[Closed] Anyone ever built their own frame?

I have done, I finished it last month. I'm doing some filming for it tomorrow.

Facebook.com/SWTbikes

Well yes, but I do do it for a living 😉

Give it a go. It's fun to cut and weld stuff, going on a course will help but it's not essential.

I'm just about to start on this:

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yep , used to work for a frame builder in Birmingham , from mitering the tubes all the way through to paint and final build..... only thing i didnt do was the tig welding 😀 ..... companys not around anymore which is a shame 🙁

I've just started to teach myself to TIG - my lovely parents bought me a welder. I've been brazing for 15 years, so it's an interesting learning experience 😉

Yes, three carbon fibre. One road, one hard tail one suspension.

Yup a few. Two latest builds under wraps for Bristol Bespoked show next month - one is quite ...... unusual........ Not sure if people will get it or I'll just get flamed 🙂

There is a sort of build sequence of earlier stuff on this thread:-

http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/new-bike-build-with-a-difference

Here's my take on it...

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yep , used to work for a frame builder in Birmingham , from mitering the tubes all the way through to paint and final build..... only thing i didnt do was the tig welding ..... companys not around anymore which is a shame

Stumpy, wasnt Sirius cycles, was it?

Kind of. Built one of these a looong time ago with a welder mate* of mine. Sadly no pics, but it had an ACS Z-rim on the outside. So flexy you could grind the hub on the ground in a highly retarded way.

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* I believe we may have invented the bash ring/guard at the same time. No proof of this, but they didn't appear in the mags/shops for a few years after we had ours.

Yes, three carbon fibre. One road, one hard tail one suspension.

wow, welding/brazing i get but how do you homebuild a carbon fibre bike?

bencooper
I've just started to teach myself to TIG - my lovely parents bought me a welder. I've been brazing for 15 years, so it's an interesting learning experience

Have you worn a groove in the floor on the route to your bench grinder yet? When you're just starting it's all zzzzzzpppptttt-stick = grind tip about every 3 seconds, then you get better and manage to hold an arc for 10 secs without dipping the tip, then 20sec, then a whole minute 😉

wow, welding/brazing i get but how do you homebuild a carbon fibre bike?

Book yourself on a Dave Yates frame building course

Have you worn a groove in the floor on the route to your bench grinder yet?

I was, then Matt at 18Bikes told me to get a foot pedal and stop messing about with pulse, and now I'm actually welding metal instead of just burning tungsten 😉

The torch positioning and adding filler is familiar from brazing, it's just a different shape torch - the bit that takes practice is with brazing you adjust temperature by moving the torch, with TIG it's with the foot pedal.

Built this a few years ago, Tig welded 853, very rewarding pastime.

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gavtheoldskater - Member

wow, welding/brazing i get but how do you homebuild a carbon fibre bike?

read next month's Dirt.

[url= ]diy carbon fibre[/url]

i've built a few steel FS bikes, even raced a couple in the Megavalanche, great fun!

i have a new project, lurking in the back of my mind. it'll be awesome 🙂

I'm right in the middle of building myself a frame at the moment. It [i]should[/i] be complete and on display at the Bespoked Bristol show in three weeks time.

If you can use your hands and are minded so you can build anything i knew 2 carpenters who built composite aeroplanes,never built on in their life before that.
and just so your under no illusions richmars when a company asks if 600g road frames are possible and how would it be achieved ill point out its easier than welding shit together

compositepro,
No one mentioned building state of the art frames.
I know exactly how hard it is to build anything to a tight limit.
That wasn't asked.
And as I've built some frames in carbon (no, not 600g) but couldn't build one using brazing and welding, I stand by my statement.

I'm toying with making a carbon fibre frame -
compositepro
I was going to wrap onto a foam core: am I better to using less layers of 650gm twill or more layers of 200gm/m2?

Ben - how are you doing the gentle curves on the seatstays - round a big former of using a tube (ring) roller?

Im currently doing stuff with formers (including an enormous plywood thing for seat tubes with radius to match a 29er wheel) but really fancy making a roller setup sometime. Following on from this - did you make the "stays" for the Paper Bike, or just get them CNC bent somewhere?

Mick

Rich on Monday i have a welder arriving that you could put pretty much anyone in front of and have them welding in an hour your more than welcome to come have a go btw i was so impressed with it i got rid of two other highly regarded units to fund it

in seriously considering doing technical courses that want to learn to build frames

Am in the process of a steel HT shed build at the moment with a buddy - he has built a frame jig via some plans of t'web. We have ordered dropouts/tubing etc and its all good fun as they say (we can both weld prior to beginning this process) Pics to follow in a few wks 🙂

Ben - how are you doing the gentle curves on the seatstays - round a big former of using a tube (ring) roller?

I've got a 10"-radius Hammill bender - it does lovely curves on fork blades so should hopefully do the same on stays.

I didn't bend the PB stays, but I think they were bent with a cheap conduit bender. For the prototypes the max bend was 90 degrees, so the loops were made from two parts sleeved together.

Ahhh - I'd not thought about a fork blade bender. Duh. 🙂

Study i will drop you a pm my email on here doesn't work
wrapping a core is how a lot of us started out nearly 25 years ago

Get dirt magazine this month my mate is in it with his carbon bikes and composite pro you never got back to me about taking things forward.
Don't know if you have any time soon to discuss

Sancho you have my new email?

Brilliant. I'm fascinated by how different people tackle things differently. How can anyone not love a hand built steel hardtail?

If I ever get round to it, it'll be carbon full sus as that's what I have access to and what I ride.
I just don't know how much to invest/ gamble.

I'm actually excited to see the guy in the new dirt mag to see how he uses the rapid prototyping.

Thanks compositepro - I've tried to send a 'short' reply 🙂

Built this a few years ago, Tig welded 853, very rewarding pastime.

is that your second one mate, Type 2?
🙂

Comp pro I'll drop you a mail in the morning

is that your second one mate, Type 2?

Pete, first one was Type 44, so this one is Type 45 and once the new benders are finished I can get Type 46 underway.

There was a similar thread a while back which might be of interest:

http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/show-us-your-home-made-bikes

Also the DIRT mag website ran a series of articles on homebrew bikes which are worth checking out:

http://dirt.mpora.com/tag/homemade-bikes

Did anyone read Dirt on this?

Yeah, Dirt have had some good features. The recent guy doing the carbon wasp was pretty interesting. One of mates had his bike featured too. I think dirt called it project x. A nice carbon frame.