Originally Posted by
Doug Fattic
The number of people that already have or can afford the equipment to make a frame successfully with through axles and disc mounts is small.
I'm pleased to say that I have figured out how to do both these things with only basic equipment
You can buy rear dropouts with caliper mounts already on them, which is easy (easier than canti bosses actually). But I have also made a disk fork. I built the wheel up, put the caliper where it needed to be, and tacked it there.
Thru-axles are definitely a challenge but my last 5 frames (which weren't thru-axle) didn't need any dropout filing. I fixture the rear end just with bits of metal clamped to the table and check it with a laser level. I put the CS on before the front triangle to make this easier to work with.
Once you have CS and ST that defines the centre-plane, and it's then easy to fixture the HT to be in that plane. Otherwise, if you do the HT first, you have to fixture the CS to put the rear axle where it needs to be. This is harder (for me) because you've got to juggle two CS at once and support the whole rest of the frame.