Progress slows
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The holidays has been a time killer, then an impromtu cyclocross series materialized so I had to get a cross bike running again. So in the meantime the frame hasn't made much progress. I filed down the fillet on the bottom bracket lug as shown below, and have it marked up so that I can start cutting the lug edges.

HINT: Old windshield wiper blades make great fillet filing forms. Chop off a piece about 6" long and cut off the blade. Run a strip of emory paper along it. It has enough flexibility and rubbery-ness to conform to the curvature nicely.

I also just got a Sturmey Archer AWC hub for this project, and have been working on the shifter details. Since the bike splits in two I don't want to run cables from the front half to the back. Originally I was just going to run a two-speed kickback hub, but then I thought about running a real three speed and mounting a shift lever on the seat tube like the Herse Demountables have. I was planning to take an indexing downtube shifter, take it apart, and flip over and modify the index plate so that it would only have one click in the middle.

Then I thought of something much cooler. I'd like to shift it with a rod mounted on the seatstay, much like the shifter rods on the old Cambio Corsa derailleurs. It should be really simple, but I've spent a lot of time trying to design a system to get the correct shift spacing that maximizes elegance while still keeping it within my machining capabilities. It's been amusing because it should be 1800's-era technology - really simple right? But then when you get down to the details, it turns out to be not as simple as you'd like. Or at least if it is simple to engineer, it doesn't look right. I think I've figured out a good way to do it but I'm going to have to prototype it soon.

Thanks to MC for the link!