Weekend Progress

I went away for the weekend, and the boys made some excellent progress without me.

First they finished up the hole for the neck and welded the neck into place, straight and secure:

Then they used the Harbor Freight tubing bender:

to bend the frame rails up in the rear. There were some tricky moments while they made sure that both of the bends started in the position and ended up at the same angle.

After that they welded in the wheel bearings, and put the rear wheel on to the axle:

We still need to cut off the extra length of axle, and we also need to machine a keyway down the entire length so that we can mount the wheel, the sprocket, and the disc brake on the axle.

Take a step back, and voila:

I must say, this is really starting to take shape. It is actually beginning to looks like a chopper. To you it may look like 5 simple pieces of pipe with a couple of bends, but to me this is a ton of fun, a skill-building exercise, a platform for critical thought combined with hands-on experience, and something that Stephen, Andy, and I will remember for a very long time to come.

The next week should be very interesting. Stay tuned for the next episode.

By the way, please leave a comment if you are following our little project…