Inspired by all the different welding techniques that Ethan, one of the shop instructors at Olin, had taught small group of us after hours in the shop, I decided I wanted to put my knowledge to use and build a bike frame and fork. After finding out that welding thin (.032”) steel tubing is incredibly difficult, I spent a semester practicing my TIG welding. I did research on frame geometry, created a model in SolidWorks of the bike I wanted to make, and ordered materials. Undeterred by the fact that we didn’t have a frame jig, I spent hours aligning my parts with magnets and a level. I was able to some scrap components from other bikes and custom machine other parts to fit. Most notably, one of our shop instructors allowed me to put my bike fork in the lathe to get a few thousandths off so the crown race would fit! The final bike is great to ride, and I even decided ex post facto that it might be a good idea to do some Finite Element Analysis to ensure that it would hold up on the potholed-filled Boston streets, which to my relief, it had a pretty high factor of safety.