Things are moving along faster now...

Well today was a serious milestone for me in the quest to build my own mountain bike frame from scratch. I had meant to get it done on Tuesday but my Dad, whose workshop I would be using to weld it up, cancelled on me after I had pedalled cross country to his workshop carrying all the parts to build the frame plus two jigs that I would be using to hold the frame in place. One Jig is the main one, as previously seen in the blog, and the other is to make sure the swingarm goes together well.

Swingarm Jig. To the right- Pivot Axle, To the left, Rear Hub Spacing

As I had previously mitred most of my tubes, all that was left now was to weld them together. The down tube sat perfectly in position once the BB and HT were in their correct places in the Jig. I tacked it in place first, HT join then down tube then welded it all up.

Then I tacked on the top tube and seat tube into position and the seat tube too. Some of the welds on the frame are a bit shonky, I should have done some practicing on some scrap and offcuts as I haven't welded properly for months, even longer since I dad any Steel, and I've never touched on anything this thin walled. The tubing just disappears if you hang onto it too long with the TIG torch. anybody who makes frames for a living gets massive respect from me.

Here are a few photos from today.  Captions to help the pictures tell their thousand words

Frame during welding

Seat tube slot. cut by hacksaw, drilled by hand at brew time at work. perks.

Front End just after welding

frame atop the original drawing i did. size on size. BUZZING

Shock block to align swingarm up when positioning shock mounts

Swingarm Jig. Tubing jut placed to show position

Should be able to get the rear end welded up soon, then there is linking the two together and adding the Rock Shox Monarch.

thanks for reading. Ste Tomlinson