Fork Jig REV 1

[ToddFarr]

Hello all,
I am just finishing up Frame #1 and I decided to build my own Fork. I was looking into buying the Bringheli or buying the 80-20 kit from Alex Wetmore, but after a lot of research and thought, I decided to take the plunge and make my own. It's build on a 40mm square rigid extrusion profile from MiSUMi. All in all I think it turned out pretty nice! It cost me around $145.00 plus about 6 hours of my time. I also had to buy a 1/2" Ball End mill to make the dummy axle holder. One thing that saved me a ton of time is this site Automation Materials.com | MiSUMi | METAL > Plates. It's a website also buy MiSUMi which allows you to spec 6 sided milled material block to 0.1mm spec which means you can hit almost all inch and metric measurements you need. I ordered the big V-block this way so I wouldn't have to worry about flatness and I could just tap of with my edge finder and go. The chunk of aluminum milled six sides was only $38.00. I don't know how they do it!

Anyways here are the pictures.





I am going to be adding pointers and scales as soon as they come in. It's designed to hold an Anvil Dummy Axle, which should hopefully be here this weekend. If anybody wants design drawings and a parts list, I'd be happy to share. I can whip up some solid prints in Solidworks.

Thanks, and happy building!

[suicideking]

Well done! I would certainly be interested in attempting a build.

[ToddFarr]

PM me your email, and I can send you some stuff next week! I'll send drawings parts and price lists for everything. I would recommend going to a local aluminum supplier and buying REMS that are close to the part sizes. I forgot to mention the $145 does not include the Anvil Dummy Axle which was $35+Shipping.

[pruckelshaus]

I put together a site covering homemade jigs here - The Open Source Bicycle Frame Jig Project and this fork jig looks perfect. Can we talk about adding instructions and drawings for your jig to the site?

Thanks,

Pete

[ToddFarr]

Pete,
Of course! I'd be more than happy to do that for you! I left off a bunch of dimensions of things I already knew like hole sizes, Radii, etc. So I am going to work on finishing completed prints and compiling the build list. What's the best way to get this information to you?
Thank you,
Todd

[pruckelshaus]

Email me at pruckelshaus at gmail dot com

You are the man.

Now all I need to find is the equivalent in a reasonably full-featured homebuilt frame jig.

[ToddFarr]

Cool website idea by the way! I am doing a ton of mods to my Bringheli jig over the next few weeks I wouldn't mind sending over to you as well. I know it's a commercial jig, but it gave me an excellent base foundation, and maybe you could talk Joe into selling just the S portion of the Jig. I'm basically redoing the whole jig except for that part. Here is the front end so far, I'm gonna make a few changes. I'm starting this early next week. Also, if you need anything modeled or a drawing, I have a seat of Solidworks 2013. I'm pretty busy but can probably squeeze it in here and there!

[ToddFarr]

I had a chance to use the fork jig last night, and it worked quite well! There are a few things I am not fully satisfied with just yet, so I think I am going to make a few revisions before I upload the prints to any of you guys.
Thank you!

[prolix21]

definitely interested in this as well - very nice setup

[Proparc]

There needs to be a way to index or support the fork crown accurately. One less thing to do if your jig will do it for you.

[ToddFarr]

There needs to be a way to index or support the fork crown accurately. One less thing to do if your jig will do it for you.

What do you mean? This is not only my first jig, but my first fork so it's tough for me to know what's needed. Do you have examples?
Thank you.

[Jayme]

What do you mean? This is not only my first jig, but my first fork so it's tough for me to know what's needed. Do you have examples?
Thank you.

Wondering the same thing. Looks very similar to the one I used at UBI. Crown is already brazed to steerer. Bar under fork blades slides in to keeps everything level. Looks good to me from my limited experience.

Jayme

Pic of Anvil Fork Fixture

[Proparc]

What do you mean? This is not only my first jig, but my first fork so it's tough for me to know what's needed. Do you have examples?
Thank you.

I actually tried to delete this post, but the time limit would not let me. When I designed my fork jig, I had a piece to index, or level the fork crown independent of the blades. I also used my fork jig as a drill jig for the crown-hence the leveling feature. But, YOU DON'T have to do it if you don't want. Again, just disregard this post, I can't delete it.

Your Solidworks work is the bees knees by the way.

[Dave Anderson]

Cool website idea by the way! I am doing a ton of mods to my Bringheli jig over the next few weeks I wouldn't mind sending over to you as well. I know it's a commercial jig, but it gave me an excellent base foundation, and maybe you could talk Joe into selling just the S portion of the Jig. I'm basically redoing the whole jig except for that part. Here is the front end so far, I'm gonna make a few changes. I'm starting this early next week. Also, if you need anything modeled or a drawing, I have a seat of Solidworks 2013. I'm pretty busy but can probably squeeze it in here and there!

Whoa....this looks cool! Can you please keep us Bringheli guys posted on your progress on this?

Dave

[ToddFarr]

Of course Dave! I ordered the parts today, should be here in a week or so, then probably another to machine the parts and anodize them.

I'll probably move it to a new thread when I start it, just so it's easier for people wanting to do something similar to find in a search.

Reading your setup thread actually inspired me to build this. It seems that the main complaint is that all the Bringheli adjustments are on 1 bolt. This splits angle, head tube height and top tube length up into 3 separate adjustment points.

[Dave Anderson]

Cool. Thanks! I will watch for the thread. I actually bought some aluminum plate a while back to try to make something that would split the front end angle vs TT length adjustments, but haven't gotten around to doing anything with it yet and yours looks like a whole lot better set up anyway....and includes adjustable head tube towers to boot!

Thanks,

Dave

[ToddFarr]

I've had a chance to use my fork jig for almost a year now. It's been great but I could tell right away where there were some weaknesses. I was fine with it for the time being, but was recently approached by a forum member about building him a fork Jig. I spent today going through the design and polishing up the areas that needed work. Based of his input as well for what he wanted it to be able to handle, this is what I came up with.



I am only posting it on here because there is potential chance to do a run of these. If I am building one for me and one for him, I might as well see if anyone else wants one. I will have pricing information by Monday. My goal is to have a few tiers with price breaks. So please let me know if you are interested in the next few days. I am trying to get these done and built up by this time next month, so it's gonna be quick, Either you're on the list by the weekend or you will have to wait for me to do this again.

I'll be kicking back 5% to Velocipede Salon since 80% of people contacting me for bicycle related design and machining stuff has come from here.

Thanks - Todd

[Too Tall]

VSalon give you a big@ass wave and thumbs up for all you are doing.

XXOO, TT

[gereonb]

I am in Europe but have to say that looks like a nice design, i would like to become a forkbuilder :), let us know what kind of figures are we talking about once you get there. Have a great weekend.

[David Tollefson]

Put me on the "potentials" list. Me likey.