I finished up Selena's frame last Friday and it's already off to Jason's for paint. I tried to take some photos of the progression as the different parts of the frame come together.
Firstly, let me begin by saying, this was a fairly small frame, a 48cm c-c. Many times when I was building frames at Serotta and Waterford I felt like we overbuilt small frames. One of the nice things about doing Ellis frames is that I'm really not constrained by a lug or tube set that is "stock", so on this frame I decided to use fairly thin standard gauge tubing for a more proportional ride. (If that makes sense?) Weight wise, the frame ended up at about 3 1/4 lbs.
Here's the progression from freshly brazed, to soaked, to finished seat lug.
Same progression with the head lugs. I used Henry James lugs on this one for a couple reasons, he makes a pretty nice selection of angles, so I don't end up having to "tweak" the angles much, and the shapes of his lugs are just nice, with very pleasing curves and transitions.
The head lugs really finished up nice, I butted them together since the frame is so small, and added the 10mm head tube extension on top.
Again, a few shots of the bottom bracket. Brazed, soaked and finished.
Finally, the fork and front dropouts.