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Old 03-16-20, 08:59 PM
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bulgie 
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Originally Posted by unterhausen
My goal for fillets is to not have an edge and avoid this problem altogether.
I think I know what you mean, but for the sake of people reading this to learn -- you mean brazing them so the toe or edge of the fillet feathers out into the steel? Hard to describe in words, but it's a fillet that doesn't need any metal removal to look good painted. When everything is just right -- prep, flux, heat distribution, flame size and position etc. -- the fillet wants to make this shape. It just lays down that way. Beautiful to see while its happening.

I noticed that a titanium weld puddle does that too. Never could get a steel weld to make that shape, or at least not nearly as perfectly as Ti did, right from my first attempt at welding Ti. (I had a good teacher.) It's more like brass fillet brazing, which I was good at already by the time I learned to weld Ti. Similar enough to the muscle memory from fillet brazing, that making that shape in Ti was easy. The fact that I thought the Ti weld puddle was beautiful to look at molten, before it froze, had zero benefit to the consumer, who never got to see that. But it did make me like welding it.

OK, I digress (as usual). But it does pertain to this discussion in a way, because with Ti you don't usually get to smooth the welds or even hide them under paint. If you try to get your fillet brazing to that same standard, fillets that need no smoothing or hiding, then your frame will probably last longer. And think of all the time you'll save compared to sculpting and smoothing all your fillets. Even with die grinders and dynafiles, it's still a lot of work that can be avoided with fillets laid down right to begin with.

Mark B
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