# Friday Show and Tell - 04/08/11



## aTomOfAllTrades (Apr 22, 2010)

Came across a post from Walt in the Frame Building FAQ thread talking about reviving the tradition of Friday Show & Tell. I'm two years late to the party and I'm just modifying my Surly frame, but I thought I would post it anyways since it does involve metalwork and brazing.

Description of project: My current mountain bike will be a single-speed
bike forever, because I both loathe and despise derailleurs.
Naturally, I can't just have a perfectly functional bike in great condition
and ride it, I must attempt to destroy it.....SO....I took my Surly Karate
Monkey frame, sandblasted it, then de-brazed all the braze-ons (cable-stops
for derailleurs, cable guides for brakes), cut off the derailleur hanger and
cantilever brake mounts, ground them smooth, then added better cable guides
to the fork, then added a seatpost binder........then I drilled some holes,
reamed them out, did a little shaping on the ends of some stainless steel
tube, stuck it in the holes, brazed them in place, cut them off straight,
drilled them out so they'd fit the cable housing, cut the remainder off
flush, and finally ground the surface smooth. Now I've got internally
routed cables for my rear brake and dropper seatpost (the single greatest
thing I've ever put on a bike) with everything else completely clean and
smooth. After all the finish sanding was complete, I dropped it off to get
powder coated in retina-searing fluorescent green (pictures do not do it
justice, but you'll get the idea).

Enjoy, just don't rip me apart for my crappy brazing, caveman tactics, or idiotic idea, if you can avoid it. 

-Tom

What it started as, a plain black frame with lots of mud on it and lots of "unnecessary" features:









After sandblasting the frame and rigid fork:









Brazed-on cable guides and welded-on cantilever brake mounts to be removed:









The fluorescent green powder to coat it in (notice how dark the background is in comparison...yeah...):









De-brazed the downtube cable stop:









After sanding the remainder flush:









I know this is a cutting torch, I had misplaced my smaller welding torch head...removing the rear derailleur cable stop:









Cut off the canti brake mounts since I will always have disc brakes on this bike forever:









Cut off the other brake mounts on the rear of the frame:









WOOOOO!:









Cut the derailleur hanger off the dropout, smoothed it out:









All the tiny pieces I removed from the frame and fork...look at all that weight savings! 









Heated up the fender bosses a bit too much, just because I felt like it...torches are fun:









Clamped and fluxed binder:









Crappy brazing that gets the job done:









Seatpost binder after facing/reaming/sanding:









Drilled holes in the top tube for the internal cable guides:









Pilot holes:









Making the holes bigger:









Then tilting the drill to ream them out (kind of a caveman approach, but it's quick and effective!):









Stainless tubing inserted into the reamed out hole and fluxed up:









Way-too-hot brazing....:









....now with way too much brass on it:









Disgusting brazed joint with flux scale all over it:









Cut off the excess tube straight so I can drill it out slightly larger:









Drilling out the tube so the cable housing would fit with a bit more clearance since the powdercoat will make the opening a little smaller:









What one the finished internal cable guides looks like:









Test-fitting some cable housing:









More test fitting:









And more tedious test fitting:


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## aTomOfAllTrades (Apr 22, 2010)

And then BOOM! Color. Behold:









Facing the bottom bracket shell and chasing the threads just to be sure it's clean and flat:









Some extra little scraps that needed to be cut off with a utility knife:









Pressed in the headset cups:









Chased the seatpost binder threads:









Tediously poked some brake cable through the guide holes...:









...then put the housing over the cable to easily guide it through....:









...then removed the brake cable and ran the dropper post cable through, and voila! Cables are run:









Clean rigid fork that I'll probably not use all that often, but at least it will match and be obnoxious when I do:









Cable guides on the fork have sweet little snap-on clips now so I don't have to cut off zip-ties every time I remove a cable:









Rear brake cable routing:









Cable goes in the top tube in front, then back out at the seat tube briefly before jumping back into the seat stay to head down to the rear brake:









Cable pops out at the rear brake:









190mm Profiles to survive the apocalypse:









Complete bike!:









There. Done Forever.:


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## huevos (Jun 17, 2008)

nice work man


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## Clockwork Bikes (Jun 17, 2006)

Got any pics of your arm tattoo? Looks right up my alley.

We also have a Monday show-and-tell called LMNH (Look Ma, No Hands). This Monday will be LMNH 21.

-Joel


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## jay_ntwr (Feb 15, 2008)

You warranty is voided  Very cool work though, enjoy. FYI, I wouldn't "de-braze" moving forward 'cause you're heating the area for no reason. That big grinder would have cut them off just fine and you could touch it up with a file. Good job though, looks cool.


