howdy all!
figured i may chime in on the amateur builder thread real quick. i started to learn framebuilding towards the end of college (last year) by asking people lots of questions--several people on this list and the framebuilders' list were very helpful in that regard. i had no money for tools, so had to machine many of them myself in the school workshop, including fork jig, most of the frame jig, and so on. made a frame and fork, fork rode wonderful, frame i accidentally buckled during alignment (ouch!), but rode it anyway. now i've started medical school and so framebuilding has to wait, so maybe i should have titled my intro as "aspiring amateur framebuilder, waiting until time and money permit" ;-)
chris