Right Stay

I started on the rear triangle on Sunday!.  My strategy is to get the right side just where I want it, then I can put a wheel/rear triangle t-square in it to properly align the left chainstay.  I'm mostly going at it this way because my homemade jig doesn't keep the dropouts lined up perfectly, and the extra steps let me tweak it on the fly.

The dropout went on easily.  I used some more of the 50N silver; I think I'm starting to get a better feel for it.  It certainly seemed to jump when I wanted it to.

I pinned the bottom bracket in the jig using the square profile nails that Cycle Design sells, then brazed it freehand.

The one issue I noticed was that the pins wanted to draw the stay up just a little bit from how it fit in the Jig, so I used the sophisticated method pictured above the add a little weight to the end.

Here it is, brazed and soaked.  On this bike, I've left all of the bottom bracket miters a bit long., with the intention of grinding the inside smooth when I finish.  

As a bonus, here's a picture of my cable routing:

Crossing the cable from the right shifter to the left side of the down-tube (and the left to the right) keeps the housing from having sharp bends, but looks a little odd since the cables must cross back under the down tube.  I spent a little time with some stainless tubing to solve that.  It's silly, it's overkill, but I like it.  This way the correct cable goes to the correct shifter, but the cross happens out of sight so the cables will stay roughly parallel to the down tube.  As it turns out, this stainless steel ball of spaghetti creates very little friction.

For the curious, here's the great Sheldon Brown's take on crossing the cables.  To keep things balanced, here is an opposing viewpoint.

Also worth noting, I've drilled the bottom bracket for drainage.  Almost all water related damage that I've seen or heard of on a bike was the result of standing water, not just exposure.  Hell, I've been riding my first build, sans-paint, in the rain on and off, for years and the rust hasn't made any real progress.  Since I can't totally seal this area (there's always the potential for a little water to sneak in through the seat tube), I wanted there to be a good way for it to drain.