In the process of slowly building my own rack. I'm using 3/8" OD 4130 cromo tubing. Been playing with bending mostly and I think I have it mostly figured out for my, for now, mostly simple bends. Was planning on brazing the thing together, though I may weld one up to compare aswell.

Looking forward to how to mount the thing, what have people been doing for mounting points?

Are you using mounting tabs? If so, where are you sourcing the tabs? How are you filling in the huge gaps?

Other method I thought of was to use tubing and miter the rack tubing for a nice fit but this would result in a long mounting bolt, which seems less ideal...?

Thoughts/opinions?

I'm a little lost on the tabs and gaps and etc.

Hmmm...

Front rack, and trying to attach to dropout rack mount points?

Yes, although the rear support strut could be made the same way also I suppose.

I found the ones below, which would necessitate cutting a slot into the tubing to slide these in and then there would be a big gap on either side where the flat tab is thinner than the round tube:

edit: same tabs as Livewire posted

That sounds a lot like vintage rear dropouts are installed. Brazed in place, then any gaps filled with brass (I think).

With a lathe, one could make similar tabs out of 3/8" round bar stock (OD of your tubing). cut one end down to the ID of your tubing. Leave a shoulder for support, and then grind, forge, or machine the other end to your suiting. Drill the hole and braze together.

I assume most modern racks simply have the tubing ends smashed together. You could do it with a vice. Then using brass to fill the gap and drill. For thinner tubing, you could sandwich in a third piece, although getting sizes perfect would be a hassle.

I have an old Burley rack and most of the tooling for making them.

The Burley rack used a 3 tube support for the rack, with the middle tube larger than the others. The bottom of the middle tube was cut at a 45 degree (or so) angle. Then a plate with a 135 degree (or so) bend was welded or brazed to the end of the tube. The plate had 2 holes for adjustment, and a slot to catch the pannier spring/bungee.

I'll try to get a photo shortly.

it's not hard to fill the gaps with brass. It isn't absolutely necessary to cut slots for the tabbed mounts. I make my own out of bar stock if I'm making a rack with stainless.

Nova sells the llewellyn socketed rack parts https://www.cycle-frames.com/bicycle...ess-Steel.html

I can't find the Paragon Machine works rack tabs, maybe they are gone. They were plugs

Compass also sells rack tabs

Tomorrow I'll post my solution for rack tabs in my thread tps://www.bikeforums.net/framebuilders/1158438-rack-making.html . I've taken off my walking boot and the camera in downstairs still.

As mentioned rack tab can be installed much like tabbed drop outs are. Actually they're easier as both the stresses and the gaps to be filled are less. I have a few different tabs, much like what has been shown. But I wanted a different strut/tab arrangement so the tabs are also different then what's available. I'm using 5/16" tubes and a center bracket to the brake bolt because the rack will see only very light weight.

Those Llewellyn bits look interesting but using a M3 bolt??? They also are to direct mount to that very popular brake, Pauls.

As to using a piece of tubing as the tab, sure it will work fine. Bolt length isn't a problem as long as the bolt is seated well on the tube/tab and the tube/tab is seated against the eyelet solidly.

Will you add light tabs? How about pannier lower hook points? Andy

The Llewllyn parts will work with other brakes, that's easy. Paul brakes need something to fit into the adjuster. If you look on Darrel Darrell McCulloch's flickr, you can find a number of examples. They work best for randonneur racks.

I would suggest anyone that wants to build a rack look on flickr or instagram for examples. The only problem with flickr is that people love to post pictures of public bike storage racks, and they dominate searches for "bike rack". You have to add search terms.

Well you learn something every day... I thought that the rack was mounted with M3s, which would be a bad choice for anything but a show bike Like many I just developed an opinion without doing my homework.

The drop out like tabs- I do like filing (a warding/key hole file is great for this) a slight slot in the tube to help better locate the tube when brazing. Maybe a belt and suspenders thing. But it's these little details that I like playing with when building. No wonder that I'd go hungry were I to rely on my building for food.

Here's a shot of my current rack that shows the tabs I made. Since I wanted to have two struts attach to the tab I wanted the tab to have a triangular shape. What I cut and ground out will get further trimming along one side after the second strut is attached to look better. The tube piece laying above the tab is about the angle that the second strut will be at. Above this piece is my practice for that second strut's shape. There will be some triangulation, a loop idea borrowed from Tubus. I think I need a larger radius the that loop's curve though... Andy

Great info all! Glad to hear, the gap issue seems to be a non-issue but also glad for the other ideas as well. More design decisions to mull upon. Thanks again all! Have a Happy Turkey Day tomorrow!

I cut slots in the tube, but I usually don't shape the tabs to fit very far past the end of the slots into the tube. Probably about 1/8" if I do it at all.

I want to build a rack for my Salsa mukluk. I haven't really gotten past the need to hook it in via the dropout pivot bolt. I always felt they could have spared just the tiniest extra expense to add a rack eyelet on those dropouts. I was going to turn down a piece of stainless for that mount, it has to clear a hooded structure on the frame. I probably makes more sense to use a separate spacer, now that I think about it a little more.

For the style of rack that Andy is building, I do the dropout attachment the same way. I add a fender eyelet on the tab, because I always thought that was one of Tubus' best ideas. I use 1/8" steel for my tabs. I have a 1 1/4" wide bar for the dropout on rear racks, and a 1/2" wide bar for everything else.

Top struts for a modified Bruce Gordon rack , I used square 1/2" made the tabs in 1/8" steel ..

they fitted to the rack with bottle boss braze-ons, ... and bolts..

Original mount was the typical SS strip, with a twist in it..