This week I’m busy installing cantilever brake pivots and fender bridges on a 650b Randonneur bike I built in July.  I was wondering how I could avoid the same mistake apparently everyone else, no matter how experienced, seems to make. People make noise about leather washers, but I thought, “why not something specific to the problem, like a star washer or a lock-ring washer?”

This evening I was sitting at my desk staring into space when I noticed a stack of books in the corner.  Then I saw “Carroll Smith’s ‘Nuts, Bolts, Fasteners, and Plumbing Handbook.”  Flip to the section on star washers and the like and find that he dismisses them as almost entirely useless.  Oh, so I guess that’s not really going to help.

So I looked online, “Carroll Smith Star Washers” and I found a discussion thread where someone posted a link to Nord-Lock, a new washer system that is designed to keep the nut set.  It’s worth watching because it has a really neat demo about how all sorts of other nut-locking systems fail.

I’m going to try these as a modern solution to the vibrating fender hardware problem. I’ll get stainless, oversized washers. Stainless so that it doesn’t rust (as much!) and oversized so that I don’t destroy the aluminum Honjo fenders.

Ling getting used to her new bike on the Kinetic trainer at Elite Custom.

This bike was finished in January.  I thought.  Then I discovered a….. technical issue.  Fixed it in February, but then I dithered with delays, and only when I returned from USA in June was the frame repainted.  Then another month waiting for some small shim bits to arrive.  But then just last week, my guys at Elite Custom Pte. Ltd. Singapore built up the frame with a fresh load of Ultegra and now we’re ready.

Ling needs bottom-up training.  First gear shifting, then getting used to the road, and eventually I’ll try to wean her off those hideous platform pedals

The frame is fillet-brazed Columbus Nivacrom in classic geometry and classic tubing: 1″, 1-1/8′, 1-1/8″.  Frame painted by Sulaiman at The Rebound Centre, according to Ling’s exact specifications (so don’t blame him if you don’t like Polka Dots!)

Classic Nivacrom Steel with a handmade Aero Twist…

I just watched this video on turning tapers with an engine lathe and was struck by how clear and well-presented the lesson was.  This was state of the art then, and today, if you want to turn a taper with an engine lathe, it’s still very high quality. Even the video “effects” (arrows and lines) are useful.

Apparently I should be thanking ‘Jam Handy Films’ for this.

Oh my.  Just after posting this article, I found the following clunker that is a perfect example of everything I hate about most modern day instruction.  The first first thirty seconds were literally spent explaining “hang up your bookbag,  put on a coat, put on your safety glasses.”  I turned it off at that point.

I seem to be achieving decent accuracy.  Right now I’m estimating accuracy right around 0.1mm (approximately four thousandths of an inch).  Not the most amazing precision, but decent.  Once it’s finished I’ll compare the product to specs.

Today I machined the middle block out of arbitrary metal and produced the male slide.  Tomorrow I have a tricky operation — machining the female grooves in my semi-cylinders.   That will be finicky to get perpendicular.    I’ll be relying heavily on the dial-indicator fixture I made last week.

Been taking tiny nibbles at the big project of setting up and using my Sputnik mitering hardware.

Over the weekend I mounted the rotary table to the bedway of the mill,  setup a temporary arbor for the Ultra fine-tooth hole saw, and mounted the beam.

Today I stole an hour after the office and did some test cuts on some cheap tubing from Ceeway.   I raised the knee to make the cut (rather than the quill) and it seemed to cut pretty well, especially after I ground the saw a bit into round.  There was a lump near the weld.

With more diligent work, I can bring the saw into even better round.  And ideally I’ll evenutally machine an arbor that fits a fat collet on the mill, for a more true cut.  But overall, a nice stepping-stone success.

Now I have a set of detailed questions about jig-setup I’ll have to get Sputnik to explain.

This is apparently an Urban downhill race in Chile called the Valparaiso Cerro Abajo. (Could never happen in 100 years in Singapore or the USA) Looks like any pause along the way, you’ll be screwed for sure.

I finished the stand today.  The bolts I bought were too long (but not threaded), but I also had bought 2m of M8 all-thread, so I use that for a temporary de jure, permanent de facto solution.

The stand seems stiff enough and it rolls out of the way in the corner.

Lincoln repaired my broken PTA-17 torch for $107.  I had them replace the head with a PTA-17F, which has a flexible neck.

I welded the attachment point for my jig onto another steel plate and drilled holes for bolts. Sadly I don’t have bolts long enough, so I couldn’t do final assembly yet.

I bought a jewelers’ visor today with a set of different magnifiers.  I tried to use them to remove a metal splinter in my pinkie.  I tried the highest magnification, but it was excruciating because I had to nearly cross my eyes to bring the plane into focus.  The lighter magnification worked more easily, but I couldn’t get a proper grip on the splinter anyway.

Yes, those are dirt-rings on my neck.

Been grinding.

Did another headtube badge sample tonight.  A mild steel “S” in my favorite font, Magnesium MVB Condensed(*).  Took me about 20 minutes of sawing and I only broke one blade.  There are a two defects from haste, but I can clean them up with my nice Nicholson diamond files at the shop.

I have a small plate of stainless steel.  The saw cuts it beautifully too.  No problem! Pretty encouraging progress.

Next I’ll have to make a small jig to bend these badges around a headtube diameter.  That will probably take some experimentation to figure out how much I need to bend it past the target radius.  I’ll turn the tool on my lathe.

Anyway, Ling’s bike will be fully cured by this weekend and I can put it together.

(*)I even paid for the license.

