Simple tools

[jclay]

I've used a ball peen hammer to crimp (dent) the chainstay, properly backed by a half round block (finished frame, chainring clearance). Worked but not satisfying from a craft perspective. Then I made some dies that I drove with a vise, also backed with a half round block, on chainstays not yet brazed into the frame; used those for tire clearance. They work great and you can easily have multiple dies but the setup procedure is a tad fiddly. Repeatability is difficult. I made this today. I'm not the first. It's really sweet. Setup, alignment, repeatability and controllability are fantastic. This one is for chainring clearance but I'll build a larger one for tire clearance. If it works half as well as this one it will be a raving success. Shoulda done it years ago.

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[Ben Hudson]

Hah, I made the exact same thing a couple of weeks ago. I’ll take a picture later. I had a hell of a time getting the half-tube and the die to line up quite right so the dent goes in straight and on centreline, since the moving jaw moves in an arc. I was half inclined to make one using a large Knipex plierwrench which has parallel jaws, but they are expensive. And with vice grips you can set a stop so that the second goes in exactly the same depth (when doing both sides for tyre clearance).

I also found that the thin-ish tubing I used initially for the support bit wasn’t up to the force, so I ended up redoing it with heavy 2 inch BS gas pipe (4.5mm wall thickness and good internal diameter to suit oval chainstays).

[Rkanz]

I ripped off this idea from Paul Sadoff (Rock Lobster) to build rear triangles. I used a Paragon tubing block, a Hammmil Engineering t-square from Nova, 2" aluminum channel, and some flat stock. I don't have a milling machine so I needed something I could build with hand tools and a drill press. I use a frame alignment tool to get it centered. It works really well.

Russ Kanz
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[jclay]

I ripped off this idea from Paul Sadoff (Rock Lobster) to build rear triangles. I used a Paragon tubing block, a Hammmil Engineering t-square from Nova, 2" aluminum channel, and some flat stock. I don't have a milling machine so I needed something I could build with hand tools and a drill press. I use a frame alignment tool to get it centered. It works really well.

Russ Kanz
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Sweet. Is that a little Inca thickness planer in the upper left?

[drietz]

When it's time to change hole saw arbors for a long cut... I curse those little buggers. So I used some "strategery" and made this little lever arm. Threaded on one end to accept a knob, and a filed groove to locate into place at the hole:

Kris, why not do like Brett Steelman did and get an arbor for every hole saw? ;)

[Rkanz]

Yes. I am more of a woodworker than metal guy. But frame building has a lot in common with woodworking. Many of the hand tool skills are similar.

[jclay]

Scratched my head for a few minutes and came up with these two fixtures. From a “How can I come up with something in the next few minutes, that ought to take far more time to make and be far more sophisticated” to “What a difficult thing to do without something that will hold the darn thing” ratio, these are certainly the best little problem solvers I've come up with!

Flickr

The flat bar in contact with the rack was simply a C-clamp in the initial look-see. Then it became obvious that a flat bar attached to the vertical support would make life a lot easier; so, the part below

Flickr

Note that the use of the two magnets (on the horizontal bar) facilitated easy alignment for vertical and rotation of the vertical work piece.

[Michael Gordon]

I made this one for brazing on Paragon downtube barrel adjuster mounts.

I cut drilled a hole 1.25" hole in a piece of maple, then pressed in 2 pieces of 5/32 steel rod.
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The block pushes on to the downtube, even with the end of the miter. This places the stops in the same place every time. if you want them further down on the downtube, use longer pieces of steel rod.
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The back side has a reference mark for lining up with the center line on the tube.
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Perfect placement!
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No moving parts... That's simple!!!

[Andrew R Stewart]

So Michael's post reminded me that I was going to share some tools I've made.

First is the same DT casing stop as he did. I used a Bicycle Research tube block and some SS rod. One version had a piece of AL sheet acting as the free rod end support. V2 (not shown) has a second block doing this (and is for a larger DT too).

Item two is my water boss aligning tool. I got tired of ending up with slightly canted bosses when I did them with no support. The pilots are AL.


Third is the fixture to hold the canti boss shaft square with the stand off tube. These become the DT cable stops I use. (They use a Weinmann or DC M6 brake cable adjuster as the final part)


Last is a braze on clamp. I found inspiration from the Sputnik design. These replace V1, also shown.

I have other stuff but these were easy to find in my folders. One of my constants is not relying on precision machine tools to make these fixtures. The early stuff is hack saws and files with threaded adjustments. The more recent stuff is cleaner due to the mill I now have, but still don't rely on DROs or precise alignments as much as possible. Andy

[jclay]

I always find it to be a delicate and not entirely reliable balancing act to use what this tool was before I added the cross-member that's resting on the vise covers. Bottle boss heads weren't always held square, housing stop alignment could shift and sometimes the stop would slide radially. Adding the relatively heavy cross bar is as simple an approach as I could come up with. It anchors fixture alignment adequately and rectifies those sorts of problems. I'm very happy with it.

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[Cynikal]

Maybe not quite as simple but it works really well. Tube_gauge.jpg

[claritycycler]

I really like this thread, great to see posts here after about 1 1/2 yrs.

[duanedr]

I struggle keeping binder bosses square as I brazed them into place and I can't stand them not being straight. I made the one on the left first for seatpost binders being brazed to ST sleeves. It worked so well, I made the one on the right with some modifications to do binders for stem clamps or different sized ST sleeves. It has a 1" tube that stays with the block and the clamp tube is slid over that so that the center (or where the binder goes) is at 20mm from the block. Pull up on the finger, slide a mitered binder under and it's immediately centered, square and snug and ready for tacking. I will likely make the finger on #2 of steel as a next step.

Untitled by Duane Draper, on Flickr

Untitled by Duane Draper, on Flickr