indigosky

I spent last week with Carl and (his assistant) Nic Schmidt at his shop in Bozeman. He and I agreed to a week's "class" where he taught me the steps involved in framebuilding. We went step by step through the process, and by Friday I had built my own frame (with much help from Carl and Nic). It was an incredible experience, and I was on information overload every day. I built a road singlespeed with Paul dropouts. It's currently on it's way to Spectrum for powdercoat!

Both Carl and Nic are true professionals and the week was everything and more than I expected. Carl, I know you'll read this, so here is my public THANK YOU! for a great week.

More pics to come....

pichote

sexy frame. what color did you go with?

53-11_alltheway

Awesome. I'd love to learn how to do this. How much did this class cost you?

weed eater

what a great idea!

indigosky

THe frame will be "Laser Navy" aka very dark blue with silver metallic flakes. The class was twice the price of his regular steel frame, but Carl said if he does this in the future, the price my be different (read higher).

ink1373

yes yes, the big question is how much did it cost?

53-11_alltheway

So the question is now that you know how to do this, how much equipment would you need to buy to do it yourself again?

indigosky

At a minimum I would like to get a frame jig, a tig welder (with pulser), a brazing torch, and some better files. I'm saving my pennies (and dollars!)

bostontrevor

I believe you can build your own jig with scrap lumber and nails, it just that you have to rebuild the jig every time you change size or geometry. Fine if you're just doing a frame for yourself. Not so good if you plan to go into business.

superdex

Droool. Congrats and what an experience! Strong frames are definitely on my dream list....

BlueBrew

that is cool i would love to d that too, yamguchi does that too but he does a class with like 3 people at once, costs like 1800 bucks

h8r

That looks great. Does anyone know of anywhere on the east coast that offers something similar? Yamaguchi and UBI are both about $1800 plus expenses which puts the whole deal at about 3 grand for me. For that much I could take a welding/torch class at the community college and buy a decent jig and torch set.

Aeroplane

Hot Tubes in Worcester, MA has a similar program. You go there and build it over the weekend. Toby is really cool, and is an expert at sizing and developing geometry based on your needs and use.

Here's the link to the class info:

https://www.hottubes.com/hottubesframesfbc.htm

potus

yea, a sheet of 3/4" MDF and a box of drywall screws and you've got yourself a $20 jig.

baxtefer

UBI has a framebuilding course that's supposed to be excellent as well.

indigosky

Hot Tubes is only four hours from me, but the main reason I didn't choose them is because I heard that the class is mostly watching Toby build your frame. Don't get me wrong, I think Toby is a good framebuilder, I just want to ~do~ more of the process myself. I took me almost two full days of practice with the TIG welder before I was ready to start on my frame.

cookiepuss

You can always just go with a brazing torch and do lugged frames to start. Being that they are drastically cheaper than a good Lincoln Electric Tig setup. The one I priced was around $1600. While a good Harris or Victor brazing torch minus tanks can be had for $100 or less.

Frame looks nice. How did you come up with that name?

wesburt

one of my best friends back in cleveland took a welding class and ended up making this frame...


one of his fleet of bikes.






he was also a metals major while we went to art school together.
has constructed his own hubs and makes custom leather messenger bags too. put together a singlespeed/fix for me that i'm still riding today.
awesome guy

phidauex

Great frame, indigosky! It feels great to ride something you made, I'm sure you'll love it!

The square tube frame looks ridiculous, like something made from an erector set (I love it too!).

Man, I'd do some seriously unspeakable acts for a nice TIG... I've got several friends with torches and MIG welders, and so I do a modest amount of MIG, but TIG is the obvious next step. I guess I gotta save my pennies too.

peace,
sam

sloppy robot

the square frame rules.. will it hold?

Everest

anyone have a link that explains how to build your own frame jig

Jonny Cycle

"anyone have a link that explains how to build your own frame jig"

If your going to build just one or a few you really don't need a jig. See:
https://www.littlefishbicycles.com/frame/
https://www.timpaterek.com/tpmanual_new.htm wouild be helpful as well

bostontrevor

8020 is the bomb.

Here's a photo of the 2nd Independent Fabrication jig which almost shows how simple you can go (actually, #1 is behind it, but I didn't take a pic of that). To get real low tech, make it from wood.



Here's what Mike Flanigan's using these days which is much more along the 8020 line. You only need an adjustable jig if you're planning on building more than a couple of frames and with varying size/geometry.

griffin_

isn't a tig welder for alluminium? and a mig for steel?

potus

nope. you can weld steel and aluminum with mig or tig. tig is more refined than mig.