Bike Repair Stand

 

I am still trying to figure out what I am going to do in my garage to make it a shop. And I was lamenting that I didn't have a bike repair stand. I have a bunch of ideas on making one but I don't have the tools set up to do it. I came up with a plan to make one out of a beat up old drill press and a "universal" clamping/vise system. The drill press is a fairly sturdy floor model but is pretty ragged looking, however being sturdy I thought it would make a nice stand. I bought a "universal" clamping/vice system this weekend at a tag sale not knowing exactly what I would use it for. It was a bit expensive at $25 but looked promising for a myriad of tasks, I just didn't know exactly for what, it did have a lot of stuff in the box, and looked to be sturdy enough to be useful. It did have the flexibility to set it up to clamp in almost any orientation, and had a V-block plastic jaw. The pictures pretty much show it all. It works.

Anyway, I have a bike repair stand that will be good enough until I get things set up to make a "real" one. If it works well I may not need to.

The other reason I need a bike stand is that I have a bunch of bargain/free bikes that I need to strip down to salvage usable parts and chop up the frames to recycle the tubes. The tubes will become practice stock for me to learn mig welding tube, and to learn oxy-acetylene fillet brazing. I have done a little mig on tube and I think I can do a structurally sound weld, it is not an attractive weld yet. Once I get those processes learned I will try a minor project of some sort. Maybe a MIG welder cart.