Anvil Bikes

[zank]

I'm piling on...

As the proud owner of a supersize combo meal, I have to say that I get a little chubbier every time I use one of your tools.

As a guy who likes to surround myself with people way smarter than me, I really appreciate having you at the lunch table.

Two (sets of) questions.
1. What advice do you have for a greenhorn welder? More specifically, do you advise one of those classes at Hobart or Lincoln? Stick welding first? By the letter of the AWS book?
2. Where's my fucking builder wheel?

[progetto]

Hey Don
Wouldn't be without my journeyman for the carbon work I do. Anywhere on the interweb to access a product catalogue of Anvil goodies?

[csbmo]

divorced white female,

with all them new age programmable hack saws and robotic adjustable ass scratching devices, what precautions does the shop have for unexpected power outages?

regards,
mammal dragger

bonus question: have you ever seen a headset spacer gather moss?

[e-RICHIE]

as a matter of record - DWF was the among the most difficult candidates for Smoked Out to land atmo.
when he finally succumbed, i know the remaining few would be a piece of cake.
i kinda' sorta' knew how simon wiesenthal felt after all those years atmo.
i got my man.

[Brian Smith]

divorced white female,

with all them new age programmable hack saws and robotic adjustable ass scratching devices, what precautions does the shop have for unexpected power outages?

regards,
mammal dragger

bonus question: have you ever seen a headset spacer gather moss?

Nitrogen pressurization on the Z-axis, I would think, and once the curse words cease, and an hour passes, thoughts probably get directed toward which beverages in the 'fridges could possibly become spoiled. Am I right? There is always deburring to do...

[Archibald]

I'm piling on...

As the proud owner of a supersize combo meal, I have to say that I get a little chubbier every time I use one of your tools.

As a guy who likes to surround myself with people way smarter than me, I really appreciate having you at the lunch table.

Two (sets of) questions.
1. What advice do you have for a greenhorn welder? More specifically, do you advise one of those classes at Hobart or Lincoln? Stick welding first? By the letter of the AWS book?
2. Where's my fucking builder wheel?

Thanks, Mike! I don't know about being smarter than you. IIRC, you were on your way to becoming a Doctor when the framebuilding bug bit...oh, wait a minute.... :)

Welding is a tough one. The hardest thing for newbs to get is you have to watch your puddle constantly. Lots of folks get all wrapped up in where they're going with the weld, but to get to laying down the good stuff, you have to really focus on your puddle as your puddle tells you everything you need to know. You really learn how to read the puddle when you stick weld and I think it makes tig welding easier.

Second thing is to develop your muscle memory so you can learn how to smoothly move your hands through the multi-axis movements welding around two joining tubes requires. You can do this when you're practicing by just slowly moving your hand through the motions you need to make without actually striking an arc and without your hood on so you can see what you're doing. You want to be able to maintain relative perpendicularity between your tungsten and the parent metal as you move around the joint. You'll see a lot of welds where the weldor is pushing the tungsten at obtuse/acute angles or tangent to the work as he comes around the joint. The weld tells on them because it flattens and washes out so the weld will go from flat and wide to narrow and fat. They'll also have about 50 starts & stops on a joint. I exaggerate, but you get my point. Before you do that on a bike frame, you really need to practice, practice, practice on other welding first: flat on plate, then fillets, then multi-position.

A good welding exercise I tell folks and what we used to do in my pipe-welding days was to take a tig torch and walk the cup around the OD of a beer bottle. You'll be surprised how hard this is. You're not actually welding, you're just practicing the motions so the machine is not turned on, the tig torch doesn't have to be connected to anything and you can do it in the comfort your home or local tavern. Take the label off the bottle, and hold it in one hand so its length is parallel to the ground. Hold your torch in the other. Place your tig torch's cup against the side of the bottle and rock the torch between your fingers so that you're making the cup advance along the bottle in a small figure 8 motion. Do not let the tungsten touch the bottle. Try to maintain relative perpendicularity between your tungsten and the bottle as you advance around the OD of the bottle. When you can make it 180-degrees around the bottle without the torch slipping off or sliding away on the bottle you have become better than 99% of the folks out there.

I think a school is a good idea because it's always good to understand weld theory and it will expose you to a bunch of different processes (and equipment). Like framebuilding, welding isn't for everybody so don't be afraid to step away from it if you're not digging it. I don't really enjoy welding anymore like I used to but I think it's a critical skill to develop for builders. In our industry more than most others, a builder's weld appearance is a defining criteria when it comes to getting customers to your door and is the equivalent of a diploma on the wall so it's important that if you're going to do it, do it as perfectly as you can.

