I thought this was a great overview of jigs and fixtures...

zip.

 

Frame Jig

Here's a shot of my setup. Inputs are: BB drop, CS length, front-center, fork rake, ST angle, HT angle, and distance to the bottom of the lower head lug. Close-ups here:

Flickr: ameade1's Photostream

 

Sweet.

Zipzit, that is a good overview, its really nice to see the variations that people are coming up with.

And Alex, your stuff looks very, very nice.

 

Alex, what's the weight of that structure? It looks heavy!

 

Blaster, I've not weighed it, but it's likely north of 100 pounds. All of the big flat parts are made from MIC6, but there's quite a bit of flat-ground steel and stainless in there as well. The fixture lays back flat on a pivot (not shown) and locks into the flat position for easier setup. It also can rotate freely in the plane of the frame for easier brazing access. Both axes of rotation are balanced, so the weight is not noticed.

Alex
Tools

 

Not fully complete, but I'll throw this one into the mix.

More shots and info here

 

Double Post

 

This one I built about 10 years ago, now being used for carbon assembly. If I build another one I'd add more offset for better tacking access. I'd probably get all the parts waterjet cut from MIC6 plate as well.

 

Here's mine, Rexroth profiles (45x45 and 45x90) + some milled parts:


Jig 2.0 par Edelbikes, sur Flickr

 

I find it interesting that for the most part people seemed to have coalesced around the plate type fixture. That is either a structure on the drive or non-drive that has bits that hold the frame offset from that.

There are other designs such as the beam type where there is a central beam along the bottom of the frame and you build upwards (many motorcycles jigs use this) or the picture frame jig. A very common design in the past. I believe Ant bikes uses this. Also, Doug Fattic's fitting jig which work from a surface plate and Alex Meade's simple fixturing solution from a surface is also excellent.

IMHO a solid, flat surface is a much more important thing to own initially than a dedicated frame jig.

All fixtures have advantages and disadvantages. but for ease of construction if I had to do it over again and was working with minimal equipment I would most likely use the central beam idea or the surface plate solutions.

 

I find it interesting that for the most part people seemed to have coalesced around the plate type fixture.

I have no idea how many of which commercial jigs are sold, but this observations seems to correlate with my hunch that Anvil/Bringheli/Henry James might be the most popular? [/wild speculation]

 

rocking the beam here

 

Ah, a two-stage differential jig. I played around with that design for a while, and was wondering when I'd see something like it. I think it's a great design for the garage/basement builder that doesn't have a lot of room.

 

I have a beam design underway, based on a fixture a friend of mine has. Nailing down a couple of small improvements, and it will be ready.

 

3wfab,

Slick. Looks like you have some measuring tapes glued on there, so I assume you have a spreadsheet to calculate angles and positions. And then do you use a giant protractor or and angle finder for the seat tube?

 

I don't know how 3wfab does his, but on mine, you draw a nice 2d drawing in CAD. I use AutoCAD at work, so I've got good access, and 2d drafting like this is pretty quick and easy. I draw the frame out as it would sit in the bike, and then you have an offset concentrically from the bottom bracket. For mine, you basically draw a line from the center of the BB to an extension line from the head tube (perpendicular). Offset that by 3" below the centerline of the BB. From there, it's really just basic geometry to get all the lengths of tubes you need.

To do the rear triangle, you extend your "offset" line backwards past the dropouts. Draw a line from the center of the dropout perpendicular to the offset line. That tells you how far back along the fixture spine to set your dropout mount, and how far up from the spine you need to set your dummy axle holder.

It's all actually pretty slick and pretty simple to use. It's based off of a fixture that James at Black Sheep built for Rob Pennell (Badger) several years ago. Another friend has that fixture now, and I just want to build my own to a)not have to borrow his for 2 weeks at a time and b)make a few minor improvements to have more room to get the torch into places (especially under the BB).

 

BikeCAD here. Use the Bicycle Machinery reference for setting HT. From there, I set the ST angle referenced off of the HT (which is 90 degrees).

I use a digital angle finder to dial in the ST, which is actually the rear triangle.

I build the rear first, simply because I can get over the 'hard' sometimes frustrating part of the build first.

I've built several variations of plate style jigs and IMO, that design utilizing the 80/20 stuff is way more involved than what I want to deal with. 80/20 isn't true and a PITA for jig setup (plate style).

I'm loving this beam style. Its really simple and 'open' to work around.

 

Any chance you could post some basic dimensions of this Jig? I really like the small size and simplicity.

 

mine

 

Thanks to the forum for inspiration on my jig!

Alex Meade gets the credit for the machined bits.

Gonna build my first frame shortly, hopefully it rides straight lol!

Scott.

 

Just wondering if anyone has made a DIY style chain stay notcher? I'm trying to get out of buying the Anvil jig for my 1st tig frame...

 

Here's mine:

Chainstay Jig par Edelbikes, sur Flickr

 

Hey;

http://forums.mtbr.com/frame-building/my-first-attempt-basement-framebuilding-684218-2.html

Scroll down toward the bottom of the page.

 

Thanks. Looks like I have some tooling to make.

 

Well..

You might learn more from doing some the old fashioned way. Then, when it came time to build such a fixture, if you felt you still wanted one, you might have a better feel for how to build it. I wound't call that one extreme or unnecessary (it's very nice), but it is a bit beyond DYI.

 

I have access to CNC mills & lathes so building tools isn't much a problem, just a time issue.

I do like the idea of drafting it out with autocad/solidworks and just marking and cutting the tubes down by hand might be a nice way to get things aligned and have a develop a feel for it. I have cut down the main tubes with the ever popular tubenotcher program but couldn't find anything to deal with ovalized stays, Do you have any suggestions on where I might find one?

 

I have cut down the main tubes with the ever popular tubenotcher program but couldn't find anything to deal with ovalized stays, Do you have any suggestions on where I might find one?

Sorry;

I'm not that far along The Path.

 

I was not able to fina a template for my first couple of frames so I just traced a rough line with the BB shell on the oval chainstay... made sure to cut it a little long, then filed the chainstay until the fit was perfect. Then I used that miter and made a paper template for the other chainstay and filed it until it fit. Took a little while but worked great.

 

Jigs are cool, but I'm a founding member of the Cheap Bastards Club. As this is just a hobby, I seem to keep going toward simple as I get more comfortable with the build process. My miters are all done with files now, and fixturing is nothing more than V-blocks and quick clamps. Angles are derived from BikeCAD. I sometimes use a BB post, but it sucks so much heat even for tacking that I try to avoid it when I can.