Has anyone used glue to joint steel lugged frames?
#51
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A brazed joint can be stronger than a glued joint, and brazing technology is known, proven, reliable, and inexpensive. What would be the advantage of a glued steel frame? IIRC, some of the Raleigh USA "Technium" frames used glued Reynolds 753 tubes to get around Reynolds' 753 brazing certification requirement.
This morning I opened up that other site and started scrolling r/BikeMechanics, to find this:
Lo and behold, a Raleigh Technium with a failed shifter boss.
It kind of looks like the shifter boss was glued onto a painted frame (or they used paint-colored glue?). Now I'm no expert on gluing stuff together, but I have read the instructions on the back of some expoxy repair bottles. They usually say "clean and dry, something something, sand down to bare metal, mumble mumble, clamp, something".
Hmm.
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Or carbon has made this redundant. Development of steel technology within cycling is pretty well at a dead end and has been replaced by Carbon which by all indications still has a way to go. Take a Specialized Aethos a mass production bicycle frame under 600 grams and reliable as any other.
Perhaps nothing new will be thought up, but we already have the shaped tubes, and downtubes that are small at one end and large at the other end.
#53
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I am certainly not an expert, but based on physical appearances, I think the industry has moved to toothpaste for welds.
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Seriously, tho, aluminum requires a bigger weld fillet than steel, so the welds are going to be more obvious on an alloy bike.
My 4130 SoftRide has tiny, needle-point welds, as compared to the stack of dimes on my daughter’s 6061 Pacific (which has surprisingly nice welding for a mid-grade 24” kids’ bike)
With the exception of a few models like the CAAD-13 and the Allez Sprint, aluminum has really been pushed out of the top of the lineup by carbon and into the cost-point market, so those smooth “double-pass” hand-welded frames aren’t what you’ll find at the prices Aluminum bikes inhabit.
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Did they double-pass those welds or just grind them? I understand why they did it, but they did undercut the tubing a little on most bikes, you can see it in the pic above.
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"Double -Pass" was the term I first heard in the '90s, when I got my first 'Dale. From what I recall reading, very little cleanup was needed before paint to achieve that look. Sanding and polishing ' but not grinding.
Not sure about "undercutting"; The head tube on the 3.0 (at 35 mm) is significantly smaller than the TT or DT (40mm and 42mm) so there's a lot of contouring going on at those joints.
Not sure about "undercutting"; The head tube on the 3.0 (at 35 mm) is significantly smaller than the TT or DT (40mm and 42mm) so there's a lot of contouring going on at those joints.
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Bike-It UK just released a video of the restoration of a Raleigh Dynatech, which he had repainted and built it all up with his usual care and enthusiasm. On the test ride - which he was filming - the downtube PULLED OUT of the headtube lug as he crossed some trolley tracks. So, yeah, people tried it, and there can be issues, especially after decades.
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Bike-It UK just released a video of the restoration of a Raleigh Dynatech, which he had repainted and built it all up with his usual care and enthusiasm. On the test ride - which he was filming - the downtube PULLED OUT of the headtube lug as he crossed some trolley tracks. So, yeah, people tried it, and there can be issues, especially after decades.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k6OsRGAADo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k6OsRGAADo
I’ll stick to my brazed steel bikes!
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Ironfish653 that last pic you showed is definitely the result of a pulsed tig welder in use, it's what gives it the "roll of dimes" look.
terrymorse bet you can fix that shifter boss with some surface prep and properly applied JBWeld. Charge the customer for the cure time !
/markp
terrymorse bet you can fix that shifter boss with some surface prep and properly applied JBWeld. Charge the customer for the cure time !
/markp