Construction
This project would not have got beyond the theoretical without serious help from an extremely able friend of mine. It’s his workshop where much of the construction will take place, and it’s his welding expertise, gear and patience that’s making it all possible.
So, that fork came together nicely:
Then on to the frame. Though oxy-acetylene welding is slower than the electric arc approach I really like the relative quiet and ‘calm':
You get totally absorbed in the small puddle of molten steel 12″ from your face. Making it do what you want takes lots of practice, and I haven’t done this stuff since college. It’s challenging and fun and I’m learning a lot – here’s a sample of my work:
A vast amount of heat gets dumped into the workpiece and things cool down slowly. Because I did lots of prep there was usually another thing to work on while the previous piece was cooling. After some trial and adjustment, we had a mostly complete back end:
Add the seat tabs, then the seat and a wheel:
The front end should come together quite easily now. Here’s a clamped-together good approximation:
It should have been obvious all along but it’s only just sinking in. This is going to be a long ride.