ftwelder

Some are brazers, some are welders and some glue stuff together. Here is something nice I did. Let's see yours.



21 011 by frankthewelder, on Flickr



7 005 by frankthewelder, on Flickr

ultraman6970

Do you take students by correspondence?

tuz

I'll play. Here is a seat lug slightly modified.

JohnDThompson 

Here's my current project:







Prior to that:

e-RICHIE

hey frank and john (and others too atmo)...

if you have dedicated pages i can link to that show assembly, sequences, procedures, fixturing,
and/or anything that illustrates your framebuilding processes, i would be happy to add them to
this page: https://www.richardsachs.com/site/how-frames-are-made/. send me an email
if you want to be added atmo.

hey - thanks for reading.

ftwelder

OK, thanks,


Cool stuff people! Where is that race car guy with the .058 wall 4130 TIG love? I am looking forward to my first lug frame very soon. I love the seat stay eyes. Very nice. Thanks for sharing.

Alan Edwards

I have to ask,where o where do I go to get horizontal rear dropouts with derailleur tab. Don't tell me you made them, if so you are great.

ftwelder

I am not sure where I got those drops. I have a CNC mill so I could make them but I am sure they are Paragon or something. Stuff like that take sooo much time to make. I make all the parts to the aluminum bikes, head tubes, BB shells, drops and I also form the tubes in most cases.

Dave Kirk 

Some lugs and some fillets.

Dave

ftwelder

Amazing fabrication and photography. I think I saw these once before. Amazing.

mudboy

Amazing work, Dave...and Frank, that's not even fair. Your welds are amazing.

I don't have that many naked shots...but here are some from #2, which I just got back from the painter yesterday, and built/test rode today:





And the completed bike, a 650b wheeled commuter/shopper/path bomber:







Builder and built:



The entire album.

Shimagnolo

What brand and model is that tire???

mudboy

Panaracer/Rivendell Fatty Rumpkin 650x42.

NoReg

I was going to say something too, but the damn tire was so beautiful it took my breath away. Nice bike.

Sixty Fiver

Beautiful work... all of it.

Am looking forward to getting back to work and just about everything we do is brazing... will have my first refurb sanded and ready for paint soon and will make sure I snap a few pictures before the powder coat and then we have many frames in the queue.

My mentor and partner does some really beautiful work... says that I might be too fussy about the finishing.

bobbycorno

Yo, JohnD. Nice work. What's them lugs on the "prior" project? I've always had a soft spot for that "semi-fancy" profile, ala Prugnat.

SP
Bend, OR

JohnDThompson 

They're Tange "Champion":

JohnDThompson 

Here's an even older project:

ftwelder

Man, you have a good touch with the torch. I have my silver down pretty well so far but my brass isn't there yet. I am having a hard time seeing through the flux. When I first started brass, I used a mix of regular Harris silver flux mixed with boric acid. I then threw on extra boric acid when it seemed to begin to dry. I was using filler rod from a box marked "bare ass brass" so I wasn't sure what I had. I bought all new Gasflux filler and flux and it's not familiar and I am again struggling. I went from clear glass to a #3 filter which is an adjustment also.

If I may be so bold, your fillet/shoreline seems to be slightly on the robust side of "tight". not knowing better, I would describe it as Italian influenced as opposed to a slightly dry French style (from my point of view). I know you have been around for a while, you worked at Trek (which I toured in 2007 and was blown away) Can you describe what got you to this point?

ftwelder

I m sure you are a better brazer than I.

tuz

Hey Frank I too was struggling with bronze at first. What seems to work is heat, lots of it. What tips are you using? I use #4 Victor for lugs, #6 for crowns (and I'd want more), with oxy-propane.

JohnDThompson 

At Trek I literally brazed dozens of frames every day, 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week. I found a big "rosebud" tip worked well for me -- I could heat the joint quickly, flow in the brass, and get out before the frame knew what hit it.

We had to fix any of our own problems, so there was motivation to do it right the first time.

FWIW, we used oxy-propane with gasflux at Trek, and Gasflux "Type B" paste. Good stuff. Now I use oxy-acetylene with paste flux -- Type B paste for brass, Gasflux "Type U" or Harris black paste flux for silver. I find a didymium (glassblower) lens works well for silver as it highlights the color change as the metal get to the proper temperature.

Airburst

Have any of you fillet people ever considered doing a frame and polishing it up, then just going over it with some sort of clear-coat? That would look amazing, if you ask me!

Six jours

The Rivendell folks in my neighborhood have several done up like that. The downside is that clearcoat or clear powdercoat isn't adequately moisture resistant, so within a year or two you'll start to see some rust forming. At that point, the frame gets stripped and - because both chemical stripping and sandblasting leave kind of an ugly finish on steel - painted. So it's kind of temporary, but fun while it lasts!

ftwelder

Another propane user. hmmm. I just got an email from my fuel supplier. Something about an explosion at an acetylene plant.