Where am I?

Man, day 3 down, I crawled back to Calle's place (between dodging thunderstorms...), laid down on the floor to stretch out a little and ended up passing out. I am totally exhausted. This class is really draining. So many things to think about, focus on, learn about, refocus on....it really feels like I have been doing this class for about 2 weeks already instead of 3 days.

The good news, I got Lori's bikes design down in full scale on paper today. I ended up having to have a lot of consultation with the teacher and the other pro guys that work at UBI since the bike is going to be a smaller road bike, and yet, a little more relaxed ride. Trying to escape the problem of major toe overlap of the front wheel, we ended up deciding on a pretty unorthodox design, incorporating 26" wheels (i.e. mtn bike rims) and most likely a custom built steel fork from my teachers friend in Massachussettes...man that word sucks...probably screwed it up.

Anyway, we searched all the catalogues for options in 650c and 650b before ending up realizing that we were trying to force a solution where the best solution would be to continue the custom theme. So, custom it will be. With the reference from Jim, this guy said he would build my fork whenever I'm ready, so, very cool.

The rest of the bike design process was really fun. After making a few incorrect turns, and going the process of remembering cosine and sin functions, I got it nailed down and checked off as feasible, machinable and weldable by the staff. So, that's that. Other than that, we had several more hours of weld practice. I think I am finally over the hump. Made it all around 2 T-joints with some decent looking welds and no holes. Plus, I just felt more confident staring at the pulsing molten pool of metal and making it do what I wanted.

The other cool thing we did today (and what we will do for ourselves tomorrow) was to do a destructive test of a seat tube and bottom bracket joint. Basically, do up your best weld of that joint, and the reef on it with a huge crowbar until it breaks. It's the final test of our weld skills before they cut us loose on our own frames. It will show if we prepped the material right, cleaned it (and kept it clean and argon purged), used enough heat, and filled with enough wire to get everything to weld together. Hopefully, if all goes right, the damage won't occur in the weld itself, but just outside it in the heat affected zone. That's the A+ for the experiment. Judging by my welds today, I'm thinking that I'll be fine. We'll see.

Now, gonna sling together some tacos and repair my nerves with some R&R. Up early again tomorrow. All day we'll be starting to machine our tubesets on the Bridgeports and getting them geared up to weld....supposedly we will have a front triangle by the end of the week. I still don't see it, but like I said, nobody seems concerned, so I won't be either.

whew.