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Build Your Own Bike for $349 with the Jiggernaut Lite!

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A while back, we saw the Jiggernaut, a successfully funded Kickstarter campaign that yielded a CNC-cut MDF board kit that assembled into a complete bicycle frame building jig. It retails for $299 on its own, or as little as $499 for a kit with all the tubes and lugs you need to build your first road/track or mountain bike.

Now, they’ve made an even smaller option that has bigger results. The Jiggernaut Lite comes with everything from the original except the back plate. Well, that, and any size restrictions forced by having to include a back plate.

The Lite version ships much smaller, and you mount the jig parts on any piece of solid, flat board you want. This lets you increase the sizes and shapes of frames you can make. It includes a poster schematic for road bikes, and you can also get it as a kit with tubes and lugs. They’re also offering COPE kits that give you random tube pieces and instructions on how to cut and braze, because practice makes perfect!

Why make it this way? For many of us, it’s a romantic notion to build our own bicycle, but even used jigs are over a thousand bucks, making it a pretty big commitment for something that may just end up collecting dust.

Like the original, this one’s a Kickstarter Campaign. Video above has some of the details, pics below…

Above, the kit with most of the parts to build a track-style road frame. Below, their new fork jig kit.

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carl
carl
11 years ago

I’m impressed but have a question. Looking at the fork jig….. how would you braze the fork legs into the fork crown without setting the jig on fire?

NotAMachinist
NotAMachinist
11 years ago

@carl

Very, very carefully 🙂

recur
recur
11 years ago

@NotAMachinist

very, very, very, very carefully.
I see some lawsuits in their future, though I love the idea.

Androo
Androo
11 years ago

MDF doesn’t burn all that easily, really. And it certainly doesn’t burn well.

But yeah, being careful is still a good idea.

Chris S.
Chris S.
11 years ago

You can use a heat sink to carry the heat away between area being brazed and the area where steel touches wood.

ds
ds
11 years ago

Best Christmas present for the DIYer ever !

For the heat issue, maybe some kind of paints exists for isolating the MDF?

steve
steve
11 years ago

use a soldering blanket as you would with pipes in your walls.

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