Chombi1 

No!....... you don't need no stinkin Hetchins!!

Trakhak

The idea is to apply the air hammer to the underside of the stem or the seat clamp. The air hammer will score the piece you're driving out, but you were going to replace it anyway.

About clamping the frame: you missed my later edit. The problem with clamping the frame in a vise or a heavy stand before using the air hammer is that the vise or stand will absorb too much of the impact, lessening the likelihood that the stem/seatpost will move. One person should hold the frame/fork (loosely, with heavy gloves or such, as far from the point of impact as possible) while the other uses the air hammer under the stem/seatpost. To hammer out a stem, I held the frame by the seat stays while the mechanic held the bars steady with one hand and used the air hammer with the other. For a seatpost, I held the bars and head tube.

polymorphself 

Agreed. Crazy in a good way.

unterhausen

I tried the air hammer trick and I guess my air hammer isn't good enough. I wanted to try to bore it out on a lathe anyway. Unfortunately I ended up ruining the seat tube. Which I then replaced.

cudak888 

Major progress today.

First - a bit of backstory: I was lucky enough to find someone on OfferUp willing to trade their barely-used compressor (didn't really want to shell out even more of my fun money on one) for a couple of e-bike batteries (of which I have more than I'll ever use), so my die grinder finally has a power source again. O

nly took 10 years to sort this out



Beware, all photos to follow purposefully curated to annoy those folks on this forum who can't stand messy work areas.

Existing chainstay stubs were cut short, as close to the BB shell as possible. This took a wee bit of effort on the left side to avoid nicking the cable guide.



Time to grind. For some reason - even when held tight - the carbide bit would occasionally hang on something and cause the tool to oscillate wildly in the hole. Some careful work with the speed regulator and the angle of attack overcame this, for the most part.



Did the right side first (photo above is out of order to tell the story better). I was surprised that it not only went a lot quicker with the current bit I have in the tool, it also came out really nice.



Filing the burrs smooth:



We have fitment!





Any slop will probably be filled in by brass, and the socket edges can always be tapped in a bit (a bit) when they're warm.

Left side came out good too. Note the slight crinkling of paint around the seatpost due to the crash. Soon to be burnt off once the torch is put to the stays.



bulgie helped out by providing a correct 1010 left dropout with an eyelet - THANK YOU!



Next stop will be at Mike's to get it all put together. Should be interesting. I'll take pictures, of course.

-Kurt

52telecaster

I keep looking at framesets in the sub 250 range and think they are too expensive. You're making them look like screaming deals.

scarlson 

If I had a frame that needed chainstays, I'd probably custom make a chainstay crown, or bent stays, to accommodate big tires. But to be fair, I'd also be making my own vertical dropouts with a chainrest and stuff because I have quibbles with every other dropout I've seen! Props for keeping this one original! That is probably harder!

cudak888 

Well, to be fair, a good $250 frameset should be plug-and-play with your component bits, and hopefully have a properly aligned rear triangle.

I'm am amateur at this, so I'm avoiding anything fancy. Plus, I think this Woodrup deserves a second chance in the manner it was originally built. It's a nice, understated custom frameset and deserves a second shot at life.

-Kurt

AdventureManCO 

This is excellent. Please keep going!

cudak888 

Some progress, finally. None directly to the frame as it is, but it's still a lot farther than this frame has been in a while.

First off, polishing up the dropout ends and filing the tab to fit inside the chainstay:



Cutting a slot into the tube to help the file get started:



Filing the chainstay slot open to accommodate the dropout:



Giving the ends a little bevel to match what Woodrup did. Didn't come out perfect, but nothing a bit of extra brass and shaping can't sort out.



All fit with the replacement dropout from bulgie.



Fluxed up. Time for the torch (and someone much more skilled than I to wield it):



Mike doing what he does best.



All joined up. Obviously, not prettied up yet, but there are no voids here, and that's how it's supposed to be.





Mike grinding the brass out of the seatstay. Would have done it myself, but I was re-wrapping his bars while he was doing this.

cudak888 

Yes, I did it top-down. That's the way he had it. If it's good enough for Eddy...



Test fit and looking good:



The phoenix is slowly rising from the ashes...



Actual brazing to the frame will have to wait for a little longer. Then we'll brace the chainstays together and attempt to straighten out the bent bit on the right side.

-Kurt

cudak888 

Minimal progress as of today, but progress nonetheless.

First off, this whole idea of bridging the seatstays didn't work, though most of that is on me for leaving those scrapes of steel in the recesses I filed out.



Mike tacking them in with silver. Good thing it'll be easy to melt off.



I tried a few ways to wrestle with this, but finally realized the only way was to clamp that sucker of a (admittedly already trash) dropout in the vise and apply some very careful force to the seatstay.



After some bending, repositioning, and the silver tacks on the bridge becoming less than useful:



Good enough for government work, I'd say.





-Kurt

AdventureManCO 

You know, I've been hearing this a lot, myself, lately.

I'd be concerned, but concern was thrown out long ago.

THIS, on the other hand, is very cool, and reminds me to ask you a question. How do you juggle this, the Moulton, the Bianchi, and any other host of things I don't know that are going on but probably are?


The Huffy is a black hole.

cudak888 

Moulton is done except for the racks, nothing has happened with the Bianchi other than measuring a few things (I've literally spent more time reading bulgie - the bike just sits in the stand right now), and I took three weeks off the '57 Triumph before I came back to it.

I've done nothing on Blasptwenty, or the '36 Sports from nlerner, or the '70s DL-1 frame from thumpism (Mike and I did try pulling the fork blades, but the nails are still in the way), or the '56 DL-5.

I did some minor work on the '52 Sports for a show a few weeks ago but it still needs the correct brake lever clamp bolt, and the '50 Superbe still needs the front fender tabbed washer and me to get off my duff and finish the front brake cable housing. The '46 Humber needs the factory spot welds on the rear fender cut off with a rotabroach and re-spotted because they're that off, and I do NOT want to think about that job for a while.

Oh, and there's this Woodrup. Mike does the brazing, so that's one task off my shoulders! I'm in charge of surface prep and slotting stays though.

It honestly takes longer to write these posts and constantly come up with witty woolsheet for the Huffy thread

-Kurt