I think if it’s a project, one off that has time constraints then a course makes good sense. If you have a passion that won’t be quenched unless you do it, then you’ll find anyway possible and others will feel it and want to help. Wish you all the best and don’t foget pics when it’s done!

The OP makes me laugh a lot. His hilariously enthusiastic and over-ambitious posts all over the forum. Bikepacking with knives and surviving in the wilderness. Making wierd frames.
He’s hilarious and it’s horrible. It’ll get him nowhere.

Totally reminds me of me when I was his age.

All the best.

At his age I bought an arc welder and made a recumbent tricycle out of rolled iron from B&Q 😀

It wasn’t very good…

I spent a huge amount of time in the loft at Two Wheels Good in Leeds the summer of my 18th birthday, filing and prepping, fillet brazing practice tubes together. Then sawing them apart, or pulling them apart to see what broke. I made stems, welded funny bars together, bodged and learnt. I made a frame with Andy Morris, the trained framebuilder there.

Before that, at school, I made an awful recumbent too, by sort of splitting then shortening a frame – the back and the front, then welding two tubes between the two triangles. It had cable activated steering operated by a handlebar mounted on a pivot under the top tube. It still works – it’s in my mums cellar. It’s thanks to the wonderful Mr Ellis and Mr Kirby at Bingley Grammar, to letting me do that in lunch hour.

I’d say Oxy Acetelene and fillet brazing is the way to go, but there’s SO MUCH MORE that just sticking it together. The filing, and fit is so critical. Then there’s making something straight.

Anyhow.

So your saying brant it reminds you of when you were his age ? you went bikepacking on the moors with knives and you live somewhere near saddleworth where its quite a well known spot for dumping the odd body

ill let the others figure the possible result of that equation out for themselves

Edit at his age i had been building composite aircraft (real ones http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_Aircraft) for over a year ,fibreglass was a learning curve i itched so much my mother thought i had scabies

A full suspension fat cargo bike… Handy!

My first ever attempt at sticking metal together. Was playing with scrap and the cheapest arc welder i could find. I think I was 17. It snapped, it was always going to. Who needs triangulation anyway?

and my first fillets, this was at the yates course a few years later.

I’m getting a hankering to build something now…

Oh no. I forgot about this thread.

HOLY SHIT BEN. HOW DID I MISS THAT. HOW? I feel like such a douche. That is so, so cool of you. And really sweet too! I mean it’s obviously no longer valid, but thank you. really! (:

Thanks tang, that’s really nice of you. I found a Surly Moonlander at an amazing price and settled for that. It’s really great! It’s just the wrong size. Me wanting a cargo bike was a stupid overkill LOL. I just wanted to be able to carry a bit of stuff on it. My Moonlander is perfect. It’s just the wrong size. It’s a medium but it’s so big for me I have to run a 95mm stem backwards. I did 30 miles like that and it was pretty solid. decentely comfortable. But I want to get a dynamo and no point pouring money into a bike that doesn’t fit. Hence me wanting a new frame (: