One thing that bugs me about the preforms and plug joints is the slight valley where the filler sometimes doesn't completely come up to the level of the tube/casting. I'm confident that the joint is completely penetrated and sound but, in the finishing, there's a slight ring around the joint there. Most times, i run a ring of filler around the outside but then I have a bunch of extra clean up to do and it can flare out onto the tube and it's just generally a pain.

I was digging around on Flickr and saw this from Curt Goodrich's feed. Aside from his usual amazing work, I notice the ring around the crown sockets. I think that ring is designed to wick the filler out a bit to avoid this valley at the butt joint of the tube and shelf on the casting. I'm sure he's figured out how to avoid the valley without the little ring but, if I ever design plug style dropouts or crowns, I will definitely add that ring!


After finishing:

IMG_6598 by curt_goodrich, on Flickr

IMG_6594 by curt_goodrich, on Flickr