More rear-end redesigning; first welds

With enough grinding, any weld can look good.

At least I remembered to drill vent holes.

I found that I had some problems in the back end. First, the tubing I expected to use was longer than any bike tubes I had, so I made them all shorter. However, I had drawn the wheels castering backwards: if the wheel were to spin 180 degrees from where I had drawn it, it would strike the frame.

The forks I have vary but the axle was typically 2"-2.5" from center — I had estimated 3 inches in my original drawing. I also measured the distance from the bottom of the steering bracket to the top of the wheel, and that's about 4 inches, but I had only given 1 inch in the original drawing so I increased it and adjusted the other parts. In the process, I added some more support.

I worked on the bike frames and cut enough pieces to make one side of the rear of the frame. I wasn't going to have enough time before sunset to finish the frame, but I did get out and weld the eyes together. There were a few strokes of the welder that went really well, and as I went, I improved. I had to grind a lot of material away to get it to a reasonably attractive shape, but it otherwise looks pretty good.