Well, it’s done. I have gone through all the 1″ diameter/1.5mm thickness 4130 steel tubing from McMaster Carr. The practice TIG-welding-monster is complete. I’m moving up (or down?) to “regular” bicycle tubing. For starters I’ll weld some .9/.6/.9 (mm) scraps from Hank, then when his jig arrives (Access 65) at the end of the week I’ve got some foreign 9/6/9 tubes from Nova that will hopefully turn into a few 29ers for me and a couple of friends. It’s good to have friends that are willing (and asking) to be product testers! Especially when they’re rad racers with a ton of experience product testing! No pressure on me though…hah. Maybe I’ll wait to give them bikes 10 and 11.
I also got an Anvil fork fixture (more on that later) which will help me make my rear wishbone seatstays as well as some custom rigid forks – something I’ve been dreaming about doing for over a decade. Lots of ideas that can now come out to play.
