Lugs with enough material to modify them
 

Hi folks,

Can anybody recommend any good lug style (and source where to buy if possible) that has enough material to saw and customize them in own designs? If there even are any... Thanks!

Liewellyn and pacenti both make cast lugs with a lot of socket length. Nikko (sp?) makes pressed blanks. many builders make their own blanks from tubing. Andy.

Or you can use plain Steel filler and TIG together a couple tube sections,
So as to sleeve over your chosen tubes.. one size up of tube to be used in the frame,
and do the art on it .

Then after brazing in the tubes you can lay Brass Fillet over the Tig Bead, and make it invisible ..
seems brass wont stick well if you use stainless filler wire.

pacenti p2 lugs, (next to the nuovo richie), and lewellyn are designed for this and as mentioned by A Stewart. these guys are very helpful and courteous http://www.framebuilding.com/NEWPARTSPAGES/lugs.htm . Older style,cheaper pressed lugs tend to be a lot thicker and longer leaving some room for innovation although they can be made of softer steel so you cant fool with it quite as much

Agree with Ceeway being very easy to order from. Got my order this week after only 4 days! And that's across the Atlantic pond.

I do disagree with the comment about pressed (soft) lugs being hard to work with. They are more bendable and cut/file quicker. Granted they often mean that you're using brass (due to the gaps and fit being greater) but when you need to push the angles a lot their malleability is a godsend, and you'd be using brass with cast lugs stretched a lot anyways.

My first 25% of frames had pressed lugs. When I went to cast lugs some things got easier to do, some got harder and the time I spent didn't change much. Andy.

i didnt mean pressed lugs are hard to use at all, just that maybe a bit more shoreline has to be left if its softer steel?. I totally see the malleability. The fancier lugsets are certainly more pre set. I think the heat cycles must harden pressed lugs a bit as well.

Pressed lugs can be as tight/short to the tubes' junction as you can make them with no differences in total joint strength as the vast majority of the joint's strength comes from the tube to tube contact and the filler's flowing between this. As to the "softer" steel's hardening from heat cycles. I hope your heat control and the cooling off rate is up to the task as the tubing will go through whatever cycles that the lugs see too. Remember that far more pressed lug frames have been used for many more miles that any cast lug bike has. Andy.

Point taken that pressed lugs are good. I feel its fair to point out, the origin of the idea that pressed lugs are an inferior product and difficult to work which you have objected to -is in the above quote- not in my shared personal observations and questions.

My speculation (?) about whether lugs might harden A Little Bit is because steels for scraper burnishers etc can be tempered at lower temps than even silver joints are made at, Ive only built a handful of frames, cutting windows and designs in some really soft pressed lugsets made me feel they shouldnt be as big but I have also bought prugnats etc were every bit the equal of cast, just seemed to depend. I posted to exchange perspectives rather than stamp authority because i have similar interests to epicbike

The Pacenti Artisan lugs are designed with lots of material to allow for some shaping. They are OS. I think Pacenti is also planning to sell the Nikko lugs in std dia. There are two types, one with points and the other with square sockets; true blanks... those would be great.