Originally Posted by
dsaul
Most professional framebuilders are one man shops and their only source of income is from building frames for customers. If they are not building a frame for a customer, they are not making money. Developing an efficient process and workflow allows them to make the most of their available shop time. Adding an apprentice into that mix throws off the workflow and also takes away some of the control that the builder has over every part of the process.
Some framebuilders take on students who want to learn to build frames or just want to build a frame for themselves. Those builders charge a fee for for those classes, in order to make up for the income lost from not building customer frames during the classes.
The only framebuilder that I have recently seen take in a apprentice was Sean Burns of Oddity Cycles.
That is the reason that makes the most sense to me, like any small one/two person artisan trade, time is money, as are resources. I appreciate this. Thanks.
Originally Posted by
Andrew R Stewart
If you change the word "apprenticeship" with "employee" and you might find a frame shop that will hire you. Some of us here have gone through this path. But the position would likely be that of a job with all the expectations and limits that apply to a paid helper. Rarely will a frame shop advertise, this year one did via BRAIN (an industry news publication). The very few hires are often word of mouth sourced. Andy
That would be a cool way to go, I'll keep my eyes open.
Originally Posted by
unterhausen
there aren't that many frame shops that have employees. I think the closest thing to an apprenticeship I have seen is someone that has a friend that is a framebuilder and got them to teach them how to build a frame. The old apprenticeships were really just underpaid employees. Sweep the floor for a long time, then promoted to filing things, then much later cut some tubes, etc. It's a very slow process with a lot of unrewarding work. OTOH, you can learn in a school in 3 weeks. Problem is after you leave the school, you still have to amass the tools needed. My tool budget is small, and I wouldn't want a newbie to use the ones I have. Another complication is that most pro framebuiders have day jobs.
For sure, I was considering one of the classes in Ashland or Portland, IIRC they are the same company. There's definitely some huge appeal to this route, although I like the idea of learning from an "old soul."
Originally Posted by
Oli_Aponte
I know one person in particular that got his start in a frame building company (not a one man show Framebuilder).. I suppose he already had experience welding, but honed his skills with that company... I think it also helped that he has a structural engineering degree.
If you really know your way around a bike, understand its geometry.. its a good start.
The geometry side I understand to some degree, that's likely where I would need the most work, welding and fab I have more of a background in. Cheers.