Originally Posted by
Retro Grouch
Well, it's kind of like soldering copper water pipes together. After carefully preping the tubes and pinning them together with the lugs, you heat up the whole assembly with a torch. When the temperature is right, you use molten silver or (more commonly) brass solder to fuse the joint together. I suspect the reason why you don't see more lugged frames being built today is because it's more labor intensive than TIG welding.
I don't know which is actually stronger and I'd argue that it doesn't matter anyway. Both joining methods have been proven to be strong enough.
The irony here is that the main reason lugs were used in the first place was to save labour; simply soldering tubes into lugs saved a lot of skilled work compared to meticulous hand-welding. Of course, this is completely inverted in the era of robotic welding on mass-production lines, and lugs are now an unmistakable sign of a handmade frame.
I personally love the beauty of a quality lugged frame and have huge respect for the craftsmanship a high-grade example requires.
