Otis and I have competition!

We have another "Drillium Dude" up in the Pacific Northwest in addition to Otis and myself. Alex has begun his own drillium while restoring a 70s Davidson; he's currently kitting it out with self-modified Campy featuring Davidson's signature three-lobed cutouts.

Check out these pics from his Flickr account:

Brake levers:



Polished crankset with drilled/relieved chainrings:



The Davidson prior to restoration:



Now, here's the kicker: Alex was also in the Navy, and was also a Chief Petty Officer. In fact, he just retired in December - and I should say "is" a Chief; once a Chief, always a Chief! Working out of Marysville, he's only about 50 miles down the road from where I whittle away in my spare time...

If anyone is interested in following the ongoing restoration, his Flickr handle is: amoll68.

Enjoy the pics,
DD

You guys get my full respect, That requires some serious skill and patience.

How do you guys clamp the pieces so securely and get such precise spacing, etc?

Nice stuff but isn't that three-lobed drill on the brake handle really close to there you might not want it? Seems that would be the worse place structurally to do it. I would think higher up on the handle?

You guys must have been separated at birth.

Man, fabulous work!

Good point, but I've seen levers drilled with far less material remaining.

Keith, hopefully I'll bump into you during a ride this summer. A friend of mine in our group has a set drilled beyond belief.

These look beefy in comparison.

Keith, I had expressed concern, too - Alex said they came out a little bigger than he'd originally forseen due to a "learning error". Consequently, in order to save them he had to enlarge the cutout. He doesn't plan on riding this pair. The bike is going together for March's Seattle Bike Expo where there will be a vintage bike show.

Robbie, honestly I drill most of my stuff while holding it in my left hand! Alex, however, uses a drill press. His earlier photos, now unfortunately down off Flickr as he updates with new ones, showed his process for mathematically figuring out how to get his designs onto the parts. Me, I just eyeball it (and since those eyeballs are getting on in years, I might be on a limited production run). Either I'm just lucky or the Big Guy really did give me a little talent at something I do the chainrings flat on a piece of particle board so the drill bit has something to go into once it's through the aluminum. The easiest way on chainrings to get good separation is to simply drill one hole under each tooth - voila! We both use Sharpies to mark out the areas to be drilled/milled.

I'll pass along all your comments to Alex - I'm sure he'll be happy to know others appreciate his fine work.

DD

By the way, I just finished this up last night; the lucky new owner is actually a BF member who may or may not identify himself





Display only.

DD

How did you become aware of each other?

You better drag him in here when he is done with that bike

He contacted me via Flickr after finding pics of my drillium, told me about his project and wanted to talk shop. When I saw his pics it was obvious to me he was a natural. Just wish I had the tools he has at his disposal!

I'd definitely going to clue him in to Bike Forums; his Davidson absolutely deserves it's own thread.

DD

This calls for a drill-off. Love that NR RD too!

The orange in this is amazing, absolutely AMAZING work from all of you guys! Where can i see more?

Oh, he's identified allright. Damn straight he's identified. THis is gonnna be the premier display piece in my someday homeshop after my europe assignment.

If you like DD's stuff and haven't begged him to craft you something yet you should get in line now. He's going to go viral and be making drillium for the stars, you just watch!

Must be a Pacific Northwest thing, all those days of rain... That and was not Seattle not the arson capital? Drillium is much safer.
I have one drillium period bike from 1970, when it was popular in the pro ranks. Maybe because after the intro of Campagnolo brakes, not much was advancing component design for a while, so drillium set up a way to show that you had an edge, or a more creative mechanic.

For me in 1973 seeing Art Stump's work made me keep the drill in its case. He had the tools, Bridgeport mill, rotary table with a dividing head, calipers, fixtures, tooling... no way to compete with that. And a note from Art, He said Campagnolo was accurate where they had to be, other dimensions and shapes floated, so crank arm milling was all single set up, and correcting for visual correctness. On the chain rings, the 5 kidney shaped pierciengs often drifted, so he had to often correct between each chainring bolt section to get the parts to "look" correct.

For mine, see Flickr handle: Styleman27

For Alex's, see Flickr handle: amoll68

DD

DD

Saw this in another thread, thought they were cool.

Drillium jigs







Was it a functional unit?

^ Yeah, but it was butt-ugly - you don't even want to know how much scraping I had to clean up. The pivot bolts went to Otis who has an interesting way of "recycling" them. Since Poprad had expressed interest in the last NR rear (sold on Ebay) that was similarly hollowed-out, but missed out on the end of the auction, I bought this off Ebay as stock for one more display only unit. We worked out a final value and the rest, as they say, is history.

The jigs - that's cheating

DD

So true. I built a fixture to hold a 144bcd Campy ring on a rotary table. The first time I tried it I thought I had totally screwed up as the cutter was running right off the ring. But after checking with an indicator, the fixture had about .001 run-out, it was the ring that was way off. Learned to treat them as five sections, adjusting each section by eye. Makes me feel really good to hear that a master craftsman like Art Stump was taking the same route.

^ Wouldn't the ring size/cutout locations also vary just that little bit with different tooth counts?

DD

Yeah, but that's not the issue. Not being truely round is.

Since we're showing some drillium here's a pair of re-profiled Record cranks I finished today.



More here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/5461623...7625110926546/

Now I getcha - thanks!

Your Mexico re-profiling came out beautifully, especially the polishing (and you said you hate polishing!). Superb.

DD

This slideshow made getting up for work far more endurable. Thanks Otis! Your photography is very well done and showcases your work wonderfully. Are you and DD brothers from different mothers?

I want some drillium ( puts on a puppy dog face ). I love your work and anybody that has the raw talent to do this sort of thing. I don't have the hands or eyes to do this sort of thing anymore but I do have a full machine shop at my disposal. Are there any links on how to do drillium out there or have you posted a how to thread. I have plenty of scrap to practice with. Do you start with a smaller hole and then counter sink it to get that look or with a larger hole and then a smaller bit drilled through the point of the larger hole.
Glenn