Making Lugs/Cutting
 

I've got a plan inside my head. I want to cut some lugs but after scouring the web Pretty much all of the lugs I've found(investment and stamped) Just don't offer the amount of material I need. So I was looking into Cutting and welding my own lugs from tube. This is my intro into welding. If there are any people here that could point me in the direction of some further information that would awesome.

Optimally I would be getting a lug blank in the order of a Hetchins, I want a lot of room to play.

I think Hetchins added material to the end of lugs. That's how I would do it anyway, the scrollwork extensions do exactly nothing positive for the structure. In fact, make sure there is enough butting on the tubing that the extended heat affected zone is not on the thin part of the tube. I welded some extensions on to some lugs for one of my frames, and years later I saw that Peter Weigle brazes the extensions on and avoids all the complications of welding. Doh!

Nikko makes blank lugs and I remember recently reading that Doug Fattic was importing them. Look him up (he's on this forum a lot), he's great to work with and I'm sure he'll have more than a few tips for you!

Tom Kellogg has a nice tutorial over at the Framebuilders Collective. Click on Resources, then Workshop Techniques Hints and Tips. He brazes the lug rather than welding. Lots of good pictures and text.

Take a peek in this thread over on VS:

Frame Forum: How to cut a design out of blank lugs

Ultraorange, I have a supply of blank Nikko lugs in both standard and OS sizes. They have slightly longer sockets than the old stamped and welded blank lugs made by Haden, Nervex or Chater Lea. Nikko lugs are bulge formed so they have a nice smooth surface without any welded seams and their angles can be more easily altered than investment cast lugs. By chance I ran into Nikko at an Industrial trade show in Chicago (bulge forming is used in many ways) and convinced them to make lugs again. They hadn’t manufactured lugs in years. I also have a supply of Nikko spear point lugs that are very similar in shape to old Cinelli stamped lugs. These lugs have a little more real estate on top for cutting out some kind of single design like a cloverleaf or initial. I sell these lugs as a fundraiser for a charity bike project in Ukraine.

If your design extends beyond the limits of the length of the lug socket (for example like leaves on a vine), standard procedure is to just cut that part out of a regular tube and braze it directly onto the frame tube beyond the lug. It is possible to tig weld the extension onto the end of the lug but there isn’t much point to do that because it is only decorative and not functional. Hetchins attached their extensions by gas welding (melting the steel together with their oxyacetylene torch).

I became interested in designing lugs after getting a Hetchins in 1969. It had a simple lug design with straight stays (not their “curly” model they are famous for). When I apprenticed at Ellis-Briggs in England in 1975, Jack Briggs gave me what was left of their supply of blank lugs. In the 50’s they did a frame model that used a punch press with 17 different shapes to create their lug design. It was popular in England after the war for a builder’s top model to be a fancy design cut out of blank lugs.

Often in my framebuilding classes a student will choose to create a their own unique design using Nikko blank lugs.

Dare I even ask what something like this would run me?

And thanks to all of the other great replies, I will hungrily absorb it all. I also stopped by a local builder to get more info. Part of my design will include additional brazed on pieces that are not connected to the lugs.

It is $90 for a set of 3 blank lugs and $60 for a set of spearpoint lugs. Do you have my email address in case you have more questions and/or want to get in touch with me?

That's not so bad, my username at gmail. I saw some images of the Nikko lugs a little bit ago but if you've got any further links let me know.

Believe me, not even a down payment, on a down payment for learning to weld, go with the lugs.

OP; Just buy a few feet of chromolly tubing and make your own lugs leaving as much length in the legs as you desire. Get .058 wall in sizes 1/8" larger than each of your tubes and start notching to fit your frame design measurements. As far as published info or articles... not much that I have seen. Best advice I could offer is to notch your lug pieces as you go such that you can use the same angle settings on your tubing notcher you used to notch the frame tubes...and avoid your lugs not matching your frame design. Should the question be in your mind; yes you can tack them together in your frame jig with a low cost MIG unit ($80 or so). Then pull them out and finish weld the junction between the two lug pieces before beginning to cut and shape the lugs. I usually put the scallop cuts on the pieces before tacking them together to minimize file work.

Post if you have specific questions going forward

/K

Cutting the lug shape is already a lot of work, I would purchase the blanks. If you make your own you have to a) thin the 0.058 tubing on the lathe; b) mitre it; c) weld/braze; d) clean the braze/weld; e) finish the though hole (unless you have a mill as in post #4 ); d) shape the sockets and f) repeat three times. I've done it once... won't do it again in the near future.

I'd say that right now I'm looking to start by cutting some investment cast lugs.

Second I'm just going to experiment with cutting forms that I'll braze on some tubes.

Thanks again for all of the advice, right now I'm working on getting some tools together for this endeavor including making some like a lug vice and some jigs.