Kumo Cycles: Custom Bike Frames

Stainless badge polished to within an inch of its life

This week I quit one of my jobs... In order to get enough time to ramp up the frame building to 3-4 days a week.
So of course out with the files, out with the brazing rod and the flame and on with the job.

After 1 long days work, a complete front triangle complete with stainless steel "kumo" head badge.
On the right is what kept me going all day, like the proverbial carrot-on-a-stick waved in front of a donkeys nose.
Damn it tasted good though when I knew I had earn't it.

Well for those of you watching at home, I think it is time for an update.
It may not look like things are happening on the site (because they are not..) but the frame building is going off like a frog in a sock in the real world.
Since setting up the website I have tooled out TWO separate workshops, one in my garage at home, and one in a large industrial building in the town that I grew up in, Braidwood which is one hour away from my home.
The reasoning behind this is that I want to work in two separate processes and want to keep them physically (and mentally) separated.
The workshop at home has my TIG welding equipment and is set up as a very clean environment to ensure that there is low chance of contamination in the welding process, as grime, grease and muck can compromise the strength of welds.
The Braidwood workshop contains my Oxy Acetylene bottles and torch and is set up for brazing, this is where I am building lugged and fillet brazed frames as the greasy acetylene smoke can settle on any surfaces and not get in the way of any TIG welding.
It seems to me that the brazing rig feels more at home in the quiet country town, a stones throw away from Sunningdale, the farm I grew up on. Brazing is slower and (relatively) more relaxing than TIG welding and suits this bucolic backdrop.