Fancy a class on building your own frame in the North West?

[Roman]

For anyone who may be interested, Salford City College are running a 9 week evening course on bike frame building for beginners commencing Thurs 23rd Jan for 9 weeks.

It was scheduled to start this evening but having spoken to the guy who's running it, due to some 'no shows' it has now been put back to next week - if a couple of replacements can be found.

The tubeset is for a lugged steel single speed road bike/fixie and the course is run by an ex pro rider.

More details here:
http://www.salfordcitycollege.ac.uk/courses/llcour...

Pic:
http://www.salfordcc.ac.uk/newsitem.aspx?id=952

[Benmac]

I'd love to. Just not this time around with short notice. I am going to look into doing it in the future though.

[Roman]

Benmac said:

I'd love to. Just not this time around with short notice. I am going to look into doing it in the future though.

I'll post some pics and a mini build diary if there are enough people to start next week..

[CoolC]

Bit far for me to travel each Thursday evening but it sounds great.

I presume you decide on the geo and type of drop-outs etc? then you get a bespoke frame for just over £200 whilst learning a skill.

Perfect. : off to check if there is anything similar at the local college :

Edited by CoolC on Friday 17th January 09:06

[Benmac]

Roman said:

I'll post some pics and a mini build diary if there are enough people to start next week..

Fingers crossed, I'll look forward to that.

[mcdjl]

Its a 2hr drive away but i'm still tempted!

[Roman]

Update: Fellow PHer Mcdjl and I are part way through the course and for anyone interested, another of our classmates has a build diary thread going on LFGSS:

http://www.lfgss.com/thread121499.html

I think the course may be run again after Easter so for anyone interested, see contact details in the original post. Only 8 spaces though!

[mcdjl]

Frame built! As brazed and (eventually) completed pictures to follow!

[Usget]

Sounds intriguing, stick some pics up!

[mcdjl]

I don't seem to have any pictures of my collection of tubes....but this is the bunch of them brazed up. The enxt step is to get all the spare brass, rust and other crap off it so i can coat it. I still haven't decided what (or if) colour it should be, not how it'll be finished. Still theres plenty of time while i make busy with sand paper.

[mcdjl]

Slow progress...sanding and polishing by hand is hard work:


At this stage i decided to find a professional:

and got told off for my botched jobs of sanding which have left ripples in some areas of the frame.
Next: chroming.....

[WinstonWolf]

The chromers *should* buff the frame before they start the dipping process.

[mcdjl]

WinstonWolf said:

The chromers *should* buff the frame before they start the dipping process.

Their wheels are too large so they wouldn't do it. They may need to give it a surface wipe after its sat around for the few days before I get it to them though.

[WinstonWolf]

it'll be dipped before they start to chemically clean it. If you've got 'rusty hands' like I have wear some gloves and give it a going over with steel wool.

[CoolC]

mcdjl said:

and got told off for my botched jobs of sanding which have left ripples in some areas of the frame.
Next: chroming.....

Yes, but they're YOUR ripples, mad by YOU on YOUR frame. Makes it even more bespoke

[allegro]

Any potential news of another course? Just missed the last one and really fancy a crack at it

[mcdjl]

CoolC said:

Yes, but they're YOUR ripples, mad by YOU on YOUR frame. Makes it even more bespoke

Yup, hence being split on whether i'm glad i tried before giving it up as hard work, or just wishing i'd gone straight to them.
It hasn't rusted yet but i only got it back yesterday so hopefully which ever acid drip will sort it as final prep- i bet they see stuff thats had far less prep work on it

[mcdjl]

Its taken me a while and it's just normal, not black chrome but now I can put it together.

[Roman]

mcdjl said:

Its taken me a while and it's just normal, not black chrome but now I can put it together.

That looks great - well done!

Will have to drag mine out & get it built..

Don't think Darren plans to run another course at Salford College but if I hear of him running one elsewhere I'll simply update this thread.

[lukeyman]

Well done!

I'd love to do something like this. In fact I've wanted to build my own frame for about 20 years!