the jig and then fully brazed outside of the jig.  It's very important to get the alignment correct the first time on 853 frames (just like on stainless frames) as it's quite difficult to set the alignment after brazing.

More to come soon....

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