Go Back  Bike Forums > Bike Forums > Framebuilders
Reload this Page >

Homemade Frame Jig Build Thread

Notices
Framebuilders Thinking about a custom frame? Lugged vs Fillet Brazed. Different Frame materials? Newvex or Pacenti Lugs? why get a custom Road, Mountain, or Track Frame? Got a question about framebuilding? Lets discuss framebuilding at it's finest.

Homemade Frame Jig Build Thread

Old 01-04-13, 10:27 PM
  #1  
e.din
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 12
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Homemade Frame Jig Build Thread

First, follow me here for more extensive coverage:
fixedin.tumblr.com

Currently in the process of machining my own frame jig out of 1/2" 6061 and thought I'd share with you all. Trying to make a lightweight jig so it doesn't flex from the weight of its own arms... SolidWorks analysis says I'm good, but won't find out until I actually build a frame.






Attached Images
File Type: jpg
Frame1.JPG (28.1 KB, 13 views)
File Type: jpg
Front.JPG (37.5 KB, 11 views)
File Type: jpg
Rear.JPG (30.7 KB, 12 views)
File Type: jpg
With Frame 2.JPG (36.9 KB, 11 views)
File Type: jpg
With frame.JPG (40.1 KB, 13 views)
File Type: jpg
IMG_0025.jpg (91.0 KB, 19 views)

Last edited by e.din; 01-05-13 at 04:31 PM.
e.din is offline  
Old 01-04-13, 10:33 PM
  #2  
e.din
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 12
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
More pics



Attached Images
File Type: jpg
IMG_0043.jpg (76.5 KB, 7 views)
e.din is offline  
Old 01-04-13, 10:34 PM
  #3  
e.din
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 12
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Also if you're wondering how I have access to all this machinery and haven't built a frame yet...I'm a third year engineering student. Figure I better build myself a jig while I have access to all this machinery
e.din is offline  
Old 01-05-13, 12:21 AM
  #4  
99Klein 
Senior Member
 
99Klein's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: Lincoln Nebraska
Posts: 1,088

Bikes: 99 Klein Quantum, 2012 Cannondale CAAD10 5, Specialized Tarmac Comp, Foundry Thresher, Fuji Sportif

Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 98 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 1 Time in 1 Post
SWEET! Looks good.
99Klein is offline  
Old 01-05-13, 05:59 AM
  #5  
ftwelder
Senior Member
 
ftwelder's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: vermont
Posts: 3,091

Bikes: Many

Mentioned: 8 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 5 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 10 Times in 10 Posts
That is some cool stuff. It will be light and portable. I have made many frame fixtures but all were for specific production frames, not universal types. Can you do all wheel sizes?

I would not remove as much material for durability if nothing else.

Off topic, I have always thought thumbs like you have with a few extra degrees of articulation are cool. Perhaps it's a more evolved design. mine only bend 70 degrees or so at that knuckle.
ftwelder is offline  
Old 01-05-13, 11:46 AM
  #6  
Live Wire 
Framebuilder
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 570
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 8 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
You'll want to make the rear dropout holder adjustable for different hub spacings and dropout thicknesses.

that thumb is freakin me out though!
Live Wire is offline  
Old 01-05-13, 12:16 PM
  #7  
calstar 
Senior Member
 
calstar's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: santa barbara CA
Posts: 1,115
Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 96 Post(s)
Liked 30 Times in 21 Posts
Originally Posted by e.din
Also if you're wondering how I have access to all this machinery and haven't built a frame yet...I'm a third year engineering student. Figure I better build myself a jig while I have access to all this machinery
Very cool, you get to build a jig and get credit for school. A few questions: What school do you attend? What mill are you useing? Do you have time limitations on how much you can use the machines or is it an "open lab" situation? Are all the machines cnc or are there any manual ones? I'm looking forward to watching your project proceed, thanks for posting here.

Brian
__________________
Brian
calstar is offline  
Old 01-05-13, 01:12 PM
  #8  
e.din
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 12
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Originally Posted by ftwelder
Can you do all wheel sizes?

