I have had many discussions with Bill about building and he has been wonderful to talk to - always spending way more time with me than I deserve. When I first started, I took him my first batch of practice joints. I think his first feedback to me was something along the lines of 'holy S#!+, you cooked that one!'. I took him more joints, then a front triangle. I got better. He gave me my first practice lugs and dropouts. I met Will his builder a few times - the one with the double flamethrowers in the video.

The current bikes at the velodrome for the juniors now are TIG welded Davidsons so it is fitting (and intimidating) that my first 'public' bikes will race along side his bikes.

I have played with preforms on main mitered tubes but after an initial batch, success for me and my setup seemed unlikely so, I stopped. I could see adding them to the insides of a fillet joint. Again, the key is having it completely touch the tube and that's tricky unless you're heating the whole joint completely as Will does in the video.

With plugged dropouts and other fittings, I heat until I can see the brass flow inside the tube and then see it flow out the gap, then I run a very thin bead around the outside and give a few flicks upward to try to flow it back inward. I don't know if any flows inward and this outer bead adds to the clean up, but I don't have the little gaps that I sometimes got before I did this. When I'm using preforms, it's satisfying to see the flux bubble at the gap just before the brass flows out. I'm careful to not run the flame around the circumference. I only apply heat downward toward the butted gap. I don't want the brass to flow around the butted part of the joint and not flow all the way down the sides of the plug...if that makes sense.

About seeing the brass flow inside the tube, since the flowing brass adds mass that is slightly cooler, you can see it darken the redness in the heated tube and you can actually watch it flow down to the gap. This is also the case with lugs. This is something Bill made me aware of and it helps you see what's going on inside.

I like the idea of the boroscope. With these chainstays and straight fork blades, I have a bright pen light that I use to peer down into the tube to verify complete melting. It's pretty cold here (38* in the garage) so, it took a while to heat the dropouts and the flux started to expire in a couple little spots on the outside, inside is shiny and bright.

Chilling:

Swimming:

Cleaned Up: