Official Luthiers Forum!

Hmmm. I had no idea ......

as of right now its been about 5 or 6 months only because its taking me so long to finish these two guitars lol what are they making there motorbike frames?

Competition bicycle frames. My youngest son used to ride a Colnago frame.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I have two Colnago frames. Don't laugh, they are pure magic! Ernesto knows about making frames! No kidding. Watch the Tour de France. More teams ride Colnago frames than any other. However, all the top of the line Colnago frames are now carbon fibre and weigh about 2 pounds...

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"Building guitars looks hard, but it's actually much harder than it looks." Tom Buck

Sounds like it's time for you to test if the molecules settled without defects. Colnago didn't tell us the secret of how they test for seasoning defects though. Maybe they tap tune.

I usually use salt & pepper for cold rods.
If i warm them up I like cheese & salsa!



Mc

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Mike Collins

I had to watch the clip a 2nd time...the first time I couldn't decide whether the dude had a bad combover or a worse toupee.

Oh yeah...Colnago rocks but he can't hold a candle to my favorite Sicilian...Il Zootman! (who wouldn't be caught dead with a toupee)

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

Cool video. Bike racing is a hobby of mine. I race on a titanium frame these days but have had many steel frames. Never had the pleasure of owning a Colnago though. I still can't believe that metal needs to age though

It's the real deal; even metal doesn't stand still. The nice thing about metal VS wood is that it usually only moves in one direction (ie: it won't decide to move back the other way if the air gets dry) but pretty much any metal stock is full of stresses.

Ask a machinist to make a big plate of aluminum dead flat and parallel on both sides...it's an exercise in torture, given the amount of stress in a chunk of cast aluminum. It'll move every time you cut it, unless you actually stick it in an oven after a certain amount of roughing and anneal it.

I thought the interesting part was that gas welder. That dude was awesome.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

That is exactly why all the grey castings for high quality machinery was thrown out in the back 40 for several years before it was used. But that was back when the US was a manufacturing powerhouse. Ever wonder why those castings from China don't stay flat? Even 6061-T6 Aluminum air hardens as it ages. I've seen differences in Rosewood freshly cut vs. stckered for a couple of years that show a big difference in surface hardness.


Back in the 70s' a good friend of mine did very well making 14" hard disks for Digital perfectly flat in a furnace on fixtures that he designed.

Reality is that everything comes down to acceptable tolerances. The more anal you are the better your product.

Canadian made General machinery (not the General Int'l stuff) are the only company I know that still age the cast iron by leaving it out in the Quebec winter/summer for a year beofre they machine it flat.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

I am in the process of selling my Team Miyata bike - full Dura Ace in perfect condition... it's not even out the door yet and I am already

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

Well if you want a bike made by hand ...

I did a lot of bike racing in the 80's and early 90's Always on a steel frame. I've still got a Colnago Master. Best bike I ever owned. It was common back then for European teams to have their official supplier's name on the bike but actually the frames were built by Ernesto. Hey Tony-I also rode a Marinoni, a great Canadian frame. BTW if anyone wants to buy a few sew-ups I've got a bunch.

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Terence IM me about the sew-ups, I'd like to know what you have. well actually, I'll just IM you

EDIT ok please email me then, I cannot figure out how to IM

jfmckenna at gmail

thanks.

I just started a new metal body guitar with brass that's been 'acclimatizing' in my shop for 10 years. I guess this should be a really great one!

Sew ups are for people with mechanics or poseurs - it's pretty much proven that unless they're glued on with a hard setting glue (or shellac) the rolling resistance of a good clincher (e.g. Michelin pro race) with latex tubes is significantly superior to high end sew ups with standard cement (e.g. conti or mastik). What's significant? How about 5 to 20w PER TIRE!!! A properly mounted tub can match the performance of a clincher but I don't think that anyones gotten one to perform better than a clincher.

Tubs have some other advantages (namely ride flat and low pressure use) but for 99% of the folks - they're worse than clinchers.

Of course I would trust a luthier to properly mount and glue a tub over 99% of the bike mechanics out there
.

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http://www.birkonium.com CNC Products for Luthiers
http://banduramaker.blogspot.com

Hahah cool picture Andy. This is starting to sound like one of the bike related forums that I visit too

I've heard all the data on rolling resistance but the performance of tubs outweighs it in my opinion. There's way more to winning a bike race then rolling resistance as I'm sure you know. Plus I bet ya 75% of the teams in the Giro and the Tour of California going on right now are on sew-ups so they must be doing it for a reason I like how they take bumps on the road. It makes the long rides a bit easier on the back plus the cornering is buttery smooth. What got me into tubs in the first place was racing cyclocross. I'd race on the road on clinchers any day but I will never ever race cross on clinchers again. Of course you don't have to care about rolling resistance in cyclocross but the low pressure and the bump handling is far superior.

BTW this reminds me, a friend of mine who bought a couple of my guitars lives in Italy a few months a year and it was interesting. He emailed me a while back and said there must be some connection with bike racing and luthiers. He went to dinner with John Weissenrieder who is an excellent Luthier and former professional bike racer from the states now living in Italy.

Oh and yes, I know how to glue those sew-ups on