The Worm Turns….

Well, here we are, the end of February. Bike shop gone as cold as ice, as you know already Dan. But much has happened since the New Year, mainly, my new job. It's been my sole focus for the past month or more, while keeping my head above water at the old job. And now, it's happened…I'm moving downtown, to a job that I can't wait to get started on. I'm getting 2 hours of bike commute time back per day at least, and relieving alot of stress in the home schedule. I feel a leaf turning in this here year of the snake. I'm ready to hit it full stride. Your bike rolling off the assembly line is a primary focus in that revolution. ONWARD.

Back to the drawing board....in a good way!

Oy, spent the better part of the last two nights drawing out seatstays....NEED to have full spec drawings for this one because I am likely going to bend again. Using beefier seatstays (19mm) so the angle is a little narrow to miter it's diameter to hit the seatstay radii (sp?). Not to mention, I think a little more mud clearance would be good.....going straight would only allow ~10mm or so on either side. That's not much mud. Could easily increase that by 50% or more with the arc I have on my bender. Anyway, multiple drawing up, some mock ups done, test bend complete. Now just need to pull the angles from the drawing and get some bending and mitering done. ONWARD>

trippin'

Photo catch up…Turkey Time was indeed a good time. Got a good piece in the shop to do the final fitup of the chainstays, and finish the jig extension on my frame jig that I figured out. Sanctuary

Of course there were some edits to be made all freestyle style

Ghetto chainstay jig up...

Prototyping the jig out….

Barlow remains largely nonplussed

ONWARD

Turkey & Time

4 days off of work (and maybe a little more on the day before Thanksgiving….shhhh), nowhere to go, floods outside, overhead, whatever. My shop is my ship. Time. On the horizon. Baby needs some love.

Rollin.....

Had a great night in the shop last night, went late, but very satisfying....built out my chainstay jig, and did some fine tuning in filing the miter joints to fit nice and tight and ready for fire. Whew! Worked. Also, I got my hands on the FREE PRO PARK STAND from Finnegan's backyard after Halloween festivities wrapped up the other night. Another late night, but last night I got the chance to throw my frame jig up on it and man, what a difference. Now I don't have to fight for access to my drawers in my rollaround tool chest, AND I get my sweet vise back in use for other purposes....THANKS FINN! I took pictures, but had to go straight to bed when I wrapped up last night in a fog of Nag Champa and epic tunes from KBOO. two thumbs up for the BOO! Oh yeah, and Dan, the wheel fits like a glove.....gonna be MURDER. Onward.

LIfe….

Crazy days lately, on all fronts. But rain is falling again, washing down the streets, the gullies, and piling the leaves and the summer crumbs where they can be collected or swept aside. At least Gigi and MasterBlaster remain smitten with each other….

Been collecting some doo-dad parts and tools I need to jerry rig my frame jig to nail into place Dan's chainstays for tacking to weld. Had to spend tonight doing some mods to the extrusions I'll use…drilling through holes, marking out where I will cut the lengths down, etc.

Needing to drill some aluminum….super mushy shit after punching through Ti…..I wonder about that stuff….suspiciously cool shade of grey……

Long live the counterpunch….what genius invented that?

Spent a good hour…maybe more fixturing Dan's frame back into my jig and aligning the angles (in the good words of Janis Joplin, Lord won't you buy me, a Mercedes Benz, or if not, an Anvil Journeyman? Used is fine…) The good news? The jig remained on the money. Hitting angles to the half degree.

I need to stop going to Hillsboro every day. Please. Someone dump some gold bars and peanut butter Snickers down my chimney. I need some time to get awesome. Back to the task tomorrow night. High Five's at Halloweener.

Gearing up for victory or bust...

Spent the night last night trying several different ways of getting the chainstays aligned to the dropouts and BB in my jig for welding this weekend. Still not 100% satisfied that my scheme will work....but I came up with a plan to try and attack it. Need to source some more aluminum extrusion bars to bolt onto my frame jig around PDX somewhere so that I can fake a chainstay jig with some creative clamping. Otherwise, got the rest of my argon breather holes drilled into the frame, and did some fine tuning on my chainstay miters with my files. Fitup is critical since I will be being creative with my workholding method. The heat will pull the stays out of alignment when I get to welding. Going to have some solid blocks of time this weekend to do some work. Need to dominate! Sorry no pictures Dan. Late night, nothing exciting to take pictures of....stay the course brother!