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The garage frame building journey

buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,787
4,733
Champery, Switzerland
Anybody build anything recently? I made a hammer for a friend yesterday. He’s always helping me out and I noticed he liked my hammer. So, I made one for him yesterday.

The head was some scrap mystery steel.
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Threading m8
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Turning down the replaceable hammer head to the od of the scrap steel
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Mitering the handle
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tacking
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et voilà
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sikocycles

Turbo Monkey
Feb 14, 2002
1,530
772
CT
No. I been doing house remodeling stuff. Once it’s done I will get back to it.
just rode Moab which was very cool
 

Leafy

Monkey
Sep 13, 2019
550
358
I bought the vevor 7x16 mini lathe, this one has a 1.26” through spindle instead of 20mm that normally comes with the 7” lathes. It’s going to be a few more weeks before my knee is healed enough to even lift it onto the bench though. I bought it on the 11/11 sale on aliexpress for less than the normal 7x14 mini lathes typically go for, I wasn’t expecting it to ship from New Jersey and get here in under a week.
 

buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,787
4,733
Champery, Switzerland
I bought the vevor 7x16 mini lathe, this one has a 1.26” through spindle instead of 20mm that normally comes with the 7” lathes. It’s going to be a few more weeks before my knee is healed enough to even lift it onto the bench though. I bought it on the 11/11 sale on aliexpress for less than the normal 7x14 mini lathes typically go for, I wasn’t expecting it to ship from New Jersey and get here in under a week.
Nice! Lathes are so practical for bikes and other stuff.
 

HardtailHack

used an iron once
Jan 20, 2009
6,756
5,658
Just found an old link to PP frame construction in Taiwan, I know it's not mine or a garage build but not too many companies link frame building shots.
The new ones are made in France, Forestal does the back ends, not sure if they do the front.
 
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canadmos

Cake Tease
May 29, 2011
20,524
19,533
Canaderp
Just found an old link to PP frame construction in Taiwan, I know it's not mine or a garage build but not too many companies link frame building shots.
The new ones are made in France, Forestal does the back ends, not sure if they do the front.
A guy from Banshee showed a small bit of Pacific Cycles back in the day. I think there was a more recent one too - could see other brands frames being made up.


I wish I could remember, but there was a good site a few years ago, that you could look up basically any company and see where all their shipments were coming from overseas. It was interesting..
 

buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,787
4,733
Champery, Switzerland
How many triangles have you made so far?
Around 10 and an ebike. Some of them just looked like a bike frame though. It took me a while to learn how to weld and miter properly.

The first 2 were sketchy and got retired. Also, I cut up some of the short ones from the beginning to harvest the seat tube assemblies to make new ones. In addition, I changed geometry and suspension each time. The latest ones have different geo and suspension so I like them a lot more than earlier versions. The welds and general construction are a lot nicer too.. The last one I just finished is better in every way than all the ones before.

I‘m enjoying this hobby and seeing progress so it’s motivating. My wife, brother and trail building buddy get to ride the extra ones too.

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Adventurous

Starshine Bro
Mar 19, 2014
10,345
8,903
Crawlorado
Around 10 and an ebike. Some of them just looked like a bike frame though. It took me a while to learn how to weld and miter properly.

The first 2 were sketchy and got retired. Also, I cut up some of the short ones from the beginning to harvest the seat tube assemblies to make new ones. In addition, I changed geometry and suspension each time. The latest ones have different geo and suspension so I like them a lot more than earlier versions. The welds and general construction are a lot nicer too.. The last one I just finished is better in every way than all the ones before.

I‘m enjoying this hobby and seeing progress so it’s motivating. My wife, brother and trail building buddy get to ride the extra ones too.

View attachment 209182
Your stuff has come a lot way since those first attempts! Latest stuff looks awesome. Just doing geometry refinements at this point? Got any plans to give rear triangles a go?
 

buckoW

Turbo Monkey
Mar 1, 2007
3,787
4,733
Champery, Switzerland
Your stuff has come a lot way since those first attempts! Latest stuff looks awesome. Just doing geometry refinements at this point? Got any plans to give rear triangles a go?
Thanks Adventurous!

The latest ones have longer reach, longer chain stays, slightly steeper head angle and a lower starting leverage ratio. One is for an enduro build and the other DH build. Shock extender allows for a 205x65 to reduce the travel to 170 on the enduro build.

Plans? Nothing precise really. It’s a hobby and I like learning the welding and machining stuff. I’ve mostly only worked with wood and some laminates in the past so metal is kinda new to me.

There are some process and technical solutions to making the pieces that are much better only recently. Figuring out ways to do things more precisely and easier is something I’d like to improve. I made some new parts for the frame jig yesterday and saw where I can improve some more things. Making parts to make parts is also part of the fun for me.

I don’t have any plans for a rear end anytime soon. Making a steel rear end is a lot harder than a front triangle regarding stiffness and weight for a full suspension design. Devlin on Instagram is making a pretty cool steel fsr bike but with a tube linkage and a steel rear end. https://www.instagram.com/p/C27KtBgReDJ/?igsh=amJnd3I2bmdibzUw.