All these bloody framebuilders eh

No problem, I think @coldharbour has a similar positive experience with them so they seem to have a good rep

Love r tech. Have welded about 200 frames on it so far. Has handled steel, ally and ti without issues and they've been great with any issues. Have another fancy digital welder that was supposed to be for sub assemblies, but I hardly use it as I'm just happy on the r tech. Strongly reccomend them as a firm.

Although as above, swap out torch for CK, pedal and the biggest gas lens your monthly outgoing on argon will allow ;)

Welds look good man!

Thanks :)

Ah yeah CK torch helped me a lot, i didnt realise how unwieldy the stock one was until i used the Ck one and was blown away, not super cheap though

@coldharbour @Biggles567 which CK torch did you get?

I have this (https://www.r-techwelding.co.uk/tig-welder-torch-ck9-flexi-head-4m/) one. I like it. Its light and handy and whatnot. Not rated for the full amps of the machine tho, so gotta be slightly wary of that i guess, but i never really weld above about 80-100 amps anyways.
For the last frame i used a N0.8 gas lens, but i'm upping to a 10 or 12 for the next one because it just didn't really get the coverage i wanted, especially in the awkward bits where i needed more stick out.

This is the one I have too. Just bear in mind the flexi head is a consumable. If you start getting mucky welds it's probs the head having split. I've gone through 3 in about 100 frames as a point of reference.

Also, really good thing about CK torches is the hose is seemingly impervious to getting stood on and cutting off the argon, which does happen with cheaper stuff.

Cheers, I'll definitely get one in the future.

Well ive made a bit of progress, made some major improvements to the jig. I machined some new parts at work and they have really improved the stiffness of the whole thing. I also moved the BB support over the axle that the BB/st post pivots about. Meaning its alot easier to set up. I also made a set of heatsinks/supports for the 44mm headtube on the next build.

Ive just placed an order for a few more bits from ceeway, deliberating a bit about the geo. Im wanting the next frame to be an agressive, stiff road crit frame for smashing round hillingdon tuesday night and regents laps. Hoping to double up as a winter road frame as well.

I reckon i might go pretty short chainstays and steep ht/st angle to get it towards track geo. I really like the geo of my mash parallax so leaning towards that, but not so extreme. Also the reach on the cinelli is really low, so might bump that forward a bit.

I really want bikecad but payday is far away...

ill throw up some images of what ive been getting on with

images

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Looks promising dude

thanks :)

well ive made some progess, limited updates for the last few days because i lost my sd card with a load of ph0tos on it.

Ive mitred up the front end, all pretty nice, pretty happy with the tt, super tight. There is a little bit of fettling yet to do but ill start on the chainstays tomorow.

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moar

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Seatstays in :) last will be chainstays, but ive run out of argon and need to weld them to the dropouts before i can mitre them. I probably could just mitre them without welding them first, but id rather not, i think its a lot easier with the dropouts attached.

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Finally sorted out gas, so getting back on the tig. I got some stainless wire which i really like, as well as a no10 cup, which i also really like. So im feeling good behind the torch. Just gotta get on with a few evenings welding practice joints then ill get the front end and maybe chainstays done over the weekend.

stainless wire makes nice colours

photo of recent weld

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finally got round to welding out the front triangle, im pretty happy with it. didnt quite finish it tho as ive still gotta weld out the little section where the Dt and st meet. That shouldnt take too long, though it is a hard bit and a small gap opened up.

Sweet man. Looks awesome.
I need to sort out a method of fitting an axle at the rear of my jig which is nowhere near as comprehensive as yours. How’s yours work?

Thanks :)
My dummy axle holder is bit messy, it uses a ceeway tube block, with a dummy axle that i made that has a bit turned down to the diameter of the tube block so it fits in. Ill take some photos and whack em up in a sec to show it.
It works ok, but is a bit of a pain to remove as you have to undo screws