Thanks Frank, a big complament coming from you. I've had to take some time away from this frame. Holidays, two sessions of flu (still have head aches and sore throat) and the furnace needing replacement combined to distract me. I hope to get back and complete this frame soon. Andy.

Well I'm back in the saddle again. I've filled the main frame lug edge gaps, done a bunch of filing/sanding, attached a head badge and started on the chain stays. Andy.

I know I am not the only one who would like to see your progress in living color.

When you filled the edge gaps did you heat only the edge areas and not not the main body of the lugs? I appreciate your comment on flicker about "just stepping back from the frustration" and starting over later, that in itself is an important skill. Are the pins 6d finish nails or smaller? I hope you've regained your health, lots of that frigging flu going around.

Brian

Brian- When I filled the lug edge gaps I had to heat enough of the general areas to ensure suck in (by the filler, Silver) yet not flow too far away and dilute the effort. The flux need to be close to the right temp overall. The lack of burning this second time around is a good thing. My taking time to think and internally plan shows. For those of us who have felt the light but not embraced the flow we are only as good as our focus. As it was I should have flowed all the edges for most complete results. I was able to fill the gaps and flow much (but not all) the shore line but the transistion form the old to the new remain. Good use of the file and scraper minimize this.

The pins are 6D finishing nails. It seems a good size to hold and drill for without loosing lug beach space. The pin in the head lugs that you see being fresh during round 2 is to replace one that fell out during round 1. This was some of why a gap opened up as much as it did, but not the complete reason for the gap. As I said before my prep was lacking. Andy.

Another 10 shots loaded onto Flicker. https://www.flickr.com/photos/7319558...7631892556165/ Chain stays brazed and finished. Seat stays started to be fitted. here's a couple of shots.

Seat stays are now attached. As seems to be the curse with this frame things went less then best with the stay top brazing to the lug sides. The top caps' scallops are rather far off the lug sides. On one side i was not able to get enough fillet to have the scallop points captured so i went back and touched up that side. Along with some carefull filing i think the results are ok. A bit klunky but unique and not bad. Here's a shot. Andy.

Nice progress Andy. From your flicker:

During the drilling for the pins I had an idea. Cutting off the pins, sanding their OD to clear the holes in the caps and I have a couple of studs to locate the stays while I prepare the drop out ends. Not sure this will be much better the letting the pins stay in the stays but I'll find out.

What did you find out? Seems like reducing the nail OD in place in the st would be a pita (but I've never done it so..?).

Thanks, Brian

Two part reply---

Brian- I just sanded down (I have a belt sander) the nails' diameters as needed to fit tight in the ST and loose in the seat stays. Then tapped the pins into the ST lug and could slide on and off the stays during my mitering of the drop out ends.

What did I find out? Not too much, but there is a bit more slop in how the stays are held in place. I think securing the pins (or the "fitting" version) in the stays might be a better way. Certainly this is what I'm more use to.

All-- I think I'm done with the brazing steps of my frame. This weekend I added the bridges, BB cable tunnels and rack mounts. I felt my old self with smooth mitering, no surprises in set ups and the brazings went quite well. Next up is some final filing/sanding, the machining steps, aligning and the drinking of the beer while I wonder how I'd do it differently the next time and how the paint will go.

I'll dangle a nuget in that since I started this frame I have added to my alignment tooling and changed the process. So stay tuned.

Here's a shot of the BB shell cable tunnel braze on jig that I made, in use on this frame. Andy.

The frame is done until paint gets squirted. I've cut the post binder slot, added bridges, rack mounts, chased/reamed/faced, sanded the entire frame again, coated it with Navel Jelly, did the final alignment. BTW this final alignment uses a new tooling. Thanks to Alex Meade I now can support the HT with a through rod on cones and place the ST on an adjustable jack. I have read about this method and having done it now can definitely recommend it.

The next time I update this post will be in a few months. My painter has agreed to let me help him do the prep work but our schedules won't match untill tax time. Until then here's a few shots, more at my Flicker site. https://www.flickr.com/photos/7319558...7631892556165/ Andy

Great alignment sequence pics Andy. After wiping off the naval jelly is it the residue that protects the frame? You must be a very patient guy to wait a few months until painting. What type of paint does your painter use? Any idea what the color will be? Thanks again for this entire thread. It was very educational as well as entertaining for me, I looked forward to each of your posts.

Brian

Brian- Glad to entertain and maybe educate you. The Navel Jelly is phosphoric acid in a gel solution. This leaves a layer of oxide on the steel, hindering further oxidizing. I have other bikes to ride and like how the painter and I interact. At this point a dark blue is the leading color. This bike wants to be subdued, not flashy. More photos to come after painting. Andy.

Finally have gotten to Doug Fattic's to shoot paint. Here's a couple of pics. More on Flicker. When the bike's built up I'll summerize in full detail. Andy.

Looking good Andy. What type of media blast did you use?

thanks, Brian

Bet it will look great. Even Doug's utility Ukraine "pastor bikes" have a good finish. The custom work from that shop is even better.
I also like the intricate paint seen on the Foresta Frames blog.
All of this remains beyond my present ability.

Brian- Not sure what type of media Doug uses. It is brown/gray and medium/fine. He has a great blast cabinet. big enough for a tandem with some positioning. So for a single you can get the target area right in front of you (taking care to not have too much rebound blast into your viewing glass) in many orientations. When ever I spend time at his shop i dream of it's being mine and how I would arrange it all.

Nice work. That alignment method is brilliant. I am trying to bring a big blast cab up from NY to my shop in VT. I need a pick-up truck to get it here. I am shooting for this weekend so I can visit Copake also.

Finially got the bike built up and have miles on it. Very nice handling, well fitting, couldnt ask for more. So here's the Flicker (yes, sorry to still be using Flicker. I may move soon...) set link. https://www.flickr.com/photos/7319558...7631892556165/ . And this shot to tease you into checking the set out. As before I've made some comments with each shot.

Now onto planning next winter's projects. Andy.

Turned out beautifully. I really like your component choices, mirror, etc., very cool. Thanks so much for sharing this build, excellent documentation throughout! This post is very worthy of becoming a sticky(moderators take note!). The existing frame build sticky by Cassave is nice, but its always great to get another builders perspective.

Brian

Brian- thanks for the complements. But having a bike turn out so nice (outside of the minor brazing/style issues I've documented) is enough for me. Andy.

Andrew, enjoy your new ride, I'm sure it rides as good as it looks. Thanks for your detailed pics and build log, I really enjoyed following the proces.