Day 2: Lug Shaping and Mitering

Uff... what a long day.

We started off with lug shaping -- essentially filing all the lugs so that the tubes fit into them. For me this was an incredibly quick process -- my Henry James lugs are small and simple, so it didn't take much work. I then moved on to shaping. Again, my lugs are simple, and all I did was centre the points a bit. My filing technique was not superb, but I did eventually get them to the shape I like. (A note about my "character" in the class: I am very clearly the "artsy loser" in the group. Robert is a very experienced bike mechanic with experience fixing airplanes; Dan works in an auto plant. People aren't expecting much from me, and I'm more than happy to very slightly exceed their expectations.)

Robert had a very different experience with his Pacenti lugs. Good lord it took him a long time to get them reamed to the point the tubes fit in. In fact, it took from about 9am to about 5pm. By this time Robert and I were starving and dead tired, though Dan was still rearing to go. Unfortunately this is when the milling and mitering demonstation happened. My stomach was grumbling too loudly to make any of it out. But after a nice big dinner and a lot of caffeine, I was semi-ready to get mitering.

That's was we did starting at about 7.30. My very simple 73/73 parallel frame again made things really easy for me. Though it was pointed out many times how amateurish my filing and hacksawing techniques were, I managed to get my seat tube and top tube mitered before 11.00 (when we finished.) Robert and Dan weren't so lucky. An errant measurement by Dan led to a top tube cut too short and ruined. Robert was still behind from all that reaming, and then had to trade top tubes with the now toptubeless Dan. While all this was going on, I went and did my second top tube miter -- with the wrong cutter. Well, I didn't wreck my top tube anyway. Just nearly did.

That tube is still fixed in the mill, awaiting the beginning of class tomorrow morning...

[More photos here.]