PicoFahrrad: welded frame

I completed the welding of pF’s frame! Next post should show the assembled frame and front end.

Tubing for the fork came from the chain stays of an old road bike frame. A wedge was cut from the tubing, and then it was bent and welded. The dropouts are 0.188″ steel cutouts inserted in welded into the end of the tubing.

The picture below shows the beginning of a thrown together jig to hold all the tubing correctly for welding. In the end, a lot of it was just eyeballed, but it should be close enough.

The welds got better with time, but the first few were rough.

Tape is a great way to hold things in place for a tack weld, although you have to be sure to clean off the adhesive residue. I would be curious to hear if others have better tricks to do this.

The brackets on the head tube are for strength and decoration. The aluminum piece on the side will eventually screw on to the smaller bracket as a bottle opener. I guess I don’t drink much, but it should be fun to have. I chose a separate aluminum piece so that there would be less chance of damaging the paint on the frame.