The_Joe

Forgive me while I get a bit long winded. You can just look at the pictures.

In August I was in an accident at work and dislocated my right shoulder. I haven't been on a bike since and I still don't know for sure if I'll need surgery. The timing of this all meant I'd spend my 38th birthday in a sling and hope to have enough strength and stability back for the birth of my second child (I did). It gave me the great idea that I'd finally build up a nice new bike, just as I want it, and use it to ride.my first century before I turn 40. So begins my long term project.

A search was underway and very quicklyjdawginsc reached out with an offer for his mystery Losa built Cassani. It arrived safely. My son was pleased, as was I. It fit my particularly imparticular criteria of "Italian, Columbus, needs paint."



Anyone familiar with previous threads about this bike may recall the fixed cup was... Fixed. So I got that out with the help of a tig welder.


Chemical stripper only got me so far so I will be taking the frame in to be sand blasted. Here's how she looks at the moment.


Currently I'm home from work thanks to NY state's generous PFL and since Rochester hasn't found out it's spring yet, I've got time for inside projects. Instead of building the playset for my son that I had originally planned on, I built a wheel truing stand. If I'm going to build wheels I should have a truing stand right? Not really. But if I'm going to have one I might as well build it, right? Also not really. BUT I have the time. And more importantly I'm terrified that I won't see a lot of this through. Forcing myself to build the stand is more for the mental benefit of having an idea and completing it. So. I armed myself with junk from the house, grabbed some tools and got right down to my usual tactic of loose plans and arbitrary measurements. Then I built a truing stand. Well, two. The first one was poorly assembled MDF and it broke when I dropped it. So here's version 2.0!


The rims should arrive this week and then some slow progress my follow. I've currently built more truing stands than I have wheels.

For the rest of the project:
Full Shimano R7000
Miche Primato hubs with Ambrosio Excellight rims (because I can't entirely disgrace the nice Italian frame)
Paint will happen when the weather warms up.
​​​​​​

BTinNYC 

Nice frame, and with all the braze-ons. 👍
Have you wrapped the paint remover goop with saran wrap?

Reynolds 

Looks like a nice frame.
About the fixed cup removal, I've seen it used successfully, but I think it works more because of the heat rather than by providing a sure way to hold the cup.

The_Joe

I have. It worked very well but not quite well enough. The weather also forces me inside and it just makes such a mess in the small area of the house I have to work in.

The_Joe

​​​​​I'm sure you're right. If remember correctly there was a cheater bar on the wrench just for the very first turn and then it was more cooperative.

jdawginsc 

Yay! The fixed cup came out! That was a bear, and I sort of gave up. Great stick-to-itive-ness!

Piff 

Not too long winded at all! I love a lengthy thread

Has all the earmarks of a wonderful build, can't wait to see how it comes out.

The_Joe

My rims arrived yesterday so I poured some coffee, cued up Bike Gremlin's wheel build video and got to work. The first 16 spokes were fine... I stayed up last night trying to finish it off but the dish was a mess and I couldn't get all of the spokes to reach on the final side. I'm going to give it another go later today, hoping the spokes are long enough. DT Swiss and Pro Wheel Builder both gave the same measurements based on Miche and Ambrosio's data. I guess we'll see.
Aanyway, here's a picture from when I thought things were going smoothly.

eeuuugh

It sounds like there's an error in your lacing, and I have an idea what it might be. Looking at the two spoke heads circled in this picture:

The upper spoke looks to be counterclockwise of the lower spoke at the hub, but clockwise of the lower spoke at the rim. So the upper spoke has a much shorter distance from hub to rim than the lower spoke. If you keep lacing from here, some spokes will seem way too short, and others will seem long.

The_Joe

Thank you!!! I never would have figured that out in my own. This is why I love the community.
The front wheel is now laced, looking correct, and all ready for tension and truing.

jackbombay

Good to see you got your wheel sorted! I have built maybe 20 wheels in my life, enough to be fairly comfortable, but certainly not enough to not make mistakes, but I have concluded that if I simply pull up sheldon brown's wheel building page and follow it while lacing, I never make mistakes, its a very well written page!

sd5782 

I’ve only done a few wheels, but I cheat and have a laced one nearby to use as a guide. If I did it more often, maybe I wouldn’t need this crutch.

The_Joe

Quick query for any experts reading along. I've got my wheels trued up and tensioned. Plucking them is closer to a B than an A. My cheap tension meter shows most of the spokes around 160kg (I think that's what it's reading). My tension chart doesn't go any higher than that for 1.8 butted spokes. Are these over tensioned? Am I at any great risk?

Thanks.

The_Joe

A brief follow up: the front wheel has been laced. My earlier problem was due to poor calculations/short spokes.

I was able to do a quick test spray on the fork. First time using liquid masking. This seemed like an easy, low stakes situation to try the masking and also get familiar with pain flow. I will have to remask before clear. Maybe clean up the color a bit too. The negative space will be filled with the second frame color but I'm not sure at what point in the process I should do that.

jdawginsc 

Ooo...there was some good stuff under that paint. The pantos and cutouts look great.