I would not remove as much material for durability if nothing else.
What do you mean by all wheel sizes? Probably only going to be building frames sized for 700c wheels, but depending on how this all turns out, I have a few friends who want to do a 29er frame on it. And regarding the cutouts, I'm just a little concerned about having all that extra weight on the moving parts. I'll try it and see what happens.

Originally Posted by Live Wire
You'll want to make the rear dropout holder adjustable for different hub spacings and dropout thicknesses.
Put some time into thinking about this and I totally agree. I'm working with two other guys on this project and we're all using the same droupouts and spacing and considering the dropout holder took us 30 minutes to turn, we figure it'll be fine for the first round. We can always improve...

Originally Posted by calstar
Very cool, you get to build a jig and get credit for school. A few questions: What school do you attend? What mill are you useing? Do you have time limitations on how much you can use the machines or is it an "open lab" situation? Are all the machines cnc or are there any manual ones?
Actually we aren't getting credit for school. The machine shop staff loves when people come in with personal projects so we're fortunate enough to pursue hobbies on the school's equipment. Mills are ProtoTRAK SMX and lathes are ProtoTRAK SLX. CNC, so we just load up a dxf and we're good to go. These machines are less than a year old, but we also have one old bridgeport manual...but it doesn't get much use. Even if we use the prototraks for hand done stuff it's easier than setting it up in that old bridgeport. no limitations on machine use...any time between 8 and 4:30, but classes will get preference over us if there's a space issue. I go to school in New Hampshire
e.din is offline  
Old 01-05-13, 02:04 PM
  #9  
calstar 
Senior Member
 
calstar's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: santa barbara CA
Posts: 1,115
Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 96 Post(s)
Liked 30 Times in 21 Posts
Originally Posted by e.din
.....The machine shop staff loves when people come in with personal projects so we're fortunate enough to pursue hobbies on the school's equipment. Mills are ProtoTRAK SMX and lathes are ProtoTRAK SLX. CNC, so we just load up a dxf and we're good to go. These machines are less than a year old, but we also have one old bridgeport manual...but it doesn't get much use. Even if we use the prototraks for hand done stuff it's easier than setting it up in that old bridgeport. no limitations on machine use...any time between 8 and 4:30,


Lucky you!
__________________
Brian
calstar is offline  
Old 01-09-13, 07:28 PM
  #10  
e.din
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 12
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
More machining...we've been tearing through the 0.5" aluminum in one pass. 1/4" single flute bit running at 5000rpm. feed speed is 5 inches/min.

Another shameless plug for my blog: fixedin.tumblr.com




e.din is offline  
Old 01-10-13, 08:49 PM
  #11  
calstar 
Senior Member
 
calstar's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: santa barbara CA
Posts: 1,115
Mentioned: 1 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 96 Post(s)
Liked 30 Times in 21 Posts
Your jig is looking really great, and what a treat to use the machines in the lab. I copied this pic from your blog, I like it a lot.

__________________
Brian
calstar is offline  
Old 01-10-13, 08:51 PM
  #12  
e.din
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 12
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Hah, yeah thanks! That was actually just a screwup in SolidWorks...I'm not sure why it defined the ground like that, but it's definitely and interesting rendering
e.din is offline  
Old 01-11-13, 05:08 PM
  #13  
Gdogpdx
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Portland, Oregon
Posts: 51
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Looks great. I will be your first customer, how do I place my order?!
Gdogpdx is offline  
Old 01-11-13, 05:13 PM
  #14  
e.din
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 12
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Hah absolutely. Make us an offer
e.din is offline  
Old 01-12-13, 04:05 PM
  #15  
seankanary
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Tempe, AZ
Posts: 100
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 2 Times in 2 Posts
I'd be curious what the pricepoint is on that ... In my experience, that amount of 6061 is hella expensive =/ sure looks purdy though
seankanary is offline  
Old 01-12-13, 04:14 PM
  #16  
e.din
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 12
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
The 6061 actually wasn't as expensive as I would have thought. I think it came out to something like $200 for all the 6061. Doesn't include hardware and adjustable handles, etc. I would put that at another $50 for metal adjustable handles and all hardware. I think we have something like 20 hours of work into it, but we also weren't the most efficient in the beginning. Programming the dxf into the machines takes a bit of time as does setup and actual running of the program.

