Framebuilders - Fillet Brazing Stainless Steel

I ordered a KVA stainless frame from a fairly well known builder who does NOT do lugged stainless. I wanted a non painted frame for ease of maintenance. I was floored when he sent some pictures last week - the frame is fillet brazed rather than Tig welded. I was under the assumption that you were not supposed to fillet braze Stainless. I am not at all happy with how it looks. His reply is that he finds it distorts the tubing less with brazing than with Tig welding. I never asked if it would be Tig welded I thought that was the only option if it was not lugged.

Opinions please, is this an acceptable joining method?

Jeff

It's acceptable, as a matter of fact, using the new fillers like Fillet Pro has made fillet brazing the new stainless steels a very common practice. What is it you don't like about the fillets? The color?

Completely acceptable. Here's a Simoncini fillet brazed 953 frame.

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d7/k4drd/Bicycles/Waterford%20953%20Frame/SimonciniFilletBrazed953Frame.jpg

What is it you don't like about the fillets? The color?

I am not sure, it may just be the fact that I was expecting Tig and not prepared or a different color joint. I am going to wait until I receive it Thursday to decide if I want to paint it.

Thanks,

Jeff

I'm putting these questions on my order form:
Have you looked at my gallery? y/n
I only use lugs or fillet braze, does this meet your expectations? y/n

I hope the builder didn't spend too much time polishing if you end up painting it.

here are some pics of a SS fillet-brazed bike

http://www.clockworkbikes.com/track.html

I didn`t know that was possible either. I`ve seen some of the Fred Parr threads on FF, but mostly pass them by since I`m still trying to get my head around the "normal" way of doing things and don`t need any further complications.

FWIW, I`m surprised that both the builder and the customer went on the assumption that both were on the same page as far as joining method goes. You`d think that both parties would specify their intentions beforehand.

Please check out this one (http://simoncinitelaibiciclette.blogspot.com/2010/04/scatto-fisso-s5.html).

For my money, any builder who is willing to sell you an unpainted frame is probably a pretty good builder. Paint hides a lot: a builder willing to let you see his "naked" joinery is confident in his work.

I'd say. Making a fillet look nice unpainted is a big step up in effort from what it takes to make a fillet look nice under paint.