Friday, April 10, 2009

Rainy Vacation, and New Things

The last two weeks have been busy and trying, so the lady and I were going to go for a nice backpacking trip in the rain. We even bought the last couple things we needed for a totally waterproof hike. But the morning that we were scheduled to head out, they were calling for some severe thunderstorms at night. I was all for a good hard rain, but didn't really need to find out how conductive my titanium plate is. So we ended up just pretending, and loaded up the gear and had a good 8-10 mile hike in the rain. I'm not exactly sure, as our map wasn't very good, and the trail wasn't marked very well, so we got lost on a number of occasions.

But thanks to a good compass, and what map we did have not falling apart in the rain, we were able to make it out, and not turn a backpack simulation into a survival trip. And we did get to see some cool things, including deer tracks, a large cat tracks tracking the dear tracks, and what appeared to be either a beaver or a fresh water otter. He took off too fast, and I couldn't get a good look at him. And we stayed comfy and dry the whole time. This whole era of waterproof breathable materials is just too cool. So after we make it back, turns out the whole thunderstorm thing was a bust. But oh well, it was a great hike, and nice to re-charge the batteries.

So with the fresh start, I got to building today with the same outlook. The botched seat tube gave me an opportunity to take a different direction. The dropouts have a double curve detail (that I just hope will show up well after paint), and the *new* seat tube collar will have a curve detail that goes along with the fork crown. I even threw a little "FB" in there for fun. It's still got some finishing touches to go, but it's pretty close. The fork blades are all evened up, so they won't hold the wheel in crooked, and they're drilled and ready for the final assembly of the fork. And once I get done with the new collar, braze it in place, and drill the waterbottle mounts on the correct side, this thing will be just about ready for a big day of fillet brazing. So I might be running a tad behind schedule, but should be smoother from here on out.



7 comments:

Jeff Kloha said...

Chris, this is beautiful metalwork.

FelletBrazing said...

Thank you sir!

Casey Ryback said...

Can I have you put my cable stops stacked on top of each other?

FelletBrazing said...

Anything for you man! I could even put a top tube frame pump mount that has the housing stops on top of that. Or one on top, and two on either side. That way the cables hold the pump on, even if you hit some really rough roads.

Casey Ryback said...

could you shape the cable stops to look like a fist, that way it looks like there is a hand holding the cable?

Gino said...

"could you shape the cable stops to look like a fist, that way it looks like there is a hand holding the cable?"

The old handjob huh coach?

Lookin good Mr. Fellet, lookin good.

FelletBrazing said...

They use to make a canti housing stop that looked like a fist... I found a source for some at one point, but can't remember where it was. There may still be some floating around. But the idea of working with jewelers files for a solid couple days, trying to carve out a fist isn't the most appealing thing right now.

Thanks Sandbox!

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