For one of my two jobs I work as the operations manager at Vicious Cycles. I occasionally do some work in the shop, like sandblasting or paint prep. One of my goals in taking the job is to learn to build frames. I’ve recently started building a bike for D. Here are the main tubes:

By welding time on this frame it’s unlikely that I’ll learn to weld well enough to for any of my welding to be associated with the company name. But I’ll get to do everything up to and beyond the welding.

Cutting the tubes is one of those things that’s really pretty easy, except for the million details that have already been taken care of, like setting up the machine, making the fixtures, knowing how to use it all, knowing all the little things to watch for.

I’ve got the main triangle cut. Next week we’ll cut the stays, throw it in the jig and tack weld it. I can probably do that. But a nice bead continues to elude me. Years of practice….