I do production welding for a place that does laser cutting and there is a water-jet guy in the area also. got a kick out of his masterlock concept grinder. (polarbear) I almost gave up on finding pics but it was worth it.
Where I am, there are a lot of old machines/tools everywhere. I have lots of industrial hardware in a pile out back so I really try not to pay inbound shipping on steel. My biggest problem is paying for items where the seller demands I take a machine "for it's own good" and pay for it at my leisure. I also have this rolling machine that belongs to a friend who hasn't been around for months.
29 350 by
frankthewelder, on Flickr
I built a frame using the grinding machine and it worked pretty well. The belts were total crap and a bridgeport is tragically slow but it worked. The frame was my first with heavier forming operations on this new Columbus tubes. I didn't pick them but the buts are very short and the tubes are wicked thin.
The fits were awesome and I hippy welded it, single pass with no blow-outs and only some minor touch-ups.
It's hard to tell but I formed each of the tubes in several directions. It fits big tires with racing geometry with plenty of ring clearance. I gas brazed the bridges and small parts. Because the lack of butt length, I didn't have the material to wrap the widened top tube around the head tube so I "pinched" the bobbed ends of the tube in the vice and simultaneously swung the tube as I closed the vice, forming the odd endwork on the front side of the top tube.
There was several magical moments building this frame. I didn't think about photos. It was one of those building sessions where I met only my most basic personal needs and everything else went into the frame. It was rad.
The top of the seat tube is a very short, thick sleeve that gets a bigger slot with exclusive anti-propagation technology (BS) and the chain stays are "perasymmetrical" (a new word I just made up, it means the part (chain stay) itself is not symmetrical but two of the same are used) and the seat stays and head tube are regular bits.
Ill return with the images. Fliikr is bogging