ricklp

Cool. Thank you for the replies.

The bottom bracket tools are calling out to me since most of the LBS's look at me like I am an alien when I ask them about chasing the bottom bracket threads, or rethreading a French BB to an Italian. I bought the pedal thread bushing taps and am pleased with the cranks I have saved. Hozan Spoke roller is likely the next tool purchase.

Which dropout alignment tools do you recommend? That may be a sensible purchase as well.

I think the tool purchases most likely to happen are the ones that can be used for more than just frame building.

I do a lot of automotive fabrication, so building the frame jig looks doable.

I will likely build a frame. I am intrigued with the idea. The stars and planets will just have to align, and I will start building. Or it will be a Tandem or recumbent build of some sort.

It has been so many years since I have ridden a proper steel road bike that I must do so that before I commit to building one. I am in the parts gathering phase of assembling one now.

druptight

Park FFG-2 is what I've got. Does the trick.

Syscrush

Is there anything on this bike that you're dissatisfied with?

To most of us here I think it looks perfect - but the builder's eye is often more critical (sometimes ridiculously so).

Danish guy

Great bike, and great thread! Still being red

fietsbob

My Self Built frame was decades before the Digital camera and the internet were invented ..

Borrowed tools and space.

no jig just half round wooden blocks in the bench vise..








....

Cassave

So was my first. When Kodachrome was king........

Gyro_T

I am using neanderthal methods to make brackets for the racks I have built. I.E. when I need to fashion a bracket I am using the metal chop saw or angle grinder and cutting a small piece of chrome moly or stainless steel plate and grinding it on the grinder. I would like to find a more refined method of making pleasing shapes. I see you guys cutting cute little hearts and stuff out of lugs and I am amazed at the detail. A jewelers saw? A diamond blade in a coping saw? Mold maker's files, jeweler's files? What are the proper tools for this kind of work? Thanks in advance. BTW Cassave, the black flux did the trick for my silver solder and stainless projects. Could not get the turquoise Harris flux to make it flow right. Thanks

Andrew R Stewart 

Jeweler's saws are great for really fine detail sawing. Drill a through hole and feed the blade through then carefully start the saw in the right direction. Expect to break a lot of blades 9that's why they are packaged by the dozens) and remember to have at least 2 or 3 teeth contacting the part.

I make many of my own eyelets, cable stops and rack bosses from thick walled tubing. Here's a shot of a DT gear cable stop before it's brazing. The threaded section is from a canti boss. The jig is self made from scrap laying about. Andy.

WildeHilde

Hi guys,

i build up a lugged steel bike and have made a blog (my first) about that. I would be pleased, if you have a look and gave me feedback about my work. No matter whether here or at the blog.

https://hildesbikeblog.wordpress.com/

Thanks in advance!

Cheers
Thomas

hopwheels

This is utterly stunning work. Incredibly documented. Really appreciate the artistry and craftsmanship. Just amazing.

arod_the_great

This is Literally the most satisfying thing I've seen. You managed to put my life dream into this thread. You're work is amazing and I hope to be half as good as you when I learn how to make a bicycle. This is truly amazing. Thanks for your posts.

Outstanding.

Gyro_T

Hello Steve,
I have read back through this thread to try to get some insight on doing the fillet on the seat stays. The reason is that I am finally getting back to project I started years ago, and I guess you could say, I failed at. Since then I have practiced with some brazing and silver soldering projects and learned more about the importance of "prepping" the material, and the proper flux to use. I have disassembled the tubes from the lugs and starting over. I am apprehensive about the amount of heat around the seat cluster while creating the fillet on the seat stays. I am worried about affecting the joint of the top tube and the seat tube. Can you tell me what size tip you use and if you use something other than a neutral flame? I have seen heat sink materials to protect an area that will be heated adjacent to an area you are brazing. Do you use that stuff, or just a light touch with the torch? Thanks for sharing you knowledge,

MB

unterhausen

don't worry about that, you will not re-melt the filler in the lugs when you do the seat stay joint

Cassave

@Gyto_T

As unterhausen said, not to worry.

