2003 Framebuilding Workshop
11 January 2003
Finished frame as of Saturday Night

It's become somewhat of an annual event now to have a framebuilding workshop in January at Jerry Onufer's house on Tiger Mountain in Issaquah.  It originally started as a design lecture, but now has evolved into more of a hands-on affair.  After having shown the technique of MAPP gas brazing the previous year we decided to use the technique to build an entire bike this year (Read about last year's workshop here).  Using materials you can buy at the hardware store for under $50 and techniques that take just a few minutes to learn you can do most of the brazing required to install cable stops, brackets and even build a complete bike.  As testimony to this Don Hoskisson brought pictures of the Tour Easy clone he built after attending the workshop 2 years ago.  This type of brazing is can come in handy.  Besides being able to brag to your friends that you can "fuse steel with fire" you'll also be able to fabricate many metal parts that you would have to buy or do without otherwise.  However, due to a small deviation from Don's design we ended up doing this bike entirely with traditional tanks and torches and didn't get the bike entirely done in one day.  (To see how Don was able to do it in one day with MAPP gas see his webpage).  Here's how things went.

Thanks to Don Hoskisson for taking all of the pictures.  Special thanks to Mary Onufer for providing wonderful snacks.

Note: We had a great turnout of about a dozen people, including several new recruits. They were....

Jerry Onufer - host
Don Hoskisson - brought pictures of the homebuilt Tour Easy clone he built using MAPP gas brazing.
Nick Hein - brought new homebuilt FWD conversion bike.
Dick Stemwell - brought a new transmission for use on a rowing bike based on stock components
Lee Brown
Joe Kochanowski - asked awkward questions and tried to get in the way

New recruits:
Barry Stephenson - builder of the Tri Makazi all-aluminum, all-machined trike

Thanks to all of you for coming.


Pictures
Barry Stephenson's Tri Makazi  Barry's Tri Makazi

Building the Recumbent
Nick Hein sizing up one of the donor frames The layout was done on the computer using Ashlar Vellum (2D) drafting program to get angles, offsets and lengths.  Jerry did this in about 5 minutes.

Nick Hein sizing up one of the donor frames   Nick Hein marking one of the donor frames for cutting (using a hose clamp to make a straight line)

Nick Hein making the top tube cut Nick Hein making the top tube cut

Jerry Onufer checking the fit and planning the next cut   Jerry Onufer checking the fit and planning the next cut

First donor frame after all the cuts have been made First donor frame after all the cuts have been made

Setting up a jig to line everything up straight Setting up a jig to line everything up straight

Here you can see how the downtube was shortened and spliced   Here you can see how the downtube was shortened and spliced

Cutting into the second donor frame   Cutting into the second donor frame.  The rear triangle and BB were used from this one.

A mixte frame was cut for the ling diagonal frame brace   A mixte frame was cut for the long diagonal frame brace.  This is a French (Peugot) frame with odd BB and tube sizes, however it was safe to use tubes from it that don't have to meet tubes from non-French bikes.

Lee Brown, Jerry and Nick inspect the top tube splices. These were joined with an inside sleeve, then brazed. Lee Brown, Jerry and Nick inspect the top tube splices.  These were joined with an inside sleeve, then brazed.

The front of the rear BB was ground flat so a plate could be mounted to accept the single lower tube The front of the rear BB was ground flat so a plate could be mounted to accept the single lower tube

Setting all the pieces into the straighening jig. The angle iron butts against the 2 bottom brackets to hold things in line Setting all the pieces into the straightening jig.  The angle iron butts against the 2 BB shells to hold things in line

The front BB was cut flat at the rear so a single large tube could connect the front/rear BB's Finished frame as of Saturday Night

I came back the following weekend and Jerry and I finished this up by cutting out the seat tube from the top tube up to the top end of the seat stays.  We then unbrazed the dropout end of the seat stays so we could lower them down to the top tube and braze them in.  This put them directly in line with the top tube, so we put a piece of plate over the hole in the top tube to cover it and attach to the seat stays.  I'll put up more pictures when I get the bike at my house to finish it.