Pushing the limits on the Henry James Universal frame jig

[jon_norstog]

After some years building on a homemade rail jig, I bought a used Henry James Universal from a man in Salt lake City. It had hardly been used at all. Damn thing is kind of fiddly, but it IS accurate. It was designed for building road bikes with horizontal top tubes and English/Italian/French BB shells. Over the years I have had to learn how to build BMX bikes with their wide stay patterns and 2" BB shells, child-size bikes, mountain bikes, bikes with machined head tubes, the list goes on. Alex Meade helped me with BB shell plugs for mid- and Spanish BB shells, and with various dummy axles. The instructions DO tell you how to build a frame with a sloping top tube ...

This is the smallest frame I have ever built in this jug. 16" top tube, 5 1/2" seat tube, 11 1/2" chainstay. I was able to get both seat tube blocks engaged before I cut the seat tube, and was able to get the top tube/head tube "hockey stick" brazed up in the fixture. For brazing that piece to the seat tube, no way would the HT clamp reach, so I used levels and the top tube blocks to get the HT and ST in plane. I had to shave a little bit off the corner of the chainstay beam to get it in close enough ...

noni_VL_in_build (2).jpg

The bike is for my granddaughter who will turn 5 in June. It will have 16" wheels - good ones, with Alienation rims and sealed bearing hubs. I'll have to make the fork as none of my suppliers carry a decent one.

Hank, I hope you are reading this! I have really gotten my money's worth out of your fixture.

jn

"Thursday"

[jon_norstog]

Here is that bike ready to go, with 16" wheels and race-quality components. Behind it for comparison is a 26" cruiser, which is also built on the HJ Universal.

jn





long_and_short.jpgnonis_bike_1.jpg