Friday, August 28, 2009

One step down...

...many to go!

Got some good work done these last two days. The first miters were done for the front dropouts, as well as mitering the disk brake tab. Then it all went together with some brass. I think I was a little rusty after all the time off, so things went a bit on the lumpy side. But aside from a bit more work smoothing it out, it's tough as nails. (I guess tougher, as nails are usually a pretty mild steel) I will say I'm pretty excited getting this project going. So excited, I ended up waking up at 6:30 and starting into it today, just because I couldn't sleep thinking about how cool this is going to be. It's fun doing something as custom as a 650b specific mountain bike. Also, this will be my first try at a from-scratch, segmented fork design. After doing a little research, a little calculation, I called up my favorite aviation parts/supply company to order some stock 4130 steel tubing. It's pretty cool to see a few lengths of tubing that might have ended up building a piper cub, slowly turn into a rigid mountain bike fork that will have the crap ridden out of it.

(stock tubing... nothing special here)


(...but do a little miter work,)


(...check the angles,)


(...and now it's starting to look familiar.)

3 comments:

rockhound said...

It looks like it is going to be a pretty cool fork.

Your link to airpartsinc.com isn't working.

rockhound said...

I forgot to ask, what do you use for flux?

FelletBrazing said...

Thank you!

And thanks for the heads up, the link should be working now. Apologies.

I use Gasflux type "U" Paste Flux from Henry James, with no "gasflux." I've had great luck with it, except when it comes to dumping a ton of heat into a part. I seem to get a 'skin' on the brass, and have a hard time adding more to it. Although I think with a new larger torch tip, I can keep the heat flow up, without increasing the gas velocity (which I believe is the problem I'm running into). It seems the gas blows a bunch of crud onto the surface, and unless it's absolutely smothered in flux, I end up with the 'skin.' We'll see when I get the new tip.

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