Custom Orlowski Workhorse

Skandowski...that's got a certain ring to it haha think I'm just gonna leave it graphic free though. I was thinking of making a head badge for it...maybe the Ł cut from stainless steel as a nod to Jacek.

I got it welded up today at lunch. Stoked to get it done!

The track ends are pretty beat up and rusty and I have some stainless faces I can braze on to keep them looking tidy in future

However I've been advised against using them as you can get wheel slip because the nuts can't bite into the hard surface of the stainless dropout face. Anyone got experience of this?

Since I'm running a Phil hub, which has a smooth washer on the outside but a knurled female axel on the inside, I was thinking of putting one on the outside of the dropout where it can be seen and leaving the inside bare

How about knurling the outside faces of the stainless steel dropouts?

There are plenty track frames with stainless dropouts, non?

Absolutely. The stiffness of the bulk material won't be noticeably different between alloys, but the stiffness of the assembly will be - sometimes quite so - when tubing shape and size varies. And a stronger and tougher material allows bigger and therefore stiffer tubes with thin walls, this being a decent weight too.

Comments about thicker walls at joints for ease of welding in mass production environments aside, of course...

My project: I'm having a local builder create a replacement for my cross check, with some variations to geo and a few personalised touches. He's not got an online presence so I'll not throw names around here for the moment.

This thread is pretty amazing.

Any updates on this?
Just spent the better part of my morning reading through it. Great read!

Yep, great thread.

Subscribed!

I’m about to start a new project so thought I’d drop in and update this before getting a new thread going

Where were we?

Brazing on dropout faces and bottle bosses

Clean:

Hot:

and after a quick clean up:

I'd asked the painter to just do something quick and low key for me - like just matte black
a. because he'd done me a lot of personal jobs
b. it's an everyday bike that will be used, abused and left locked up

then a few days later he sidled up to me and said "would you be up for me doing that blue/purple flip fading through black cherry to metallic black at the dropouts"...."Yes Euan, you crack right on!"

There was a quick discussion about the graphics...black, white, silver or pink...

In the booth:

Man absolutely smashed it! And despite the amazing quality and effect this was actually the quickest frame that ever got painted in my time at Shand

Hottttttt

Oh my

Lightstand foot fail.

Not jealous, honest.

Too nice to lock up now ;)

Very tidy, paint looks amazing in close up

great paintjob, great bike

Amazing!

That turned out really nice! Awesome paint

Just being lazy

Yeah, I’ve just had to embrace the damage. Now it’s dirty and scratched it blends in a lot better

@Big_Ted @russmeyer @kjlem thanks guys

I forgive you

Paint's taken a bit of a beating