I have no idea what my time's worth. But $250 in materials plus 20 hours of work if I were to do it again. I'll sell it to you for $750.
e.din is offline  
Old 01-12-13, 04:26 PM
  #17  
seankanary
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Tempe, AZ
Posts: 100
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 2 Times in 2 Posts
Sheesh man, if I had 750 beans, Id buy that in a heartbeat! ..........unless you want to trade for some artwork, that's about all I have lol
seankanary is offline  
Old 01-12-13, 04:30 PM
  #18  
e.din
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 12
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
I'll take a pass...but thanks anyway! haha.

Our options were an Anvil (not really an option, let's be honest), a piece of plywood (good for a couple frames? if that?) or developing our own. All the CAD work actually took more time than all the machining, but whatever I wouldn't charge for that because I benefited from it too.
e.din is offline  
Old 01-12-13, 04:37 PM
  #19  
seankanary
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Tempe, AZ
Posts: 100
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 2 Times in 2 Posts
Originally Posted by e.din
I'll take a pass...but thanks anyway! haha.

Our options were an Anvil (not really an option, let's be honest), a piece of plywood (good for a couple frames? if that?) or developing our own. All the CAD work actually took more time than all the machining, but whatever I wouldn't charge for that because I benefited from it too.
Hah, no worries lol.

Have you built a frame with it yet or are you still finishing the build?
seankanary is offline  
Likes For seankanary:
Old 01-12-13, 04:42 PM
  #20  
e.din
Junior Member
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 12
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
Need to drill and tap a few mounting holes and wait for all our hardware to come in but we should be done early next week. Kinda got distracted by other activities this week, but next week we'll spend it using the jig to practice brazing and hopefully make any design adjustments before using it for our actual frames.
e.din is offline  
Old 01-12-13, 04:45 PM
  #21  
seankanary
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Tempe, AZ
Posts: 100
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 2 Times in 2 Posts
Right on, keep us posted
seankanary is offline  
Old 01-12-13, 07:53 PM
  #22  
Gdogpdx
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Portland, Oregon
Posts: 51
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts
At $750 I think we could have a deal...of course I'm sure my wife feels differently...
Gdogpdx is offline  
Old 01-12-13, 09:13 PM
  #23  
seankanary
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Tempe, AZ
Posts: 100
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 2 Times in 2 Posts
Originally Posted by Gdogpdx
At $750 I think we could have a deal...of course I'm sure my wife feels differently...
Story of my life....
seankanary is offline  
Old 01-13-13, 09:46 AM
  #24  
unterhausen
Randomhead
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Happy Valley, Pennsylvania
Posts: 24,364
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4 Post(s)
Liked 3,664 Times in 2,497 Posts
Sorry to have to intervene, but discussions of commerce are always off topic, so let's leave it at that.

If you really were to start selling these the machine shop supervisor would probably get very interested in a negative way.

Engineering method of estimating price for a sustainable business: take your fixed costs and multiply by 5
material
hardware
machine shop time
Machine shop supplies and incidentals
hourly wage
If you put an honest figure on these you will probably come to something close to what Sputnik/Anvil/Bringhelli/Henry James are charging.
unterhausen is offline  
Old 01-13-13, 09:52 AM
  #25  
Andrew R Stewart 
Senior Member
 
Andrew R Stewart's Avatar
 
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

Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4172 Post(s)
Liked 3,793 Times in 2,272 Posts
Eric- Thanks for this reply. I always have a bit of question when some one is using the capicities of others' investments to profit by (without including the investor in the loop). At work I don't do repairs for friends, charge them $ and then not kick back some to the shop. Actually I long ago gave up working for myself at work, excepting my own bikes of course. Andy.
Andrew R Stewart is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.