I was making good progress on the tower of my jig stand today when the head of my Lincoln PTA-17 TIG torch snapped off.

The flexible copper hose that links the supply line to the torch fatigue-failed.  I am not sure to what degree I was mis-using it,  mis-selected it, or just had bad luck.

But now I need to replace it (with something else?)  Ugh.

Did not make me a happy fabricator this afternoon.  But then, I was getting tired anyway and have dinner at Morton’s tonight. How bad can that be?

My purchase was cheap:  the saw is smaller version of what we called a ‘coping’ saw when I was a kid, and a few packets of blades in different sizes.

On the bicycle framebuilders mailing list, I saw a mixed bag of remarks about how easy these are to use.  But I watched a few youtube videos and it looked straightforward to me.  So tonight I made a crude wooden “Pin” (a piece of wood with a V notch to support the workpiece) clamped it to my welding table at eye level, and cut an “S” out of a small piece of 1mm mild steel.

I was actually astonished how easy it went.  The cut was clean, accurate, and I only broke a single blade.  (I did however snap the ‘wing’ off of a wingnut tightener on the stupid saw, however. Cheap metal.)

I had a few machinist tricks to play, though.  I used Tap Magic cutting fluid as my lubricant. Some of videos showed people using beeswax, but I work in a machine shop, not a hippy commune, so screw that.  And for my next test piece, instead of trying to trace on weak magic marker stains,  I used my trusty bottle of Dykem Layout Fluid to paint a sheet of mild steel indigo blue. I can draw fine lines with my tungsten scribe.

Spent four hours at the shop tonight, and finished the foot of the jig stand.  I welded a 1/2″ plate to connect the two feet and braced it with some rectangular tubing.  Then I tapped M8 holes for the four 150kg locking casters.

Looks like I have JUST precisely enough rectangular tubing left to make the vertical shaft of the jig stand that I’ll bolt my jig to.  That’s a logistic relief. Looks like I have a good chance of finishing this tool by the weekend.

I watched a WQED video on an annual Thanksgiving bike race around Pittsburgh’s thirteen steepest hills.  Looks sort of fun and would be an excuse to go to the USA for Thanksgiving. Cannot recall the last time I was there for Thanksgiving. A long time ago, anyway.

Am thinking what would make a good climber.

Geared low of course. They say most people run a 39×27.  But maybe more important is a transmission that I can shift under hard load.  I wonder if a Rohloff would be good for this?  I need to check, but I think it is good at shift under high torque, low rpm.  Since the race is neutral between hills, I don’t even need a second, big ring in the front.

Maybe I make it out of oversized tubing, since it’s stiffer, and there is no need for a ‘planing’ style 25.4/28.6/28.6 frame.

Geometry? Front-end geometry that doesn’t wander around in the front and give me a lot of flop. Short-trail no doubt.  And maybe short chainstays so that I keep better weight on the front-end.

There are cobblestones on Canton Hill, so that tells me one of the Jan Heine-style 25mm wheels or something like that.  Hmm, which also makes me wonder if a 650B wheel makes more sense than a 700?

Anyway, food for thought.

I guess the bigger problem is how to train for 37% grade winter hill race when I live on a flat, tropical island?

I welded about 95% of the caster feet rails for my jig stand this afternoon.  Those four plates are piloted to take an M8 tap for bolting in the casters.  The casters are mounted close to the edge of the plate so that I can get to the brake lever from almost all orientations of the wheel.

I used a 2.4mm ceriated tungsten.  I think I had a bit too much stick out, so tended to erode the tungsten, but I was trying to get deep into the corner joints which are actually a corner+notch hybrid.  (the rectangular tubing’s corner has a radius).  I think I made the welds fairly hot, too, there wasn’t much color too them, but I wanted to make sure I got good penetration.

Next I’ll have to connect the two rails to each other to provide the base for tower these will support.

A huge collection of photos from a 1960s(?)-era British naval machine shop.

Sulaiman applied the final clearcoat to Ling’s frame Friday and now it must cure for a week or two so that when I build up the bike I don’t mar the paintjob.

He really saved my butt, repairing some awful looking wounds from a headtube decal made out defective decal material.  The  transfer decals were utterly worthless.

That worked fine for the rectangular steel tubing.

But it worked terribly for cutting the 1/2″ X 6″ mild steel plate.  The wheel made an amazing spark show, but after taking an initial bite, wouldn’t cut.  It’s almost like I somehow work-hardened the steel, or that the contact surface of steel-to-disc was too broad, so the saw never got any purchase to erode the material.  Whatever the reason, I realized it wasn’t going to work.

So I asked my neighbor, He Sin, if I could use his bandsaw to cut my pieces.  He pulled out his bandsaw. Except it was a bandsaw before bandsaw blade technology was invented.  It was a reciprocating hacksaw!  I loved it, but it cuts slow as mud.  I cut, by hand, one of these pieces with a hacksaw and I was no slower thant his thing.  But while my arm arm was ready to fall off after fifteen minutes, Ah He’s saw looked like it would cut now till 2019.

But while it was cutting, we took another plate and used a different bizarre tool.  Normally precision surface grinders are used to smooth things to insane 1/10,000″ tolerances and other feats.  But when you put a paper thin abrasive wheel on the 7,800rpm spindle, you can through the steel plate in 5 meaty passes.  It generates an amazing plume of spark and soot.   I probably inhaled the equivalent of ten packs of cigarettes today, but boy did it work fast and nice.  The cuts are smooth as glass too.  Surface grinders are unheralded, but very cool tools.

Now I have all the material finished for the stand bottom.  Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have time to go in and weld up the base.