Alexandria

Hi, I am a complete noob in frame building area, but I was wondering, is it possible to make a good home made frame? If yes, how much would it cost me, and how hard is it to find the materials? And what about a home made aluminium frame? Impossible or very hard?

Please dont treat me like sh*t though =P Im just a curious noob

Thanxxx

NoReg

There is tons of info on this, both here and on frameforums. The short answer is that most frame makers are basically home businesses, garage based, etc... On the other hand unless you already have the welding or brazing tools, then making your own frame is fairly expensive. People fairly typically spend thousands on gear. It is possible to make frames with cheap propane, mapp, or low volume OA torches, or stick welders, or open harth processes. There are some threads on that around here, and olso at atomiczombie like places. Overall one is unlikely to save any money in making one's own frame, unless one already owned the gear for other purposes. Nova is a good place to look around at a variety of tubing and lugged products. Most of the online sources for bike framebuilding do not encourage DIY shortcuts, even if they work. Most people are interested in an experience similar to cottage/pro framebuilding.

Homebrew01

I built 3 "home-made" steel frames a while back, and raced quite well on one of them (the others were for my brother & a friend). I made my own brazing jig out of flat stock aluminum plate. I also bought torches and rented oxy-acetylene tanks. I bought tubing sets and all the lugs and braze-ons and had fun. It's a lot of work though and you should have some metal working and brazing/welding background.

Aluminum ?? That would be a lot more difficult because you need to heat-treat or temper it after welding. (Last I knew)