Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 19,344
Likes: 5,461
From: Rochester, NY
Bikes: Stewart S&S coupled sport tourer, Stewart Sunday light, Stewart Commuting, Stewart Touring, Co Motion Tandem, Stewart 3-Spd, Stewart Track, Fuji Finest, Mongoose Tomac ATB, GT Bravado ATB, JCP Folder, Stewart 650B ATB
Originally Posted by
Kontact
Small bikes have steeper down tubes. Given an off-the-shelf lost wax cast, tight fitting BB shell and lower HT lug, how are you supposed to modify them?
Cut them away on the inside of where you are bending them to, and bend to close the gap, then silver solder? Yes
Cut them away on the outside of the bending direction and fill with brass, then file inside and out? Yes
Cut away at the side, split the side and bend both halves, then solder? Yes
Cut them away entirely and replace with a piece of mitered tubing and brass? Yes
Refuse to build frames for anyone under 5'8"?
As long as we can refuse any rider over 5'10" too 
Really all but the last is done and which method depends on a few factors. The biggie is how much angle change is needed.
Generally I was able to get about 1* of change from the lug's intended angle with very little tweaking of the lug's curves and sockets using pliers or a small adjustable wrench as initial forming tools and not loose what I would call "good enough gaps" for silver to fill. When the angle changes grew I next would do some internal to the lug sockets grinding. This usually means the internal gaps between the tube and lug will grow a bunch. Here's when changing to a bronze filler might be seen as the smart move by some. I've managed as much as 4+* of angle change this way and used bronze filler. One can hack saw a "dart" (to borrow a tailoring term), close up the cut, braze/weld it shut and continue with internal to the socket clean up although I never tried this I have used a similar method of forming a domed stay end with good results. The last method is to just make the lugs yourself. A tube with a .058" wall will slide over another tube that has a diameter 1/8" less than tube #1. So an upper head lug for classic road tubes might be a 1.375"x.058" tube as the source for the head tube portion and a 1.125"x.058" tube at the top tube portion of this yet to be made lug. These lugs can be made for pretty much any angle or tube diameters. I make my own head tube end reinforcement rings this way when I otherwise am filleting the frame. Andy (who's only 5'6")
I should add that the trouble of reangling lugs and wanting to play with tube diameters are two big reasons why so many of my frames, regardless of their size or wheels, have been filleted. I made a few Terry type bikes (terryaki...) with lugs and the lower head angle around 65-66 degrees and at some point the HJ lugs availability of 64* lower lugs had dried up. These days I would probably just make some lugs if I had to do another lugged Terry type. Andy.
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AndrewRStewart
Last edited by Andrew R Stewart; 12-20-25 at 02:42 PM.
Reason: extra opinion