I’m going to make several posts so that they don’t get too long.
I’ve lived in Beijing since 2003; my Chinese is pretty good.
First, the dropouts. I was thinking many more than three layers. Make each ply less than 1mm thick.
If you have a drum sander, or access to one, or make a simple DIY (many examples online) it is easy to make the wood as thin as you want. Align some plies with the tabs that go into the stays. The thin plies would also make it possible to curve the tabs into the stays, more like a steel drop. You would have to make a simple jig to laminate on, but I think it would be worth it, both structurally and aesthetically.
Everybody always wants to use epoxy, but I’m a big fan of Titebond. Titebond 1 dries harder than 2 or 3. The glue is stronger than the wood, so why deal with the mess and toxicity of epoxy? If you have to use oily woods, it is useful to clean with acetone before gluing. Better yet, choose a non-oily wood.
I’m old, so am not an expert on disc brakes. The mount is mostly in compression or tension, not torsion. I don’t think there would be a problem if you design it well. Again, compare the strength of aluminum and carbon mounts. Get an old frame or fork. Bang on the mount with a hammer. Twist it with a big pair of pliers. Destroy it. Get a sense of how strong it is. Build a wooden prototype and destroy it. Compare. Make decisions and design changes as you as you learn. Use this process wherever you are unsure. The less critical a failure would be, the less sure you have to be…
I built a wood frame about five years ago and went more in the direction of a bamboo style build of using hemp and carbon tow with marine west epoxy. I used wooden dowels from the local hardware store and then just old frame bits(bb shell, headtube). I welded pieces of flat stock onto a set of steel dropouts and slotted the chainstays and wrapped it in hemp tow fiber. The seat tube i went with a seat mast style setup and used the widest carbon seatpost to slide over the wood dowel sest tube.
It was all for fun and the most expensive part was the marine west epoxy. I needed to wrap the joints more because that was the only point of failure. My carbon tow snapped at the downtube to BB shell junction. I still have a pile of dowels and enough junk frames to rob parts from to build another. Not sure how long the two part epoxys last.
The only part i worried about was the dowels snapping and being impaled with a jagged shard of wood. Lol.
@Farstrider Sure thing! I have ano silver inserts and Lichen has the black inserts. Either of us can sell the inserts so shoot an email over depending on which color you want!
