Yesterday's progress:

First off was adjusting the angles and sockets of the BB. Normally, I build with oval stays but with these round stays using a scrap piece of bar, I was able to have a nice anvil inside the socket to hammer against and the bar provided leverage to move the socket around too. Track bikes have somewhat higher BB's and these frames are very small so the angles are a bit off of standard road bike. I was lucky and found a BB with angles that were pretty close from Ceeway but they still needed a few degrees adjustment on the stays. I also needed to tightened the sockets up a bit as there was just a bit more slop than needed for the filler (Silver). I think I cycled through the 4 shells 2 or 3 times before I was happy with all of them!:


After getting through the BB's, I mitered the top tubes. Normally, I use tubing blocks on each end to keep miters in phase. I don't have 8 1" blocks though so, I had to do one end and then move the blocks to the other end keeping everthing in phase. Once i'd moved the blocks, I tried a few different ways to get them back in phase on the other end. I found that the headtube snug slip fit on my BB post on the surface plate so, I forced the mitered HT end of the TT against that while adjusting the block on the other end of the tube against the surface plate. Most important tool in the garage is problem solving skills.

I mitered the HT end:

Then held it tight against the HT mounted on the BB post:


Once the block was on, I could measure with my 600mm calipers (which are super handy!) to scribe a mark at the right TT length for the ST end miter.


After those were completed, I moved on to braze on the seat tube sleeves for the seat cluster. I generally like that step because adding it makes me think that I'm building something strong that will last. I didn't thin these on the lathe and I didn't carve them at the bottom like I normally do due to these having a separate aluminum clamp that requires the full 31.8mm diameter ST and time constraints. Sorry about the photo quality. I apparently didn't turn the lights back up after I finished brazing. I recently switched from tube CFL's to LED lights in the shop and now I am having a hard time seeing the color and flux changes.

Untitled by Duane Draper, on Flickr
Untitled by Duane Draper, on Flickr
Untitled by Duane Draper, on Flickr

I use silver on these sleeves all the way through which then requires I use Fillet Pro on the TT/seatstays. This increases costs a bit (a lot) but I like that I get full penetration under the sleeve, I'm putting less heat into a critical joint which decreases distortion and retains more strength, clean up is faster and shaping the fillets in this area is a bit easier. There's a lot of good reasons to use FP here.

Finally, I got started on wishbone stays. These are Andy Newlands at Torch and File (.com) and are really nicely cast.


Later today, I'm hoping to get the DT's mitered and maybe braze the BB shells onto the ST's. At that point, I'll miter the chainstays and mount it all up in the jig to make final adjustments to the miters and fit up before tacking.

Stay tuned!