Post by "Chainsaw" Jim Johnson on Feb 26, 2015 22:30:28 GMT -5
In 2008, Giggles posted this ....... "I'm just gathering some info until I have everything I wanted to post someplace else.
You don't have to read this.
1) I was wondering where you guys and girls get your steel for building custom frames. I've used galvanized pipe, black pipe, emt, ?
answers
most steel supply yards should be able to get you what you need, you can use 1.5" for main tubes and 1" for rear triangle and around
.065-.085 wall thickness
Mr Cranky wrote:
Probably the most accessable material for scratch-building frames is EMT electrical conduit. You can get it at most hardware and lumber stores, and it's a lot cheaper than almost anything else. This is Brad Graham's raw material of choice, and he certainly knows what he's talking about, after building as many bikes as he has. I recommend his book, very highly.
2)post about building the frame or forks first. What do you guys usually do?
Do you make the forks the right length for the headtube angle?
Or, make the frame work for the size of the forks?
Or, do you just cut and weld it all up and see what happens?
answers
usually cut and weld and then see what happens
making the frame first and after I am done I will make the forks long enough so that the bottom tube is parallel to the ground if possible
3)What do you guys use for headsets and bottom brackets? I would guess press-in BB from BMX type bikes and standard press-in headsets?
answers
Easy way is to use donor bikes, cut the BB and HT off and grind it down smooth, be sure and use a head tube that has the same steerer tube diameter as the actual forks that you want to use on your chopper so everything will work. And on the bottom bracket I would use a BMX size.
4)Whats the best way to bend steel and conduit. I'm not talking about simple pipe bender angles. I want to make big long arcs for backbones and such. I currently don't have enough money to buy a professional bender so any help or little secrets as to bending pipe a cheap way would be greatly appreciated.
answers
Conduit is made to bend easy, the small stuff is cake, the bigger top tube stuff I did bend slowly at first but man you can throw your back out trying. I know, I did so I finally went and bought a conduit bender for that size at the Depot it was right at 50$. You bend this slow moving down the tube as you go I think you could do this with thicker metal but why, its just such easy stuff to work with.Here's the catch, you are better off brazing it cause if you do not grind all the galvanizing off it wont weld well. I did a beach cruiser design one day I'm riding around with the kids and we're trying to kick each other in the ass. I go to kickin and the head tube snaps off, so I go flying over the bars, needless to say I have brazed everything since. By no means do I consider myself good at welding but I do know this has worked just fine for me and nothing else has broke yet.
For your long bends you can take a 2x12 board and cut the curve that you want with a jig saw. Mount the curve on a table or flat sufface.
building a chopper with some pretty sweet lines. Making it out of Schedule 40 gas pipe from Home Depot. I did some of my bends with one of those cheapo Harbor Freight hydraulic pipe benders. I bend my top tube and seat tube with the help of a tree. Stuck the pipe in the crotch of 2 limbs and muscled it till I got the bend I wanted. It does a number on the bark though.
Without knowing eveyones knowledge of metal fabrication, here's a reminder, refresher, or just a "for your information", on how to make a strong, reliable splice between 2 pieces of tubing.After making your cut, find a piece that is the correct outside diameter, that will fit inside the tubes you cut, to act as a splice. Another piece of tubing is usually better than a solid part. Drill 4 3/8" holes in each side of the tubes you cut. The dia. of the holes will vary with the size of the material your working with { the pics are of 1 1/4" } You'll use these holes to weld in solid the splice. Make your splice at least as long as the diameter of the tube you cut, plus 1" each way. Slide the splice in one end, making sure its straight, and weld it in, then slide the other side together, making sure once more your repair is straight, and weld it together. Finish the splice by welding the center seam. This procedure will help insure that your reair won't crack from stress in the seam.
5) How do you make the haft circles on the end of pipes near the head peace and the crank. and what do you use and were tp get it
answers
Try Harbor Freight - cheap tools for a cheap price. You'll need tube notcher and hole saws. I drill press is handy, as well.
Another alternative method to fish mouths is to grind them with a small 4 inch electric grinder. Here is a link for a tube miter program. With this program you type in the angle you want it generates a template you can print on your computer printer and cut it out. Wrap the pattern around the tube and mark it out with a sharpie. Then grind up to the lines and presto.
Here is the down load link.
On the curves I just sawsall the angle and take it the rest of the way with a file. That's faster than making a jig to hold the piece for the hole saw and having to clean it up with a file.
angle grinder & fill the gap with weld then more angle grinder on the fat welds
My first frame I used a 4" angle grinder. Feathered each end until it fit snug, no more than 1/16th gap anywhere. More gap = more opportunity for your joint to warp from heat (if it is not jigged).
Later on I got a cheap tubing notcher on ebay for like 30 bucks. Works pretty good.
