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Old 03-13-21, 06:45 PM
  #56  
Andrew R Stewart 
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Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Rochester, NY
Posts: 18,003

Bikes: Stewart S&S coupled sport tourer, Stewart Sunday light, Stewart Commuting, Stewart Touring, Co Motion Tandem, Stewart 3-Spd, Stewart Track, Fuji Finest, Mongoose Tomac ATB, GT Bravado ATB, JCP Folder, Stewart 650B ATB

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The bike is done for now. I blued the frame and fork, applied decals, clear coated and assembled the components. Rode it up and down the street then over our lawn.



I used some bluing, Birchwood Casey's Perma Blue on the suggestion of another hobby builder. I have used Navel Jelly before but it barely darkens the steel. The Perma Blue is significantly darker but the non ferrous metals were affected. I applied the bluing initially with a brush and I think this is a mistake, The stuff dripped down the tubes and where it stayed for a while, and before I could spread it out it stained much darker then the brushed areas. I did a first coating then went back with a paper towel dampened with bluing and tried to even the tints out. In hind sight I suspect the dripping down of bluing and with it some of the steel's color changes is what darkened the brass. If that first coating had been done with a paper towel and the build up/drip down on the joints was wiped off right away the fillets might be brighter. Another aspect to the bluing is the different steels used (Columbus, True Temper, Reynolds along with various mild carbon steels) there is a slight difference to the color the bluing attained. The mono stay has a blue tint and others are more brown.



It all started with this fork. The unicrown style and thus a jig was born. Can you see the small concave relief just under the fork crown? It's to allow access to the race with a punch to remove it. I've suffered too many crown races that were real a pain to begin removing. I did follow the WTB tires' rotation directions but they seem backwards to me. My skills won't challenge their traction much though...



Good image of that blue tint I mentioned. The thread and it's frame images that I got the inspiration to use Perma Blue were much like the monostay here is.



This shot shows both the muddled look to the post bluing fillets (and the pocked surfaces that they have) and the heavy handed spraying of the clear coat. Lots of sagging/drips. Doug Fattic is correct when he postulated that frame painting has a higher skill set then building did.



This seat binder reinforcing collar is something i am somewhat proud of. You start with an idea of something different. Then that morphs as you work the rest of the area, then comes together you hope as some image raises to the top. More cloudy fillet.



The build up kit consists of various themes. No 1X here! 9spd to maintain compatibility with other bikes I have. DT 350 hubs, TRP brakes, Sugino crankset to get less Q, 170 arms and Shimano thread in bearings. Cheap post and take off bars and stem. One of the reasons to blue the frame is because it cost so little to try and will buy me time to ride the bike and make sure I like the build and braze ons before spending the big bucks for a nice wet coat job. My fit will be a work in progress (as well as y fitness) It's been a long time since I spent any real time off road.



It seems that on nearly every frame I do there's that "oh no" moment. With this bike it was the seat stay and rear caliper clearance. I initially mounted the caliper bracket the wrong way and found that the caliper's cable/pad arm contacted the stay, badly. The brain goes through a spin of options and should haves at the same time. perhaps it's maturity or maybe slowing down but in time one explores other possibilities including is the adaptor bracket facing the right way, it wasn't. Still once reversed the stay is still so close to the rearward caliper mounting bolt that hex wrench access is not happening, so a hex headed bolt that uses a box end wrench is used.

I have to say I had quite the travels with this frame/fork. Soon I will figure out if it's a keeper or one more slippery step to the more solid second attempt. Andy
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