Who I Am
 

I thought that some of you might want to know a bit more about me and my history in this building thing. I haven't been a member of this forum for too long but am finding that I am posting fairly often in the framebuilders room.

I started building back in 1978 when a new local shop was heard to be making frames. When I stopped by the owner handed me a file and a lug (Prugnat IIRC) and told me to "do this" (clean up the shore line and points). I did and in a few weeks he handed a torch to me and I was off. We drew up full scale drawings on sign making paper on the floor using trig to set the angles. Some pinning, some tacking, lot's of sighting and creative clamping.

After about 6 frames I took my first class, in 1979, from Al Eisentraut in Rutland, VT (his last East coast class from what I know of). The world of jigs, designing solely with math and professional feed back opened up.

I was happy to build for myself and a couple of friends until I fell in love and moved to Chicago in 1985, only 300 steps from Cyclery North, a frame building shop. A season and another 6 frames under my belt made another level of improvement. The shop had some very odd ways of doing the job. Tradition and trust had to be dealt with. The other builder became my standard to strive to. But being a rider I had to leave Chicago or I'd go nuts.

We moved to Cleveland and I got tired of working for owners who I didn't agree with so opened my own retail shop. 15 years and 15 frames later our burn out level peaked and we moved to Raleigh, NC. Flush with cash I finally bought a real jig.

My wife died in a bike/car incident in 2007. A couple of years later it was time to return home to Rochester. I now am in my 4th house (and about the 11th shop set up I've built in), soon it will be #5 as my wedding date is this Sept. It will have space for one more shop.

All these years I have continued to build as a hobby. I've taken a second class, with Doug Fattic, a few years ago (and highly recommend his skills as a teacher). When I was exposed to this interweb stuff back in the mid 1990s I found another passion. The range of building methods, number people who I've worked with, the number of shops that I've been in (or set up myself), the range of bike styles/sizes I've dealt with, having exposure to pro building but being initially almost self taught have all given me a perspective that many who post on these forums don't have. My advice is laced with practicability and a consern for cost.

Here's a link to my Flicker sets. Enjoy checking them out, I'll enjoy posting here and offering help as I can. Andy.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73195587@N00/sets/

Welcome Andy. Andy has always been really helpful on the framebuilder's list and on Frameforum. Thanks for coming here! Olivier.

Welcome! It sounds like life has you hitting all the popular stops, I am glad to see you are still building and riding. Bring those classics over to C&V and make even more friends! (or contact me regarding new homes for them!)

I am in Bellows Falls VT, stop in some time!

those pics are loaded with information - like the die grinder strapped into a jig and put into a vise - and oh yeah, get some welding gloves; pic probably saved me from a trip to the emergency room; thanks for sharing

Mikerhymeswith- There are some jobs during which I think about the risk of things gone wrong. Using a diegrinder to open up and dress lugs is most deffently one of those! I have a number of scars from other jobs that taught me this... Andy.