Thanks to several people (mostly on the MTBR Framebuilders forum) for ideas - I built a sweet, really accurate, adjustable bender that I can use with my mill vise, and here's the first set of s-bend seatstays (something I previously didn't do because of the shortcomings of my old bender).
It cost me an afternoon of futzing around, but all the materials came from the scrap bin, so I'm calling this a big win. I'm sure I'll be screwing up plenty of stays with it until I get the hang of things, but this first set came out quite nice.
I realize that this is the unprecedented 5th or 6th consecutive bike post. I promise a recipe or something else irrelevant this weekend, mmmmkay?
Edit: I almost forgot: HUGE thanks to Rusty for loaning me his jigsaw. This project would not have worked without it. I think the evidence will show that I'm the crappiest woodworker on the planet, but having a good saw helped a lot.
10 comments:
Congs!
Looks fine, but the Joe's one looks sharper.
Sorry, had to be brutally honest...
Bikes posts are great! No complains.
Actually, I made 'em to match up with the Joe Bringheli S-bend chainstays (which you can see below). Bends are in pretty similar spots.
Obviously, this is the first set of stays I've done. As I figure things out, I'm sure they'll be even snazzier.
Congs?
Since the stay follows a longer path through the S bends than directly, I'm assuming it weighs more (for a road bike that is...)
Dude, Nick, you crack me up!
I bet the difference is <5g. But yes, they are probably heavier.
Let's see the bender!
Yo DrW -
I'll take some pictures and post 'em on Monday. She isn't pretty, I'll warn you now. Scrap bin special. But she sure does bend 'em nice!
-Walt
Congs = congratulations
It maybe the pict's angle, but the chain stays do not seem symmetrical.
The seat tube seems better, but also not perfect.
I'll let you be the judge of it (but please, be critical!)
Keep it up!
ERmm... the chainstays were not bent by me. They are perfectly symmetrical as far as I can tell. And, um, what's wrong with the seat tube?
Thanks for the commments though, I guess.
gonna be doing these on upcoming frames?
I'd like em on mine if you're feeling confident.
-Dan P
Dan -
You got it. I'm perfectly confident in the safety/strength of the stays (I'm not bending them much), it's my ability to do a consistent bend and keep everything lined up that is in question, potentially - but that's *my* problem (ie, I may ruin some stays and tear my hair out a bit, but the ones that end up on a bike will be right).
That's one of the reasons I was so amazed that I got the first set perfect on the first try - I was really expecting to potentially ruin a set of stays, but resigned to it because I couldn't find enough scrap around to practice on.
I'll be in touch later tonight on some design ideas...
Post a Comment