Tubing notcher { ole jig jointer} and a belt sander, and if all else fails, I have a stone that I shaped to a nice round surface, that is on my bench grinder. The less gap the better
do not like the old stand by, in kickstands.For one thing, they're ugly, and the other is they don't work on choppers. So I found some parts at the local hardware store, to build a kick ass kick stand, without a whole bunch of machining and stuff. A saw, a vice, a drill with a 3/8" bit, and a hand grinder are all I use. I bought a ordinary 3/8" double clevis, a piece of 3/8" rod, a package of 5/8" x 2 1/2" .072 dia. utility springs,found a piece of 3/8" plate for the mounting bracket, made a couple of tabs and thats it. Figure out your length you need for your stand,put a bend in one end for the bike to rest on, and weld it into one end of the clevis. Cut the 3/8" plate so the clevis has a stop to rest against, and it rotates up the other way twords the frame.The bracket is the tricky part, getting it correct for your bike.Drill the 3/8" hole where it needs to be, for the clevis to rotate correctly, weld the bracket on, then take the spring and tabs and position them so the frame tab is forward of the stand, and the other tab is positioned on the kickstand, so that the spring dosn't hang up on the clevis pin.If you need more pics, I have more. This thing works great, looks great, and will keep your bike upright.
I found a older wheel mounted kick stand that was steel and cut it up a bit then mounted it sideways for the swing out motorcycle look.
6) English Wheel or Planishing hammer?
I would say to you what size of projects do you plan to do? The english wheel can shape panels much faster than a planisher. But lets say you are doing a fender for a bicycle. The plansher will be easier in this case due to the size of the peice of metal you are working with. If you are bustin out a fender or tank half for a motorcycle well then the better way will surely be the english wheel. I think a great starter package would be a shrinker / strectcher from eastwood or Covel and a nice planishing hammer from eastwood along with the mallet and shot bag to get the part started. This setup would do just about any smaller project with super results and about half again faster than a mallet and shot bag alone. Then down the road buy a bigger english wheel and you will be ready to rock on anything. Now the altenative to this is that I have seen some very economical english wheels made by using a large like 3" o.d. wheel bearing and then a smaller wheel bearing like 1.5" for the shaper wheel and a slight curve or crown on the smaller bearing to give the shape. This whole setup could be built for around 50 bucks and would make fenders tanks ect for bikes and give good results.
Oh yes one more thing... eastwood sells the dies for the planishing hammer seperate in there catalog. You could order the dies from them and buy a "air cheisel" from even Wal Mart for like 20 bucks. the dies fit the air cheisels and then all you need is a frame wich you can build from spare metal. The air chiesel is what comes on eastwoods setup if you look closely. Man there is a ton of ideas out there!
I found a link a while back on how to make a back yard english wheel. It was off of a hot rod site. My friend made one. It worked pretty good. You use some steering shaft parts, some Ford wheel bearing and some stuff from Tractor Supply. I'll post it if I find it again.
www.tinmantech.com/ has some good metal forming info
You don't have to read this.
1) I was wondering where you guys and girls get your steel for building custom frames. I've used galvanized pipe, black pipe, emt, ?
answers
most steel supply yards should be able to get you what you need, you can use 1.5" for main tubes and 1" for rear triangle and around
.065-.085 wall thickness
Mr Cranky wrote:
Probably the most accessable material for scratch-building frames is EMT electrical conduit. You can get it at most hardware and lumber stores, and it's a lot cheaper than almost anything else. This is Brad Graham's raw material of choice, and he certainly knows what he's talking about, after building as many bikes as he has. I recommend his book, very highly.
2)post about building the frame or forks first. What do you guys usually do?
Do you make the forks the right length for the headtube angle?
Or, make the frame work for the size of the forks?
Or, do you just cut and weld it all up and see what happens?
answers
usually cut and weld and then see what happens
making the frame first and after I am done I will make the forks long enough so that the bottom tube is parallel to the ground if possible
3)What do you guys use for headsets and bottom brackets? I would guess press-in BB from BMX type bikes and standard press-in headsets?
answers
Easy way is to use donor bikes, cut the BB and HT off and grind it down smooth, be sure and use a head tube that has the same steerer tube diameter as the actual forks that you want to use on your chopper so everything will work. And on the bottom bracket I would use a BMX size.
4)Whats the best way to bend steel and conduit. I'm not talking about simple pipe bender angles. I want to make big long arcs for backbones and such. I currently don't have enough money to buy a professional bender so any help or little secrets as to bending pipe a cheap way would be greatly appreciated.
answers
Conduit is made to bend easy, the small stuff is cake, the bigger top tube stuff I did bend slowly at first but man you can throw your back out trying. I know, I did so I finally went and bought a conduit bender for that size at the Depot it was right at 50$. You bend this slow moving down the tube as you go I think you could do this with thicker metal but why, its just such easy stuff to work with.Here's the catch, you are better off brazing it cause if you do not grind all the galvanizing off it wont weld well. I did a beach cruiser design one day I'm riding around with the kids and we're trying to kick each other in the ass. I go to kickin and the head tube snaps off, so I go flying over the bars, needless to say I have brazed everything since. By no means do I consider myself good at welding but I do know this has worked just fine for me and nothing else has broke yet.
