Back from Powder Coat
Last week I picked up the bicycle frame from the powder coater and I was quite pleased with the end result. I was expecting the thickness of the powder coat to cover up a lot of the detail in the lugs, but the tan color actually worked in favor of the details. It created a contrast between the shadows at the edge of the lugs that really helped the lug stand out.
The powder coat had a couple of small surface imperfections, but you would have to be looking for them to find them in my opinion. And upon closer inspection of the bicycle, I was able to find some spots that were out of alignment by several millimeters, but it would be hard to spot them unless I pointed them out. So I won’t.
All in all, I am still very pleased with the frame for a first time attempt. I’ve been busy researching other frame builders’ methods and looking at pictures of shop setups. I’m starting to get an idea of what tools I will buy and what methods I would change for my next attempt, but am sure I will have even more ideas after the second bicycle frame and so on.
I would also be interested in possibly sharing tools and shop space with another builder in or around San Francisco. Since I work full-time, there would be a lot of idle time when I would not be using the tools. Just throwing that out there.
I took a few more picture and posted them on Flickr.
Tags: framebuilding
December 23rd, 2009 at 12:45 pm
How do you do chrome lugs and chainstays and chromed head tube lugs? I think chrome really makes a bike.
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I think there are two main ways to get chrome lugs, braze-ons, etc.
You can dip the entire bike in chrome and mask off areas during painting. That way in addition to chrome lugs you can have chrome exposed in the tubes and braze-ons. I believe this is what was done on some classic bike frames. Although this entails bringing a frame to a chrome plater in addition to a painter.
The other option is using stainless steel lugs and braze-ons and doing lots of polishing. Stainless steel will polish to a high luster and that’s probably what you see on a more modern lugged bike frame. I have yet to use stainless, but I hear it’s more difficult to work with and that polishing takes a LONG time. I would like to try stainless at some point because it adds bling.
June 23rd, 2010 at 3:15 pm
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