So far the meetings haven’t had much of a theme, they’ve been more of a chance to explore other people’s workshops and to get to know each other. This time around I proposed that we do a little hand’s on work too. I brought over my oxy/propane rig and we setup Alistair’s oxy/acetylene rig. Mark and Martin offered to do some demonstration joints. Alistair prepared the lugs and I mitered some tubing. The meeting had a good turnout for such an event,8 of us showed up for it (Andy, Alex, Alistair, Dan, Eric, Mark, Martin,Thomas).

First up Martin brazed a Ritchey dropout to a chainstay:

Mark brass brazed a lug using oxy/propane:

Martin silver brazed a lug using oxy/acetylene (this shot wasn’t taken through didynium like the rest of them,so you can see the red sodium flare from the flux):

As a Grand Finale Mark quickly mitered up the remaining scrap tubes and fillet brazed for us. Since I’ve been working on my fillet brazing myself I learned a lot from this quick demo and look forward to practicing some more at home:

We didn’t have too much time for show and tell this time. Martin brought a road/disk bike that he is working on, Alistair showed his latest bike (well documented on his flickr site) and I bought a couple of front triangles that I’ve built. Eric Bailey came with this neat stem with integrated decaleur:

Thomas from Idaho also brought his latest kokoPedli folding bike and showed it off to us.

I didn’t take a photo of the awesome spread of food that we brought together for the event. Alistair and Alon made a nice Gazpacho and there was a variety of store bought and home made muffins, bread, cookies, cheese, and beer.

I really enjoyed this meeting and look forward to the next one. I think we’ll be discussing alignment at that one, and hopefully having a bit more time for show and tell. I might even have a bike to ride down to it.