Still learning the nuances of the mill and the jig but coming along well.  Got centering with edge finder working.  RPM slow on the mill so edge finder a little tricky but worked well enough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HuSgpCkoyQ

Cleanup still in progress but overall happy so far.  What have I learned?  Need to be more carefull with brass and try to keep away from hard to clean/file/sand spot.  Will prep dropout more before brazing as well.

Brazed in the drop outs.  Slotting was a bit tricky but went well enough.  Going to buy some stock for practicing that process more.

Next steps:  cut blades to length and test the fork jig my nephew built for me.

Made good progress on fork blade bender this weekend.  Got machined dies back from machinst buddy!  Still some work to do on backing dies and calibration but bent a set anyway.

Once setup I should be able to bend both at once.  Already had the Hossfeld Bender for other fab work so what the heck.

First set turned out good enough for the newbie.

While my fork bending dies are being machined I started working on the crown and steerer tube assembly.

Got my alignment post back from a local machinist!  I had a piece of scrap stock from a front end loader that turned out perfect.  Drilled a hole in the table (well two holes, first one did not work out so well as the unpinnings of the table got in the way). Did some final measurement with a machinist square to ensure it was precise and all is good.





The shop had to get worse before it got better.  Spent some holiday time getting shop reorganized to fit a surface plate I found up in York, PA at Hildebrand Machinery. It is a nice (a little bigger than I wanted) 36"x66" and weighs in around 800 pounds.  Will start working on the fixtures sometime soon.  It is short too... need to work on a base although I might keep it short to prevent my from using for something else or piling crap on it...

Also got a fork jig from my nephew Lucas!  He is a highschool machine shop student and has the bicycle bug much like me.




Got some supply from the good folks at Nova Cycles.  Got a couple of crowns to play with and enough material to build 4 forks (hoping to get at least one out of it).

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My nephew is building a fork jig for me which should show up soon.  Certainly will add pics of that when it arrives.

Also, the quest for building a fork blade bender starts now.

Some pics of complete custom bicycle frame and Phil enjoying the hell out of it.

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Here are some shots of my second bicycle frame for my good pal Phil!  Paint coming soon!