Chain Stays have been notched and the track style dropout has been brazed on.

Having a bit of a problem with the far chain stay as it hits the frame jig before it is seated properly against the dummy axle.

In the process of figuring out why the chain stay won't fit the jig. Good chance I did something wrong... more later.

Lincoln Smithy LLC - Unique Metal Sculpture - Artist: John Raymond

Front Triangle is complete. Head tube and seat tube have been reamed thanks to my friends at Plum Grove Cyclery. Working on the chain stays now. Have a bit of a problem with alignment in the jig....

Lincoln Smithy LLC - Unique Metal Sculpture - Artist: John Raymond

Next step in the frame building process is to figure out the rear triangle (I know, don't have the main triangle quite done yet). This will be a track bike as you can see and will use a vintage style seat stay attachment flute.

Lincoln Smithy LLC - Unique Metal Sculpture - Artist: John Raymond

I had a piece of 1 inch plate hanging around and jury rigged a bottom bracket holder. It worked pretty well. Need to work on the bottom bracket holder some more to get rid of the washers as they are not strong enough. But like I said it seemed to work well enough for now.

Close up view of the bottom bracket holder. Had some old machined tractor parts hanging around that worked out quite well. Drilled out the plate and attached the fixture and was able to cold set my first seat tube / bottom bracket assembly.

Lincoln Smithy LLC - Unique Metal Sculpture - Artist: John Raymond

Main triangle is all setup and triple checked for proper length. Next steps will be to get jig all set in place, remove pieces and add all the flux and reassemble in jig. Tack all the joints (maybe complete in jig, not sure yet) and check for alignment before finishing all the joints.

Lincoln Smithy LLC - Unique Metal Sculpture - Artist: John Raymond

Some great early pedal ads circa 1899. The Ramsey pedal is really cool with it's offset spindle. The Bridgeport No1 and No2 are killer rat trap styles as well. I think that we may be Bridgeport as in Bridgeport Milling Machine from CT but I have to investigate that some more. Enjoy!

Lincoln Smithy LLC - Unique Metal Sculpture - Artist: John Raymond

A larger outdoor steel sculpture I started working on today. So far so good. The "balance" is right and scale seems pretty good. Just tacked up for now so I can continue to modify. To do: figure out topping it off and a few additions to the base. Stands about 6.5 ft. high and about 8 ft. wide so far.

Lincoln Smithy LLC - Unique Metal Sculpture - Artist: John Raymond

This is a Hossfeld No1 Bender. I already have it's bigger brother the No2 but I found this one at auction and could not pass it by. I may try to see if I can use it for bending bicycle frame tubing and bicycle forks. It being smaller than the No2 I think it might be easier/cheaper to make dies for it.

Close up - all necessary parts are with it including the bending yoke and eyelet bender for the top. See http://www.hossfeldbender.com/ for details.

Lincoln Smithy LLC - Unique Metal Sculpture - Artist: John Raymond

Here are a few items recently dropped off by a friend of mine. Love the tapered cylinder! It is actually a log splitter if you can believe that. Will make a nice piece of sculpture I am sure. More shovel heads too!

Lincoln Smithy LLC - Unique Metal Sculpture - Artist: John Raymond

Another great pic from an early 1899 Catalog. Sent the image to Wheel Fanatyk to see what he thinks. Wheel Fanatyk is a cool blog about wheel building with an emphasis on wooden wheels.

Lincoln Smithy LLC - Unique Metal Sculpture - Artist: John Raymond