Paul Brody posted this on the Brody bikes web site after i took my frame building course

The first class has come and gone. It was a great learning experience for all, myself included. We discovered the (brand new) auto-darkening welding helmets didn’t work so well at low amperages, so those got replaced with conventional ones. My initial thought of “how am I going to keep these guys busy for TWO weeks?” was soon replaced with “how am I going to get these guys to FINISH their frames in two weeks?” Only Simon met the goal of finishing his front triangle after one week…

Week Two saw the students really pick up the pace. They didn’t take coffee breaks, and often stayed late. The energy in the class was very good!  From left to right >

Simon was going to build a 29er, but changed his mind and built a TIG welded cyclocross bike. He finished first, and had the time to build a set of TIG bull-moose bars.
Nigel (all the way from Australia..) built a fillet brazed track bike for his everyday commuter..
Daniel (aged 15..) fillet brazed a 26″ dirt jumper. He also finished early, so I showed him how to construct a candle stick holder for his Mom.
Ken TIG welded a cyclocross style road bike.
There is still space for class #002 starting October 25, so if you’re sitting on the fence, undecided, call UFV!
Paul Brodie

The first day at the frame building course 101

On the first day we got to start brazing and Tig welding with in 45 min to a hour. I started on the brazing torch learning how to light it and how to us it. Our first task was melting the brazing rod and stacking little drops on top of each other it was hard but i did it. The next task was brazing two pieces of metal together with nickel silver rod it was easier than the stacking part the nickel silver flows around the metal like water when heated to a high temp makes the weld really strong  you will not pull that apart. Next we got to use the Tig welder the first thing we learned was to make a nice bead and o-man that was hard it took me about a hour to learn to do and after we had to try to weld two flat pieces of metal to getter that was hard to bit i figured it out that will not brake very easy.

Brazing

When you are braze you use both hands one to hold the torch and one to hold the brazing rod. When you are brazing first use a paste flux and apply it over the place you are brazing light the torch by turning the acetylene on a little bite and use a striker to ignite it once lit turn the oxygen on slowly making a neutral flame. Heat up the flux and steel in tell the flux get to look watery and add some brazing rod and keep going till done let cool down slowly (do not cool in water) then once it is cooled down turn on hot water and rinse off all the flux and sand it making it look nice.

TIG Welding

In Tig welding you use both hands and a foot to do a weld. One hand is holding the torch while the other hand is feeding the filler rod to the torch the foot pedal is used to control the power of the arc and how long it takes to melt the steel that you are welding. Tig welding is not as easy as it looks it could take months if not years to perfect. You have to have somewhat good hand eye coordination to do a good straight bead.There are lot of shapes and sizes of Tig welders and prices ranging from $450 to $5000+.

Bike Frame Building 101 frame alignment and welding

Here is a step by step of alignment and welding of a frame:
                                              
1. BB/ DT  weld /align                                    Abbreviations :
2. Tig Tack frame in jig                                   DT Down tube
3. Weld HT/ TT                                             TT Top tube
4. Weld ST/ BB                                             ST Seat tube
5. Align DT and ST to BB                              HT Head tube
6. Align HT/ ST                                              BB bottom bracket
7. Weld DT/ ST                                             CS Chane stays
8. Align HT/ ST                                              SS Seat stays
9. Weld TT/ ST                                        
10. Align HT/ ST
11. Weld CS
12. "Face and chase" BB
13. Align DT and ST to BB
14. Align HT/ ST
15. Align HT/ ST/ CS
16. Braze CS bridge tube
17. Align CS
18. Weld dropouts
19. Weld SS
20. Align dropouts
21. Braze SS bridge tube
22. Align dropouts
DONE