Roman,
Congratulations on your first effort. Looks excellent! A few more
times through and you will be on your way in full confidence.
I have watched my apprentice Carlos Martell build his first frame. I
took him through the process very slowly and made him practice lots
of brazing on spare lugs and other things to simulate dropout
brazing. It really paid off. His first frame is nothing short of
outstanding. He's even learned enough from me in the past 14 months
or so to paint his own frame as well. It will be completed and on the
road very soon. He's already onto his second bike, a French style
ladies frames for his ladyfriend. I'm really impressed at how he
takes the initiave and dives right into the stuff he's really done
very little of and only watched me do for around a year or so.
Recently there was some talk on one of the "lists" regarding what it
takes to learn to build frames. One long time builder remarked that
it takes building lots of frames to become an "expert" and get to
where you really know what you're doing; and if you don't build
enough you won't be that good at it. That is pure foolishness and
comes from someone who is obviously trying to keep the process a
mystery. Any idiot knows that framebuilding is pretty simple in the
basic form and most anyone with reasonable motor skills, some
patience, and a good dose of common sense, and a little practice, can
build excellent bike frames. The notion that framebuilding is magic
or difficult is pure hogwash. Anyone in the framebuilding business
who trys to make people think it's something special should be
ashamed of themselves. Period.
Again, congrats Roman. It's it fun and really rewarding to climb
aboard a steed of your own creation?
BTW, I have a boxFULL of Haden blank lugs. I paid dearly to get the
last quantity of the things that were known to exist. I have no BB
shells to go with them. My plans in the future will probably inclued
making some of my own lugs, BB shells, and crowns; so I may not
consider these quite as desireable as when I got them. Read the
article in VBQ from Mark Nobellette on making lugs. It isn't that
hard and if you're a hobbiest/craftsman like I am, you can afford to
spend a little extra time making things that are a bit extra special.
Useing lugs "straight up" is generally a production behavior. For an
individual build a few handmade frames the lugs are what set things
apart and seperate the men from the not-so-men, so to speak.
Brian Baylis La Mesa, CA My current project involves highly modified Pacentil lugs, which has
been quite a challange.
It's handy to have some blank lugs for this kind of work. Haden made
those (for standard size tubes) but they are no longer available in the marketplace and hard to find - especially the BB. If anyone has a
set or two they would be willing to part with - I would be interested. I'd
like to give it go sometime.
My resurrected life in cycling over the last few years led me to try
my hand at building a frame for myself and I have recently completed it. I
took it for its first significant ride this past week - it feels good and
handles very nicely. Building my own frame has been a fun adventure and I am
looking forward to future frame projects - although they will continue to
come along at a modest pace. I've got ways to go in the brazing department but I
think it will hold together.
To see the bike (without paint yet to come) look in my "framebuilding"
folder at http://community.webshots.com/
Roman Stankus With way to many interests in Atlanta, Ga.
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of Mark
Bulgier Sent: Saturday, July 29, 2006 2:34 AM To: oroboyz@aol.com; classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: RE: [CR]Is there a book about how to file ornate lugs?
Dale wrote:
> There was a really neat 2 part series (I think) in Cycling
> Plus 2-3 years ago, which detailed a step by step, full
> color, cutting of fancy lugs... Maybe some one has that & can scan
it?
I think this may be it, or part of it - Dale, is this what you were
thinking of?
http://bulgier.net/
Be sure to click "Next" to go to page 2 and page 3 (of 3).
You might also like this, from Art Stump:
http://bulgier.net/
And this:
http://bulgier.net/
Mark Bulgier
Seattle WA USA