I've started by inserting the long nuts in the laser-cut rear dropouts. I am using steel plates of different thickness to level the nut in. It is slightly offset, so it won't come out too much on the inside of the dropout and won't interfere with the shifting mechanism of the hub or a roller brake.
Welding in using lay-wire technique.
Next stage is cutting the circles i have left to keep the drop-out stable and stiff when welding. I have also cleaned the thread with the threading tool, since a few small drops of steel got in.
Then i have started with the fork. Cleaning up the remains of my previous unsuccessful weld.
The next thing is a big one. I believe this should be taught in a bike school! No idea why i didn't think or didn't know about it before, but old used spokes are actually great to use as a TIG welding filler rod! Now i have practically unlimited stock of thicker filler rod for free! Great thing, i suggest everyone to use this
Here is the weld seam from inside. Only laid it on one side this time, since there is significantly more contact surface on the inside. I believe it should be strong enough, i've put a lot of filler.
Then putting the fender mounting brackets and the roller brake mount and voila!
This time the spacing and positioning is perfect! I did get some distortion because of welding on one side, but it is really not that serious, so it works fine and the wheel sits perfectly straight
Here is how the mounting looks on the close shot. I still have to put the threads on those holes both on front and rear dropouts.
So, now the front is done and it's time to weld the chain stays and new dropouts on the rear!
