I got to know Chris Bishop through the Baltimore framebuilding scene as I was building my first few framesets. In exchange for his wisdom and some lugs, I attempted to solve a fabrication challenge for him, in building a very specific fork crown for him without the use of casting (quite an expensive process). I designed the crown with adaptable use of 1” or 1-1/8” steerer tubes using an interchangeable center piece and the top and bottom being made with steel plate, water jet and milled out for the specific geometry needed. The project never launched due to how expensive the fabrication cost would have been for such small quantities, but a proof of concept model was printed to test the geometry and assembly. This was a great learning experience, but taught me that just because you can make it in the computer and print it, doesn’t mean it is actually scalable without spending exorbitant amounts of money. This project definitely got me thinking more about how to design for manufacturability so that I wouldn’t run into these same problems again.