Day 5--One week down!

Today I think the instructors realized we didn't have much done so they let us work all morning without a demo! It was great because I got my dropouts brazed on and they looked pretty cool. When you don't fill the sides completely with brass it looks kind of cool and there is a gap where typically it would look flat. Ron said it was called a "french style" braze so I decided to keep it this way. Here is my cool brazed chainstay! I used Paragon track dropouts that Ron suggested because there were so many choices and I know nothing about dropouts other than they hold your wheel in place! I am making a single speed bike but might put a derailleur on at some point so I picked the appropriate fixture. On the non drive side is a bottle opener. Many guys like to put them on so they can have a beer while riding! I figured this would be a cool thing to have at a cross race since they give out beer on the run ups! :)

The day felt much more productive and right before the afternoon lecture I actually got my fork ready to braze. First I had to rake the fork in this machine that sort of reminds me of those aluminum can crushers. :) Basically it curves the blade of the fork to a certain angle. In the photo below you can see that I had to pull it down with all my strength and hang on it to get it where I wanted. After that I set it up in the jig and got ready to braze it.

All in all it was a good day and I got a reasonable amount done. I brought some files and my lugs home with me to get them shaped over the weekend and hopefully save a lot of time in class on Monday.

Ariel and I went for a 34 mile bike ride on the bike path and it was nice and relaxing though I felt a bit sore from last night and exhausted from lack of sleep. It will be really nice not to have to wake up for class tomorrow though we are going to Crater Lake for the day which is supposed to be spectacular. We plan to ride the rim road all the way around. It is a 34 mile loop and there is still quite a bit of snow from what I hear. It starts at over 6,000 feet elevation and goes to almost 8,000 I think. It should be a great adventure and I hear the lake is a super blue color!

This is my work station. It will be nice to get away from it for a while! Stay tuned for more updates. Again, thanks for reading. This blogging thing is sort of fun. :)