Snow in mountains above Santa Barbara...with LOADS of rain down in town!

Well folks it has been way too long since I posted an update.... so here goes.

I have been putting in a lot of time in the workshop since getting back from the holidays. It has been great to be back in the shop! There was about a two month period of time where I didn't have any time to spend in the shop. So its been nice to back at it, and I have been making loads of progress. I am well on my way to having this first frame finished.

As you can see - I have finished TIG welding the front and rear triangle, and now I am working on getting the bridges and cantilever brake hardware mounted. Then I will silver solder the seat tube sleeve, seat post binder, water bottle bosses, and cable routing hardware.

It has been a learning experince to say the least. The sequence of welding up a frame is very important - and doing it out of order makes things a lot more difficult. I learned a lot about how to successfully back purge with argon, there was a lot more to it than I initially thought - if only argon was visible!  Next time things should be significantly easier - although I am certian there will be more to learn. Once again I am reminded that I have always been a learn by doing kind of guy..... I guess that is one of the things that makes this job so enjoyable - there is so much to learn and figure out.

I ordered up some material to make a fork blade bender - that should be a fun project. Then I can begin building up the lugged fork for this frame.