Wow! Simply amazing work and design! I'm slowly getting into using my flux core wire welder and this is inspirational to see. Thank you for documenting your process. Any details you could share as to your welding machine, wire, heat settings and wire speeds would be awesome. (maybe even another thread),
I am still learning the gasless mig myself. One thing is to not be afraid to use lots of power.... you can always fill a hole if you blow one, then turn it down a little... at least then you KNOW your are getting weld penetration. When I started welding with it I didn't have enough power and it made for messy welds without good penetration. Lots of practice and clean welding surfaces are a big thing. As a side note I have not noticed any issues with weld contamination from the traces of bronze left around the lug joins, I though it might have been an issue but it seems not. Other than that I can't be much help. Practice!
I forgot to mention the day I wasted making these additions to the forks.... it's just two square rods heated and bent around and welded in place... the bottom one is a bigger size then the top. Will look good when cleaned up and painted blue with yellow highlights... ignore the tape and pen lines... they were early failed attempts to design the lug decoration....
Very cool use of what most people would consider, at best, scrap metal. How do you drill the blind holes in the grip blanks? Just a spade bit? A Forstner bit? A lathe tool with a pilot hole? That is a potential project I have coming up.
Very cool use of what most people would consider, at best, scrap metal. How do you drill the blind holes in the grip blanks? Just a spade bit? A Forstner bit? A lathe tool with a pilot hole? That is a potential project I have coming up.
Yup, re "cycled" cycle for sure.... I used a normal large drill that fitted in the taper of the tailstock of the lathe, with a pen mark on it to know where to stop! Check out this thread I started about old grips on the CABE... I have pictures on there of what I have done so far, including the drilling.
Update... I have been busy filing away my lug decorations... FOR DAYS..... I have them mostly finished now and I am at the final fitting stage, getting them to look right length wise etc before attaching them. First picture is what I have after I have finished with the angle grinder on the left and finished with the coping saw and file on the right.... Other shots show some in place, please bare in mind that these are just sitting I place and need fitting properly yet and some reshaping of the steering tube lug to match the new bits... last shot in the bike clamped down vertical on the bench ready for final fitting of lug bits.... going to end up with 30 individual bits! Crazy... I can see why I see pictures of fancy bike lugs and they are not all perfect.... after the 27th one you kinda lose the will to live and near enough it good enough!! Or at least it would be, but I can't bring myself to do bad work. The workshop standard is "Perfection is near enough"
I did some work on a couple of crusty old 7 inch crank arms I had to hand..... marking, grinding , filing and sanding to the point I can give them to the platers to finish the buffing....
Next was to work out my chainwheel.... I am going skip tooth for this bike and I want it to make an impression so I have pretty much decided to make a 34 tooth sprocket, (68 in normal 1/2 inch pitch talk) so I made up a disc the right size to see how it would look. I am happy with the look, I made a 30 tooth disc but it was no big enough! I will need to find or make a 12 skip tooth rear sprocket to get the gearing semi rideable! The last shot is the sprocket I have found on the net that I will use for my design inspiration. Arrows like my lug decorations keep the theme of the bike going.... I will draw up the design and have it scanned and waterjet cut from steel, finish the shaping on the lathe and have it nickel plated.
