Custom lots-of-titanium Brompton

Can I move in?

Can we all move in?

Fixed.

Dayum. In my dining room I'm forced to harbour a sideboard full of crystal glassware and a walnut table with a vase of flowers on it. What sort of existence is this??!

Ace project.

My living room has some reproduction sixties furniture, a plant pot and a selection of reading paraphernalia.

I think I'd get a funny look if I tried to bring a lathe in here.

I might get away with it.

It's in the dining room, along with the milling machine, pillar drill and TIG welder...

If I take a sandwich in, can I call the garage a dining room?

36/18 also has a ludicrously well fitted out workshop in his apartment.

Another interesting build. I do love it when proper engineers come out of the woodwork on here.

Wouldn't they be carpenters?

wtf. pics pretty please. I'd love to live like that. I think.

Ask and ye shall receive. I have to admit, it doesn't work all that well as a dining room any more.

Lathe, TIG welder, bench vice and for some reason the air-powered riveter which really ought to be in the garage. On the other side of the room:

Milling machine and pillar drill. There's also a bench grinder just out of shot.

Needless to say, my GF doesn't approve. She prefers gas welding to TIG, and claims there's no artistry to TIG welding.

Impressively tidy - I'd need to do a serious amount of 'rationalizing' before letting anyone see mine...

Impressively tidy - I'd need to do a serious amount of 'rationalizing' before letting anyone see mine...

I did have a wee tidy up before I took the photos. Swept up about 5 litres of swarf off the floor for starters...

Oh nice! id love to have equipment like that and umm do stuff with.

holy jesus that's a setup to make any man's knees weak.

More Brompton pics, I want to see wheel set up, cockpit config and sticker placement (if any)

That is incredible.

Have to say I never had a problem with the Hope nuts, I had the bolt on one of the bolted versions of those clamps snap while tightening once but never stripped the nut.

Needless to say, my GF doesn't approve. She prefers gas welding to TIG, and claims there's no artistry to TIG welding.

Hilarious :-D

My original plan was to shift the existing 53t chainring onto the inside position and have a chainguard cut from a large bit of titanium sheet I had, and to bolt that in the outside chainring position. However, as was pointed it it's probably best not to use a chainring designed to be used with a front derailleur in this instance, so I bought a Miche 52t 135mm BCD chainring. One problem solved.

The second problem arose because it turned out I'd already used the large bit of titanium I was going to have the chainguard made out of. And it occurred to me that using titanium for a chainguard is overkill. So I thought that instead I'd get one laser or water cut from a sheet of ali. However, SWMBO pointed out that there are already bits of ali cut into roughly the right shape which are commercially available. They're called chainrings, and all I'd have to do is machine the teeth off a nice big chainring.

So I also got a 61t TA chainring. Unfortunately it was a bit big to fit in the lathe (it'd fit on the faceplate but some weird and wonderful tooling would be required to actually turn it down) so instead I used the milling machine and a rotary table:

It was a bit of a swine getting the chainring true on the rotary table, but in the end I decided that run-out of 0.15mm was close enough. I had intended to put a radius on the outside edge using a radius cutter in the milling machine, but without making up a reasonably sturdy base plate to bolt the chainring down onto, it was impossible to keep it sufficiently flat to allow the radius cutter to give a decent finish. So instead I went old school and put the radius on the outer edge with files, emery paper and polish. The finish isn't perfect by any means, if you look closely, but anyone inspecting the chainguard on a Brompton closely probably needs to get a life. That includes me. Here it is in all its glory:

Next step, wheels. But that's going to require some engineering too, as my DIY wheel truing stand isn't really designed for 16" wheels...

I really like this project! I only tried a brompton once briefly but i liked it for what it is. This one is going to be abit more luxurious tho!

Excellent work!

Is there a proper name for milling machine envy ?

The best I can do comes from Workshop Practice No.5.

This whole thread is making me envious. What rims do you have in mind?

Velocity Aeroheats. There's a totally mad option for some 'summer use only' wheels, but that's very speculative at the moment.

Is all of the dining room gear just for bike projects or is there some other cottage industry going on?

It's mostly used for making car components rather than bike stuff. I also build cars in my spare time.

this looks really smart