I'm planning on building my own frame.

But you're having someone else weld it? Exactly what part of "building it" are you doing?

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"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."

I've never done it but woudl be curious about a couple things.

"Tubes reasonable priced"
What are you looking at as far as tubes, anything online?

"The only real cost seems to be the fixturing and welding, which I would have a welder do."
Yeh that would be the major cost, have you looked into that? If you're gonna have a non bike builder do it it will probably cost you a shit load more than just having someone do a fulll on custom Ti frame for you, unless you have an in with a good welder. Making the fixture will probably be more expensive than the rest of everything else put together. Also if you're gonna have someone else make the fixture, weld up the frame....what exactly are you gonna do?

~Matt

Yeah, I guess your right. I'm not actually building it, just designing/laying out the tubing (length, diameter, etc.) I wouldn't trust myself with a weld joints.

Why? What do you know about selecting tubes and designing geometry? (Maybe a lot, it just isn't clear from your posts...) This project could end up being a costly mistake. Just curious as to what prompted it.

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"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

Check out this blog I've been following and maybe rethink your plans unless you have lots of time to spare...

http://handmadebikes.blogspot.com/

pete

Just keep in mind welding ti is not for beginners. Read the tech section of Litespeed's site for some details on how they do this.

Unless you have some decent engineering equipment in your garage, and the knowledge to use it, you will not be able to do anything but draw some pretty pictures of frames and watch, even material specifications are limited.

Mitering titanium tubing is very very exacting job, the elasticity of 6/4 and 3/2.5 titanium makes is there must be no material contamination and little or no gaps between the jointed materials to be welded.

Welding titanium is even more exacting, a decent jig and fittings to plug the tubing so the frame can be 'filled' with argon frior to welding.

You can order materials and find a frame builder through Nova Cycles in CA.

http://www.novacycles.com

I remember an article MANY years ago (don't remember which mag -- maybe Winning or even VeloNews) talking about frame building, and the jig itself wasn't THAT expensive (yes, more than a frame, but it was adjustable, so you could use the one jig to make MANY configurations). If you're toying with configurations, I'd say to get the jig, and some cheap aluminum tubing (or maybe steel) and play with the angles until you get a geometry that you like, and THEN try it out on ti. Could save you $$ inthe long run. And you could even go to some local VocTech college and learn the welding yourself, maybe make a few frames for others... Pay for that jig.

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Some are born to move the world to live their fantasies...

https://triomultisport.com/
http://www.mjolnircycles.com/

I built a tandem from two single frames this year, and I have been toying with the idea of doing a titanium frame myself. I am an experienced welder and machinist, but I still have reservations about working with titanium and the cost of mistakes, as I'm not an experienced bicycle frame-builder.

In fact, I've made the decision that a steel frame will fulfill my needs. You can build a steel frame that's sub-3lbs, the tubing costs perhaps $100-150, and no need to backpurge. This gets you the custom geometry that presumably is prompting this exercise, with lesser cost, and perhaps a 1/4 to 1/2 lb weight penalty. My goal is to replicate the geometry of my current cheap, heavy road bike (which fits me well). I'll swap some parts over, buy a few lighter parts (carbon fork, better crankset) and come up with a 18-19 lb, durable, comfortable road bike.

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Kendall Frederick

Orange Park, FL

Wow, you guys are brave and rich. I think you could TIG or lug up a frame and have a pretty low average quality bike if the frame was reasonaby straight. If you have access to a machine shop you might be able to get the miters down pretty close to tolerent. To weld Ti you also need argon gas flowing to avoid contamination by O2. Ti from what I understand is pretty hard on tools and not that easy to weld. I think your best chance for a homemade frame would be lugged steel as sloppy miters could be hidden and supported by lugs. Aluminium is not very tolerant of poor welding and may break if the Tig gets too hot at the joints.

I would check out bikeschool.com or Anvil on framebuilding classes and tools. Using them you would have the tools and someone to help with the details. I have seen some pretty good one off home made frames and I have seen some that broke at bad times. Goodluck

You would be better to tri building your own carbon frame, rather than trying the ti as your first frame. Let me put it this way- learning to braze or weld steel is not all that easy, and ti at home is considerably more difficult than steel.

Ti eats tooling for lunch. Not that carbon doesn't (as cutting tools get creamed on a regular basis, but read on), but the cutting tools for carbon are much cheaper, and requires less sophistication (dremel or any rotary tool can do it). Trying to mitre steel isn't fun, but 1 Zillion times easier than ti.

Also, alignment tables, amongst other things can be done cheaper with a carbon frame than with a metal one. A wooden tacking jig on a metal frame is considerably harder to work with. You could align a carbon frame on a table, use a hub for the rear dropout spacing, amongst other things.

Try this website: http://www.frameforum.net/forum2/index.php?

Call Bill Holland in San Diego

you can design one, he will make it for you

619-469-1772

Yes,
Dave Levy of Ti Cycles. Mike Augspurger and Gary Helfrich who founded Merlin. The Lynskey brothers who cofounded Litespeed and probably less than a hundred others in the US.
From reading about it, only steel and carbon fiber are practical for the average do it yourselfer. If your budget is less than a $1000, you can get a custom made Chinese Ti in six weeks from Habanero.