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## biketrials25 (Jan 20, 2008)

I was thinking the same thing about the tattoo... Cool stuff with the frame too.


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## Drew Diller (Jan 4, 2010)

Nice work. Were those fat tires on some Large Marges in the background? Thinking of modifying your Pugsley frame? =)


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## aTomOfAllTrades (Apr 22, 2010)

Haha, yeah I am well aware my warranty is void. And that is an endomorph on an unlaced Large Marge back there, intended for my fatbike project that has yet to leave the ground, since I don't have a frame yet or the time/drive/skill to build my own confidently yet. I did mention the idea of making a cookie monster themed pugs to Surly though where I'd powdercoat the frame cookie-monster-blue, then use some of the old gum-wall Endos and spray the rims to match the tan color, but drill them first and use dark brown rim tape to make the wheels look like giant chocolate chip cookies, paint the inside of the fork black to be like a mouth, then put two giant eyes on the handlebars stuffed with high-powered LEDs for night riding. Eric Sovern from Surly said they don't have any more of those tires and they're impossible to find, but he did add the "I applaud your stupid idea because it is genius" comment that is now enshrined in my sig. So yeah, that project is still waiting, but I will have a fatbike someday, just accumulating parts for cheap when they pop up.

As for the tattoo, here's a better pic:









It's a rack-and-pinion (I'm a mechanical engineer and I spent years working on cars). Each tooth on the rack represents a person who has had a significant impact on who I am as a person to this point in my life. The pinion has 19 teeth on it. Counting from the bottom tooth around to the Woodruff key slot on the top left is 8 teeth, then the rest of the way around is 11 teeth....August 11th is my birthday, thus the pinion represents me. It starts in between the first two teeth, labeled "2p" for my two parents (also 2 times the base pitch of the rack, even though it would never be labeled that way) and moves chronologically down the line by a cousin of mine I've known since early childhood, my best friend growing up, the first woman I was ever truly in love with, my best friend who I met in high school, and then my wife. Her tooth is labeled with the dimension "2.42" which is the amount of time from the day we met to the day we got married expressed as a number of years. I got married three weeks after my 25th birthday, which is the "25y" distance measurement from where the pinion (me) starts to the end of my wife's tooth. The next set of teeth starts over chronologically again with a new set including (in order) two friends from elementary school, two friends from high school, two friends from college, then my dog (only pet I've ever had, is my family). Leaves room for me to expand and add more people and dimensions as more significant people enter my life. But I know I will love these people until the day I die, no matter what, for what they've meant to me to this point, so I'll be happy being able to look down at my arm every day and see it for myself and think of them.

I didn't want to go for an off-topic tirade, but it's show-and-tell, so it must be ok!


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## Drew Diller (Jan 4, 2010)

LOL

I like your style dude. And your tattoo makes my buddy's circular-binary-birthdate tattoo look tame by comparison.


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## wyatt79m (Mar 3, 2007)

Thats the most thought out ink I've ever heard of.


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## j-ro (Feb 21, 2009)

I live by the motto "just be yourself, everyone else is taken". You rock dude.
oh and by the way, nice rack.........


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## dr.welby (Jan 6, 2004)

Wait, you brassed the stainless tubing in place?


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## aTomOfAllTrades (Apr 22, 2010)

Yeah I know I should be using silver filler, but I didn't have any and figured I could get the SS to wet if it was hot enough. Kinda removes the effectiveness of the "stainless" qualities at that point, but it's a carbon steel frame anyways, so who cares so long as the joint is sturdy and restores enough strength to the spot I drilled the holes. Got a few rides on it now and the frame's holding up just fine to the normal jumps and hard landings on central NC trails, I'm not concerned...except maybe about those crappy wheels...


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## aTomOfAllTrades (Apr 22, 2010)

I eventually broke down and put decals on it, just liked the contrast of black parts and black labels on the glow-in-the-day green. And in case anyone is wondering, it weighs 31.4 lbs. That's with the FR3 (non-Team Issue) tires back on, which I much prefer anyways.




























Out in the wild on the nearly-unrideable rocks:


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## todwil (Feb 1, 2007)

Green bikes I like green bikes!!!


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## Ozmosis (Sep 22, 2005)

aTomOfAllTrades said:


> ...Counting from the bottom tooth around to the Woodruff key slot on the top left is 8 teeth, then the rest of the way around is 11 teeth....August 11th is my birthday, thus the pinion represents me...


Happy Birthday!


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## Yogii (Jun 5, 2008)

That hurts my eyes just to look at it...


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## jdbruner (Oct 3, 2011)

I used to have a Haro Master that was the same exact color!


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