It's been a long term goal of mine to build my own frames. Many many hours have been spent reading about how on the internet. Tons of great info out there shared by both pro's and other home garage builders.
Last fall/winter I started collecting the needed pieces to make it happen. There really isn't much needed if you choose to braze a frame. An oxy/acetylene torch, some files, a way to measure angles, a hack saw, a vise, and a stand are the bare bones. Proper bicycle tubing is available from several different suppliers in the US, I bought a couple tube sets from Cycles Nova..
For the brazing rig I opted for oxy/propane. There is a great resource thread that has been posted by mater builder and instructor Doug Fattic on another forum about using propane instead of acetylene. In that he goes further on how to use an oxygen concentrator instead of bottled oxygen. The concentrator was bought used at a discount due to a scratch on the cover. As a system it's cheaper to buy and run, also really nice to have have to deal with a weld shop or worry about a bottle running out on the weekend.
The torch is a Uniweld 71 running specific multi fuel tips. These smaller torches are called aircraft torches and are a size or two down from what most auto/mech shops have around. For a bike frame it's all you need and being lighter easier to flick around.
So you have a brazing rig and tubes. Time for the nitty gritty. A full scale drawing of your frame is going to be needed. I opted again for the bare bones old school basic paper and pen. Some guys do the bike up in CAD then print it.
Geometry and fit are personal. The nice thing about custom is it's designed for me by me. A little bit longer front centre and a bit lower than some bikes, not as slack as say a Ragley, but slacker than a Chromag…
You map all that out and your drawing is your template. This will give you all of your tube intersection angles. They are needed to get your miters right once you start hitting tubes with files.
to be continued…
