Originally Posted by Andrew R Stewart

With steel tubes and brazing lugs are more to locate tubes and spread joint stresses then to be the strength of the joint. I have always thought that one could trim back the socket depth of a lug to 4mm's (or so) and not loose any joint strength (as long as the miters were done well). It's been said that most all lugs are overkill as far as strength goes. It's been said many times by builders far more experienced then i that the joint's integrity comes from the miter, tube to tube contact.