First braze on frame #001

I finally was able to get things moving along on the frame. I got the alignment table (cabinet) home and the granite top on it. I still have to drill the hole to mount the BB post. I also still need to make drawers for the cabinet but I will get there soon. I took some pictures of the process. At the end of this post is a link to see them. Next up is the hockey stick. This is the head tube / down tube joint. I will get these parts cleaned up and miter the joint. In the mean time I will also work on getting the post mounted on the granite so that I can check these joints for true. I will also start considering brazing the rear dropouts to the chain stays.

This is the link to see the pictures. I have you right in the middle so just click to the right on the slides to move forward. Thank you for looking.

pratice braze #3 complete!

These are the post braze picture of the sleeve lug I made after soaking off the flux. I was able to see the silver flow completely through the joint. I was so excited that I added too much silver and when it was pulled through it pooled at the bottom. The first two photos make it look as if it's not that bad. The shorelines are a little heavy.



Then this next picture shows a huge glob on the back side of the joint. It's like a fillet. It is going to take some elbow grease to get this removed.


Here are some shots with just a little clean up. If you can control your silver, it doesn't take much at all to clean it up nicely.

Here is the "blob" of silver. I will start the clean up with my Dremel. Power tools are a must when it comes to certain tasks and the right tool for the job makes everything go smooth. A lesson learned in furniture making. If I don't seem to be getting too far along, I may try to re-flux and put some heat to the "blob" and remove it with a wire brush. Something I feel is also a good technique to possess.



Next up will be some cleanup of this silver. I will work on making it near perfect as if it were to be used on a frame. I will then do two more practice brazes and if they both turn out nice, I will go ahead and braze up my seat tube / bb shell joint on frame #001. I will also work on getting the lugs for said bike cleaned up a bit. I never got to that a couple of weeks ago.

It is Christmas week and it is sure to be full of activities but I will try and continue to move forward on this project. Thanks for looking!

Fear not the file...

...but the hand that wields it! I started to sharpen some design and technique skills by cutting a lug from 4130 and shaping it. I would like to create some bike frames that use handmade lugs created by fillet brazing sections of tubing together. So I drew a design on the tube and roughed it out with a cutting wheel (those things burn up fast in .058).



This is what it looks like cut right from the tube:


And after a little bit of time and a lot of filing, you end up with this:


The nice thing about custom work is that you can make up and even change your mind as you go. I liked the long point but I decided to take it down and go for something a little different.



And the following pictures is what it looks like pre-braze. My daughter is having her birthday party today (she is turning 8!!!). I will work on getting this brazed on Sunday. I will clean it up and hopefully I like how it turns out. If not, I can always just start over, right?



This is a scaled down version (due to the size of the tubes) of what would be a seat tube with lug. There would be another lug section fillet brazed to the front of this above the point for the top tube and the area on the back would allow for the binder and fastback style seat stays. I almost believe that all of this will be easier in full sized tubes that will actually be used for a frame. We'll see!

Fear not the torch...

...but the hand that wields it! The torch is a tool and it is an extension of your capabilities. It does exactly what you ask of it. Below is a practice braze with 56% silver on 4130 steel. They both have a .058" wall thickness therefore a 5/8" tube slips into a 3/4" tube with a perfect gap for brazing. This is after it is all cleaned up.



And the shadow line that is at the center of the picture where the two tubes join is the only area where I did not pull silver all the way through the joint. It is hard to see through the flux and I didn't see this area until after I soaked it. I am very please how this joint came out. No wasted silver! I will now move on to some more practice joints that require a multitude of skills.



Stay tuned!

Happy Holidays!

We are starting to finally get some winter weather around here. I haven't been moving along quite as much as I wanted to lately but I have made some progress. I have my bike building area setup in the basement. My alignment table should be wrapped up by this weekend. I will then be able to get my stone on it and mount the BB post. We have holiday pictures to do tonight, so it will be Tuesday or after before I pick back up. I hope to either get some more lug clean up done or fire up the torch and get some brazing done. We'll see how it goes. Thanks, Wil