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Academy Tools Low Cost Frame Fixture

Well Made Things: Academy Tools Low Cost Frame Fixture

Frome’s The Bicycle Academy have already provided countless students with an excellent education in how to build a custom frame, and now they’ve released the latest of their Academy Tools. The Low Cost Frame Fixture is an ingenuous design that will make it very easy for budding builders to practice their hobby.

Well Made Things: Academy Tools Low Cost Frame Fixture

One of the main factors preventing the hobbyist builder from pursuing the craft is the expense involved with setting up a functional workshop. Apart from good quality tools and materials, accurate jigs are expensive. Well, the team at Academy Tools came up with a concept that won The Steve Worland Innovation Award at Bespoked 2017.

Well Made Things: Academy Tools Low Cost Frame Fixture

Basically, the LCFF is a bolt-together system of plates and bars that are assembled upon widely-available standard mild-steel beams — effectively minimising the total cost and resulting in what is essentially a flat-pack frame jig. It all fits into a small box that can be shipped overseas at a fraction of the cost that’s attached to a regular jig.

Well Made Things: Academy Tools Low Cost Frame Fixture

It’s uniquely adjustable in such a way as to enable user calibration, removing any inaccuracies in the standard beams. It might not be an Anvil Journeyman, but it’s perfect for your first 25 frames or so. Using only standard tools, the Complete LCFF can be assembled and calibrated within a couple of hours.

Well Made Things: Academy Tools Low Cost Frame Fixture

The LCFF is adjustable enough to build anything from a balance bike to a 29+. The Academy Tools team have been working on this project since 2012 and winning the Innovation award is well deserved: this is an incredibly inspired piece of engineering and problem solving. Time to break open the piggy bank.

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Well Made Things: Academy Tools Low Cost Frame Fixture