Back in Action! -or- I've got Gas!

Howdy! Finally have some work to report. I've got air in my tanks again, so I was finally able to braze up the front triangle and chain stays. I have to say that these have probably been my best brazes yet. Not that there is no room to improve, but I'm pretty happy with the results. Hoping to finish up the seat stays, braze-ons, and do the finish work on her in the next couple weeks. Then it's starting all over again with a (lugged?) road frame for my Florida buddy Mike.

Would your lady let you do this in the bathroom sink?

Good brazes = good heat control, and less time to file smooth afterwards.

Head tube and seat tube were left long for the braze. They'll be cut down afterwards.



On a side note: I don't know if anyone else has been dealing with more aggression on the roads lately, but I've had a few run-ins with some angry drivers lately. I hope these have been isolated cases, but I get the feeling that higher gas prices add to an already hasty drivers impatience. Either way, ride safe and legal out there. Please don't give people any more reason to hate cyclists. Even if you get away with it, they might take it out on the next one they meet.

I've run out of hot air!

Official Address to The Nation (of people that keep up with what I'm up to) :

Progress has been forward moving, but frames are not going through the rapid growth that they once were. I fear that we have grown accustomed to growth at an unsustainable rate, and now things are cooling off. Of course we won't know for sure until we have already gone through three frame cycles (or cycle frames), at which point we may find that we have gone through a frame building recession. Hopefully, if we put our heads down and push through, we will make it out the other side without too many losses.

As far as the current frame cycle is concerned: All the miters for the main triangle (compound miter included) are finished up. Water bottle bosses are drilled, cleaned up, and brazed in. Melissae even pitched in to do the torch work on them! The chain stays were mitered and brazed to the dropouts, and their other miter for the bottom bracket are getting close.

But all this progress came at the cost of running my oxygen and acetylene tanks dry. Raising (oxy-acet.) gas prices, the falling US dollar, and using my credit to make large purchases lately (diamond rings) have left the FelletBrazing Co. on hard times. Rumor about the government stepping in to subsidize or even take over FelletBrazing has been spreading, but by the time something of that magnitude were to occur, serious drops in production would occur. If this were to happen, a stagflation could arise.

Therefore, my good friend Brian and I got together to come up with a stimulus package to keep this small business economy on track. He had some air left over in his tanks that he wasn't going to use. So while it may not be as much air as if I were to fill my tanks full, I hope that it will stimulate an increase in production, giving a much needed boost. Some debate this as a temporary solution to a greater problem. However, we must do anything that can be done to help the growth of this frame building economy. God willing, we will make it through these hard times and rise again!


(check out the new build pictures here)