Tuesday, March 24, 2009

It Was Bound To Happen...

...And it finally did happen. I botched a tube. Not even just any tube, a true temper fancy heat treated seat tube with some custom carving and brazing, taking a good solid two days work, by yours truly. And it was a pretty simple way of botching it too. I drilled some holes in it. Nope, it wasn't messing up a miter that had to be spot on to keep the alignment. No, it wasn't messing up and using the wrong butted end, or not inspecting the tube to find where the butting was, or what way it curved. No, it wasn't mis-aligning the re-inforcing collar, or putting it too high or low to reinforce the top tube properly. No, I did all of that just right. I just drilled some perfectly centered, round, and spaced just right for a waterbottle cage holes exactly 180 deg from where I wanted them.

I guess I was pushing too hard, and trying to get too much, too quick. I measured exactly how high up the tube I was going to put the bosses, found my centerline, punched and drilled. And that's when I looked at the collar and noticed it was facing the wrong way. Skip one step and two days and a chunk of cash goes down the tubes (no pun intended).

So unless Justin wants a water bottle mount instead of a rear wheel... It's time to start over with the seat tube.

The miter for the fork dropouts.

The good news, is the fork is coming along nicely.

The fancy seat tube collar that looks like it won't see the light of day.

7 comments:

Smokey said...

I do get pretty thirsty...
Justin

Nico Toscani said...

Ohhhhhh...un-snap. You will find a great use for that fancy tube. You could make it the butt-end of a killer bbq spatula or fork.

Casey Ryback said...

I think you should use it as a beatin' stick. You know, for when you have to cane someone.

FelletBrazing said...

I guess I could make it into a pretty sweet zombie attack weapon...

...or spatula

Casey Ryback said...

I've been doing some thinking, but based on this unfortunate mistake, I would like to request a pre-emptive refund of that frame that I have yet to pay for and has yet to be built.

verification word: "moess"

Anonymous said...

Bummer. If you haven't cut the stays, you could always stretch the wheelbase a bit, turn it into a tourer, and use the holes for a fancy air pump mount. Or a zombie attack weapon/spatula. Either way.

FelletBrazing said...

No refunds of non-paid deposits!!!

Yea, I probably will keep it around for something or another... Just hoping it may come in handy for that special project bike.

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