Thank you Doug, I was looking into framebuilding classes. They seem interesting and keeping your work from the class is definitely a plus. I will continue to save my money and hopefully by the time I graduate high school, I should have the funds to pay for a class. Could you reccomend a good school on the west coast? (specifically California)
Originally Posted by
Doug Fattic
Thrasher, building a bicycle frame is a fairly complex project. How difficult it will be depends on your past experiences and future goals (do you want to make more or just do one for fun?). Whatever your ambitions making a frame is going to be somewhat expensive. It is in my self interest to say this but taking a frame building class will give you the fastest way to get good results starting out. That way you can avoid expensive motivation killing mistakes while figuring out what to do. And if you don’t have the ability or sustainable interest to continue, you can still leave with a quality frame with the instructors help. Using proper equipment allows one to see what is needed for future projects. The reality is most students that take my class would not have done well on their own starting out. There are exceptions of course.
To answer your specific questions, I have written quite a bit recently on a torch set up recently. It is just a couple of subject threads below yours.
You don’t need an expensive fixture to start but you do need to somehow hold the tubes in the correct relationship to each other to match your frame design. There are a lot of pictures of creative solutions online. In addition those tubes need to be in line with each other and hold the wheels in the same plane. It is easy to get them out of whack with poor brazing and/or holding methods. Most often some sort of flat surface is used for alignment (like a table saw surface or kitchen counter top). Expect to spend a fair amount on basic tooling besides your torch set up like taps and reamers and a set of files. I would start by buying or making a set of wood blocks for holding tubes.
Doug Fattic
Niles, Michigan