Most Giant dealers I've met will just throw stuff at you

And have amazing offers on last year's models.

yeah - gotta meet targets.

yeah, I think they must have pretty massive targets

yes apparently.

giant's smooth welds will be ground and filled to look nice

Probably just ground - Otherwise the welding machine needs tweaking.

how so?

Less work if they only need one machine to finish the weld nicely.

I mean filler as in putty, not filler rod

ewwww

this guy seems to know what he's talking about

velocipedesalon.com/forum/f2/…

apparently far east welds are just nice

cool

on my todo list, is building a frame

need to get my welding or braising skills up to scratch first

me too - I have a desire and that's about it.

how hard can it be

...

I suppose step one would be to get a notcher and a load of old al tubes and make a million joints

alex: whats a notcher ?

I see - its a holder for a hole saw to make drilling through tubes more accurate. Like a pocket screw gizmo.

yeah

the plot thickens

seems my noisy chainring might have been a split chainring bolt

So I have taken the first steps to hot waxing (paraffin) a chain. 6 jars of solvents are required to fully clean a new chain (3 mineral spirits followed by 3 Isopropyl alcohol). It is apparently important to remove all residue of any type in order to get the wax to tenaciously adhere (after that you can simply wipe the chain and re-dip into hot wax to re-lube). I am starting with a new chain and it is scary how much debris (metal filings) came out on the the first mineral spirits bath.