And you'll get your builder's wheel when it's perfect!

[Archibald]

divorced white female,

with all them new age programmable hack saws and robotic adjustable ass scratching devices, what precautions does the shop have for unexpected power outages?

regards,
mammal dragger

bonus question: have you ever seen a headset spacer gather moss?

Ha! We don't have any precautions for the unexpected outage; we just roll with it. If it gets super windy or a thunderstorm rolls in we shut everything down to protect from voltage surges or lightning strikes and we have safety disconnects to completely isolate the machines from power. All our machine power runs through a Phase Perfect and that filters, cleans, and balances the power to the machines.

I've never seen a headset spacer gather moss but I've seen some I'd like to kick in the nuts!

[zank]

And you'll get your builder's wheel when it's perfect!

i like that answer.

[Archibald]

as a matter of record - DWF was the among the most difficult candidates for Smoked Out to land atmo.
when he finally succumbed, i know the remaining few would be a piece of cake.
i kinda' sorta' knew how simon wiesenthal felt after all those years atmo.
i got my man.

It was treachery. Pure treachery.

[Archibald]

Nitrogen pressurization on the Z-axis, I would think, and once the curse words cease, and an hour passes, thoughts probably get directed toward which beverages in the 'fridges could possibly become spoiled. Am I right? There is always deburring to do...

That's old school! On ours if it loses power it's just like an elevator: a brake locks on the Z. So the brake is switched to be normally closed and power opens it. Lose power & the brake engages.

Oh, and whisky doesn't require refrigeration! Win, win!

[Don Walker]

Oh, and whisky doesn't require refrigeration! Win, win!

Nope, Scotland is cold enough.

(maybe someone will catch the whisky/whiskey ref?)

D

[anthonymaietta]

i like that answer.

Mike,

You better lock that thing to your ankle, cause I'm coming down to steal it.

xoxo,
Tony

[Curt Goodrich]

Fixture question-

On your frame fixtures, the bottom of the head tube as a point in space is arrived at in a unique way. Very different than Bike Machinery, Marchetti or any other jig I can think of. Why?

[Archibald]

Fixture question-

On your frame fixtures, the bottom of the head tube as a point in space is arrived at in a unique way. Very different than Bike Machinery, Marchetti or any other jig I can think of. Why?

Good question. My answer: it just made sense to me and keeps the fixtures simpler & more compact. Having worked with all kinds of jigs & fixtures in machine & fab shops, I knew how important it was that the fixtures could be easily checked by eyeball for setup & I try to include that wherever it's practical. That criteria can/does drive design. What I like best about it is that slight changes in head tube angle does not affect head tube height meaning you can divorce one setting from another when making adjustments. Does that answer your question?

[e-RICHIE]

Does that answer your question?

is there a setting that puts the lower head tube cone thingy in a spot that reflects the frame design's fork length and bb drop measurements atmo?
ps you are so dreamy you hairy man you.

[VertigoCycles]

ps you are so dreamy you hairy man you.

That's what I've been thinking during this whole read.

I love your tools, Don. The bender is a dream come true and the (used) fork fixture I just picked up is the nuts.

Stay sexy

[gruau]

Hi,

As others have stated, this Smoked Out thread is a great read. Makes me want to build a bike and ride it across a continent, and then start all over again!
Don, your life experiences, and knowledge and mastery of the various skills involved in framebuilding are quite inspiring.

Thanks for sharing.
Jim

[csbmo]

we have PAUL components.

how 'bout we have DON components?

a DON Derailleur?

a new day has Don'd

[Archibald]

is there a setting that puts the lower head tube cone thingy in a spot that reflects the frame design's fork length and bb drop measurements atmo?
ps you are so dreamy you hairy man you.

Well, we don't use cones on the bottom any more, but yeah, the bottom center of the headtube is your "head tube height" on the fixture and that's set using the scale on the main base plate of the fixture. That dimension is a product of your fork length, HTA, and BB drop. BB drop is set separately from head tube height and since both the Type 3 Journeyman and the Super Journeyman use the same configuration it's just an adjustment made via the chainstay tower scale. On Type 2 & older JMan's, BB drop was set via chainstay angle for the rear axle (head tube height settings are the same as current models). Does that answer your question?

[Archibald]

That's what I've been thinking during this whole read.

I love your tools, Don. The bender is a dream come true and the (used) fork fixture I just picked up is the nuts.

Stay sexy

Thanks, Sean!!!