Tandem Job

The tandem bicycle job came through and it's a rush job, of course. It wouldn't have been so bad if I could have started on it last week but I was Kentucky bound. I also had to get the gym van back together Monday after school so the electricians could get in to hook up the furnace. Tuesday evening we put a little boxing demonstration on as part of the local Police Night Out. The turnout was a little thin but we had a good time and got a little publicity for the gym.

So, back to the bicycle job. The customer brought the bits and pieces in Monday after he got off work. He had the rear triangle (seat tube, bottom bracket, chainstays, seatstays, dropouts) jigged up already and all the pieces were coped and ready for welding. The guy did a beautiful job of prepping the parts and he has a first class fixture for holding everything. I got everything I could welded up Tuesday and he came Wednesday afternoon to fixture up the front section section (steer tube, top tube, down tube, seat tube, bottom bracket). I got the parts tacked together so they wouldn't move and he took the whole works with him, fixture and all, so he could connect the front and rear sections. He brought everything back to school later that evening and I got most everything welded up yesterday. He picked the frame up after work and he's going to have it dropped off this morning so I can finish putting a couple of gussets and cable brackets and then he picks it up Saturday morning.

It looks pretty good so far. Even though I'm TIG welding it, the welding is tough. The tubing is paper thin. He brought the filler rod to use and even though it's only .045" dia., it's still twice as thick as the tubing. You can only cut the amperage so much and still have enough to melt the filler rod. All you have to do is breathe wrong and you've got a hole. It's just a good thing everything fit as well as it did. There's no way you're going to bridge any big gaps and not have it look like crap. I'm glad I welded the big ass stainless bowl the other day. It was a good tune-up for this job. It's hard to stay sharp unless you practice and I don't get much of this type of practice.

I'll post some photos when I get it done.