Fire and Ice

Well, Wednesday was another cold day off here in St. Louis. The high was somewhere around 21F. That's ok, because I needed to get some quality work time in on Marc's frame. I was happy to have a heated basement to do all my file and prep work in. But doing the other chainstay, I had to constantly go back and forth between the work bench and the jig. (which is in the garage) Then with that done, it was a bunch of prep work (sanding then alcohol scrubbing inside and out) for each joint to be done. And finally it was go time.

I propped the garage door open, so it could ventilate, and lit the torch. I was amazed how much more heat I had to apply because the tubes were 20 degrees. Whenever I got a good pre-heat going, it would be sucked into the rest of the freezing tube. I didn't think there would be much of a difference considering the difference between the melting point of the brass rod (900F), and room temperature. It's amazing how much another 40-50 degrees will affect things. Anyhow, a lot of gas and three brass rods later, the main triangle was all brazed up.



I was feeling a bit hungry, so I stopped for lunch. That's when I noticed it was about 4pm. Man do I get sucked into this frame work. I figured since I was already bundled up, now would be a good time to test out the new camping stove I got. It worked quite well. So well in fact, I think I should rig up some sort of heat reflector system for my frame jig. That way, on cold days it could keep the frame warm. Just kidding... hmmm...


Afterwards, I checked alignment, and started doing some finish work on the welds. After doing that for a few more hours, it was time to call it quits and have a brew. And now that I've got some sleep and food in me, it's time to go to work. Ahhh... livin' the life.