For your long bends you can take a 2x12 board and cut the curve that you want with a jig saw. Mount the curve on a table or flat sufface.
building a chopper with some pretty sweet lines. Making it out of Schedule 40 gas pipe from Home Depot. I did some of my bends with one of those cheapo Harbor Freight hydraulic pipe benders. I bend my top tube and seat tube with the help of a tree. Stuck the pipe in the crotch of 2 limbs and muscled it till I got the bend I wanted. It does a number on the bark though.
Without knowing eveyones knowledge of metal fabrication, here's a reminder, refresher, or just a "for your information", on how to make a strong, reliable splice between 2 pieces of tubing.After making your cut, find a piece that is the correct outside diameter, that will fit inside the tubes you cut, to act as a splice. Another piece of tubing is usually better than a solid part. Drill 4 3/8" holes in each side of the tubes you cut. The dia. of the holes will vary with the size of the material your working with { the pics are of 1 1/4" } You'll use these holes to weld in solid the splice. Make your splice at least as long as the diameter of the tube you cut, plus 1" each way. Slide the splice in one end, making sure its straight, and weld it in, then slide the other side together, making sure once more your repair is straight, and weld it together. Finish the splice by welding the center seam. This procedure will help insure that your reair won't crack from stress in the seam.
5) How do you make the haft circles on the end of pipes near the head peace and the crank. and what do you use and were tp get it
answers
Try Harbor Freight - cheap tools for a cheap price. You'll need tube notcher and hole saws. I drill press is handy, as well.
Another alternative method to fish mouths is to grind them with a small 4 inch electric grinder. Here is a link for a tube miter program. With this program you type in the angle you want it generates a template you can print on your computer printer and cut it out. Wrap the pattern around the tube and mark it out with a sharpie. Then grind up to the lines and presto.
Here is the down load link.
On the curves I just sawsall the angle and take it the rest of the way with a file. That's faster than making a jig to hold the piece for the hole saw and having to clean it up with a file.
angle grinder & fill the gap with weld then more angle grinder on the fat welds
My first frame I used a 4" angle grinder. Feathered each end until it fit snug, no more than 1/16th gap anywhere. More gap = more opportunity for your joint to warp from heat (if it is not jigged).
Later on I got a cheap tubing notcher on ebay for like 30 bucks. Works pretty good.
Tubing notcher { ole jig jointer} and a belt sander, and if all else fails, I have a stone that I shaped to a nice round surface, that is on my bench grinder. The less gap the better
do not like the old stand by, in kickstands.For one thing, they're ugly, and the other is they don't work on choppers. So I found some parts at the local hardware store, to build a kick ass kick stand, without a whole bunch of machining and stuff. A saw, a vice, a drill with a 3/8" bit, and a hand grinder are all I use. I bought a ordinary 3/8" double clevis, a piece of 3/8" rod, a package of 5/8" x 2 1/2" .072 dia. utility springs,found a piece of 3/8" plate for the mounting bracket, made a couple of tabs and thats it. Figure out your length you need for your stand,put a bend in one end for the bike to rest on, and weld it into one end of the clevis. Cut the 3/8" plate so the clevis has a stop to rest against, and it rotates up the other way twords the frame.The bracket is the tricky part, getting it correct for your bike.Drill the 3/8" hole where it needs to be, for the clevis to rotate correctly, weld the bracket on, then take the spring and tabs and position them so the frame tab is forward of the stand, and the other tab is positioned on the kickstand, so that the spring dosn't hang up on the clevis pin.If you need more pics, I have more. This thing works great, looks great, and will keep your bike upright.
I found a older wheel mounted kick stand that was steel and cut it up a bit then mounted it sideways for the swing out motorcycle look.
6) English Wheel or Planishing hammer?
I would say to you what size of projects do you plan to do? The english wheel can shape panels much faster than a planisher. But lets say you are doing a fender for a bicycle. The plansher will be easier in this case due to the size of the peice of metal you are working with. If you are bustin out a fender or tank half for a motorcycle well then the better way will surely be the english wheel. I think a great starter package would be a shrinker / strectcher from eastwood or Covel and a nice planishing hammer from eastwood along with the mallet and shot bag to get the part started. This setup would do just about any smaller project with super results and about half again faster than a mallet and shot bag alone. Then down the road buy a bigger english wheel and you will be ready to rock on anything. Now the altenative to this is that I have seen some very economical english wheels made by using a large like 3" o.d. wheel bearing and then a smaller wheel bearing like 1.5" for the shaper wheel and a slight curve or crown on the smaller bearing to give the shape. This whole setup could be built for around 50 bucks and would make fenders tanks ect for bikes and give good results.
Oh yes one more thing... eastwood sells the dies for the planishing hammer seperate in there catalog. You could order the dies from them and buy a "air cheisel" from even Wal Mart for like 20 bucks. the dies fit the air cheisels and then all you need is a frame wich you can build from spare metal. The air chiesel is what comes on eastwoods setup if you look closely. Man there is a ton of ideas out there!
I found a link a while back on how to make a back yard english wheel. It was off of a hot rod site. My friend made one. It worked pretty good. You use some steering shaft parts, some Ford wheel bearing and some stuff from Tractor Supply. I'll post it if I find it again.
www.tinmantech.com/ has some good metal forming info