JRA Continued

To be brief- I was unkind and anything but gentle to that poor frame. Results indicate that tubular steel structures really are ridiculously strong.

Coup de grâce-

A cross section of the upper head tube lug. Clean filler penetration from tip to lip here (the thin silver streak between the lug and the tube). Check out flikr for a nice internal fillet shot from the same joint.

In other news I just started work on a his and hers set of town bikes. His will be a twin top tube paper boy (ala Hawthorne) and hers a step through. Tubes are on their way as we speak, and I'll be finishing up bilam pieces in the meantime.

Bring the heat!

Yesterday it was 90 degrees out and a little bit hotter in the shop. I stand between a 400 degree powder coating oven and a 6000 degree torch. Whats a boy to do to beat the heat?

MMmmmmmmm.....



...tasty fruity deliciousness.

In other news, I decided to do a little "JRA" bench testing. For long time bike shop folks "JRA" means "just riding along", and is usually applied to bikes that have been the worst kind of mangled and then returned for "warranty" work. IE-"I don't know how it cracked in half, I was just riding along!"

In this case "JRA" means "Jury Rigged and Anecdotal". Just like my stem testing this is non-scientific "beat on it and see what happens" testing.



Here your 175lb frame builder is bouncing on the head tube with nothing but the bottom bracket supporting the frame. That look on my face is me realizing that the cement floor could get closer at any second. Fortunately, steel frames are rather (reassuringly) over built in the strength department, and my "testing" didn't even change the front end alignment. Not to shabby.

And, just in case you were worried, rest assured this frame will not be sent out! It will undergo a few more "impactful"* stress tests before getting cut up and recycled.


Big things are in the works here at QB. Summer is here, and things are rolling! A few more bikes were just added to the hopper- stay tuned for more updates!



*Tee hee!- I like the double entendre and say "so there grammar police"!

10 days later...

Sweet bejeezus- its been 10 days since my last post. A big thank you to the faithful that have checked in sans updates this last week, I appreciate it.

After the weekend of birthdays that called me away I just wrapped up a visit with some friends in Seattle to celebrate a wedding. It was a great visit! (Thanks Amanda, Brian, Hayden and Richard!) Yes- that is wedding cake in my mouth.

Just before taking off I snapped a couple of shots of another home brew tool- this time a jig for holding brake bridges and such.


As much fun as it was to hang out with friends, I did get a mighty hankering to get back into the shop. I picked up work on a stem from last Friday- I hope to get it in a paint batch with a frame set this week. Below is a raw brazing shot and another showing some progress. More on flikr.

Phew!

Wow.

At the day job we did 45 bikes this week including about 6 or 7 tandems. That is 9 a day, M-F. My eyeballs are about to fall out, but it was pretty awesome to be able to do!

This week started off with a multi-party for my wife and several of our friends celebrating there birthdays. Tomorrow is the actual date, so I'll be pretty bike-light this weekend (other then riding em, talking about em, and maybe working on them some).

Monday I mentioned building a few tools of convenience. Here is a little adjustable jig I made to hold down tube shift bosses in phase with each other. I have had great luck doing these with the calip-eyes and fingcrometers, but this little widget is a great time saver!