how to plug unused braze-on holes
#26
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A little unrelated, what about vent holes? Keep them open?
#27
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I love bf. A thread about how to plug up some brazen holes has reached a 2nd page.
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nylon M5x0.8mm are easy to get.
https://www.mcmaster.com/nylon-screw...d-type~socket/
https://www.mcmaster.com/nylon-screw...d-type~socket/
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#30
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Take a disc grinder and grind them flat with the frame. Fill the holes in with jb weld, grind and sand smooth again, primer then paint the same color as bike. You wont even remember them being there and we can go on to another topic.
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#34
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Velo Orange also has black plastic eyelet screws (Philips head) that work well.
put a small dollop of anti-seize grease on the threads before installing.
put a small dollop of anti-seize grease on the threads before installing.
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I'm not saying that anti-seize is a bad idea, but it is a messy application. I don't want to sound like a skipping record, but try beeswax. It seals. Its does light thread-locking. Its practically invisible once installed, and it smells great! Two trillion bees cant be wrong!
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That would be a problem if you have a small piece of aluminum touching a big piece of stainless steel. In the case of a big piece of aluminum (ie. the frame), touching 2 small stainless screws, there is no real concern.
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I'm not saying that anti-seize is a bad idea, but it is a messy application. I don't want to sound like a skipping record, but try beeswax. It seals. Its does light thread-locking. Its practically invisible once installed, and it smells great! Two trillion bees cant be wrong!
#39
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It's still a potential problem in cases using stainless fasteners (small) in structural (large) pieces of aluminum when the risk of exposure to strong electrolytes is high.
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Its interesting to note that bikes of the past had either no braze-ons, and now they usually have too many!
I think that for the way most of us use our bikes, ANY fastener, coated with some form of lubricant or sealant, will perform nicely the duty of plugging a hole. Let's also remind ourselves that this is only a problem in aluminium frames. No one provided any links for validation, so I did a little looking and came up with these:
https://www.marshfasteners.com/safel...rews-aluminum/
I also cut/paste the following from this site: https://www.assda.asn.au/technical-i...etal-corrosion
Galvanized fasteners in stainless steel will also lose zinc more rapidly than stand alone exposures. An added disadvantage is that the corrosion product will turn from white to orange when the corrosion reaches the zinc-iron alloy near the bottom of the galvanized layer. After that, corrosion of the carbon steel fastener commences - again at a faster rate than stand alone exposures.
As a rule of thumb, if the wetted area of the corroding metal is 10 times the wetted area of the noble metal, then galvanic effects are not serious although the larger the ratio the less the effect.
When I was an aircraft mechanic, I went through extensive training on corrosion, types of corrosion, and how to spot and repair any damage caused by corrosion. I've seen a lot of different corrosion in a lot of different places. The most pronounced corrosion issues that I have ever seen in the nearly five decades that I have spent repairing bikes, has always been an un-greased aluminium seatpost in a carbon steel frame. Also for what it worth, I have only had a couple of problems with bottle cage mounting holes. Those instances were with steel frames and steel screws that had poor-quality plating or were black oxide coated. Out of those, there was rarely any issue with the screw itself, rather it would be rusted threads in the braze-on. I think that cheap plain steel is used for the screws, then they are dunked in chrome (not literally). The process of threading them into the braze-ons, damages the threads on the screw itself, exposing fresh steel, and that begins to rust both the screw threads and the hole threads.
Its all boils down to this - you want to take care of your bike, and that's why we are discussing it here. Be attentive and use good practices when maintaining your bike and there will never be any issues with using stainless fasteners, or anything else for that matter.
I think that for the way most of us use our bikes, ANY fastener, coated with some form of lubricant or sealant, will perform nicely the duty of plugging a hole. Let's also remind ourselves that this is only a problem in aluminium frames. No one provided any links for validation, so I did a little looking and came up with these:
https://www.marshfasteners.com/safel...rews-aluminum/
I also cut/paste the following from this site: https://www.assda.asn.au/technical-i...etal-corrosion
RELATIVE WETTED SURFACE AREA
If a noble metal like stainless steel has a large surface area in contact with the electrolyte while the sacrificial metal (such as aluminium) has a very small surface area in contact with the electrolyte, then the stainless steel will generate a large corrosion current which will be concentrated on a small area of sacrificial metal. The aluminium will corrode quickly, and so aluminium fasteners in stainless steel are not acceptable. However, a stainless screw in aluminium is frequently used although corrosion of the aluminium immediately around the stainless is quite possible. This is because the ratio of A wetted noble fastener in an active metal might change from a 1:50 ratio to 1:1 during drying after a rainstorm. If contaminants are significant this means that avoiding dissimilar metal pairs may be a preferred option to prevent galvanic attack.Galvanized fasteners in stainless steel will also lose zinc more rapidly than stand alone exposures. An added disadvantage is that the corrosion product will turn from white to orange when the corrosion reaches the zinc-iron alloy near the bottom of the galvanized layer. After that, corrosion of the carbon steel fastener commences - again at a faster rate than stand alone exposures.
As a rule of thumb, if the wetted area of the corroding metal is 10 times the wetted area of the noble metal, then galvanic effects are not serious although the larger the ratio the less the effect.
When I was an aircraft mechanic, I went through extensive training on corrosion, types of corrosion, and how to spot and repair any damage caused by corrosion. I've seen a lot of different corrosion in a lot of different places. The most pronounced corrosion issues that I have ever seen in the nearly five decades that I have spent repairing bikes, has always been an un-greased aluminium seatpost in a carbon steel frame. Also for what it worth, I have only had a couple of problems with bottle cage mounting holes. Those instances were with steel frames and steel screws that had poor-quality plating or were black oxide coated. Out of those, there was rarely any issue with the screw itself, rather it would be rusted threads in the braze-on. I think that cheap plain steel is used for the screws, then they are dunked in chrome (not literally). The process of threading them into the braze-ons, damages the threads on the screw itself, exposing fresh steel, and that begins to rust both the screw threads and the hole threads.
Its all boils down to this - you want to take care of your bike, and that's why we are discussing it here. Be attentive and use good practices when maintaining your bike and there will never be any issues with using stainless fasteners, or anything else for that matter.