Old 07-29-12, 11:33 AM
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aprhockey
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After the fillets have cured, I sand the lugs to shape. Then I lay up some 2" fiberglass tape across the load paths. You can see the roughed up crossed pieces on the headtube lug.



I bought 180 yield fiberglass roving from Composites Canada. It came to me as a 45 pound spool. I made small spools by just screwing some big washers on either end of 3" pieces of 7/16" dowel. In this picture you can see three spools rolled up and ready to be used. Since wetted fiberglass is pretty much clear it makes for an ugly joint, so I mixed a little bit of dry pigment into the epoxy during the wrapping stage. I can get pretty much any color imaginable from Kama Pigments here in Montreal.



After wrapping all the lugs and compressing the fiberglass with the perforated electrical tape method I then sand and shape up the joints. I use an orbital sander with 60 grit sand paper for the big bulges and for whatever areas I can reach. For the rest I just use a metal file. I used a finer grit sanding sponge afterwards to make it a bit smoother before applying the clear coat.



At this stage the lugs are all sanded to shape. Here you can see the simple jig I used to position the brake bridge. It's positioned for use with a long reach brake for fender clearance.



The completed frame. Downtube shifter braze-ons so that regular downtube friction shifters can be used. STI adapters can be screwed on to convert them to regular cable stops. The frame can fit 2 bottle cages. I sunk a bottle cage boss into the chainstay bridge for mounting a fender. I also used bottle cage bosses on the seat stays for attaching a rear rack.











Only problem I encountered when assembling parts on it was that the front derailleur should be positioned exactly where the bottle cage boss is. Clamping the derailleur above leaves a decent gap but I think it will still work. Pictures of the assembled bike will be posted soon.

Any and all comments/criticism is appreciated.
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