Brazing an uncapped seat stay to the seat lug doesn't need much heat buildup.

I tend to braze everything with a #2 tip and a slightly carburizing flame.
If you're doing shot-in stays, like the bike in this thread consider inverting the frame when you braze the seat cluster, upside down, the material flow works better that way.

fietsbob

I made a one piece wrap over cap I added once the seat stays were on.

T.R.M.

vry helpful!

T.R.M.

Helpful, ty!

bikebasket

Love the simplicity of that jig. Did you make it yourself? Is that just simple angle iron clamped to the tube frame?
And heavy gauge aluminium for the main body?

Interested in jigs for making just one frame.

Cassave

The hot rolled angle is welded to the toggle clamps, those assemblies are bolted to the aluminum bars, allowing angle and top tube position adjustments.

I just realized this thread is 10 years old! Time I posted a few pics of the bike in it's current configuration (actually not much different than when built) .

bikebasket

Cassave,

Thanks for the reply.

Fascinating thread this.

Did you use silver solder for the whole frame or just the forks? If so, why the preference to brass? Is it abit to do with your aversion to heat? Is it alot easier than brass? As strong?

I'm guessing fillet brazing with silver is out of the question, but good with lugs??

unterhausen

there are silver brazing fillers that will build fillets. Fillet Pro from Cycle designs is one. Some people use 45% silver for fillets, make sure to avoid cadmium bearing versions. Silver is just as strong as bronze, it's not hard to find the engineering data. Having said that, I see no reason to use it for fillets. Anything that requires a fillet, like bridges dropouts and seat stays, I use bronze. I used Fillet Pro on a seat stay attachment and regretted it when I had to replace the seat tube. Bronze would have been much better.

Silver takes a lot less heat. You can go watch people like Hirose build with bronze on youtube, the phrase "kill it with fire!" comes to mind for most of us. Otherwise, they are roughly equivalent processes. A lot of people have an obsession with heat way out of proportion to its actual importance. The number of high-end bike frames built with bronze vastly outnumbers those built with silver. My acetylene tank will barely put out enough gas to comfortably braze with bronze, it's wise to check the rate of gas usage for the tip you are planning on using vs the gas supply capacity of the tank.

Andrew R Stewart 

Silver covers a number of filler options. The most popular , IME, is 56% with Harris being a very commonly found brand. It has a narrow temp range between solid and liquid and it runs like water when at the proper temp. It only really build a meniscus at lug edges and such. I have read that if you do build up a filet with 56% it can crack, it shrinks a tiny bit as it solidifies and the outside cools first. So the now solid outside won't draw in as the inside core is solidifying and a fissure can develop deep in the fillet.


Other silvers can be far more "gummy" and/or not flow as easily or have other strength at x gap specs.


These days I use bronze for most all tube to tube, tube to drop out/crown/shell/lug. It's vastly cheaper, way more tolerant of fit up issues and makes for well proven fillets. I also find the few odd brazing jobs I do, other then building, almost always need bronze.


One thing that many newbies don't account for initially is the practice that most have to do before they go to the intended frame project. One can burn up as much gas and melt as much filler leading up to the frame as with the frame making it's self. Andy

Cassave

The whole frame and fork is silver (AWS Bag7, 56% Cad free). The Hank James fork tips and dropouts are a plug style, in fact they're supplied with a silver preform. There's no large gaps
between tube and plug so bronze isn't needed for a gap fill.

Silver will allow small fillets if you can keep the heat in the middle of the liquidus/solidus range. I've used that to good effect on stainless racks, bottle cages etc.

Bag7 doesn't have the tensile strength of LFB but with the large surface area of a lug it's well more than enough.

TiHabanero

This winter I picked up the torch again after a 12 year layoff. Revived some flux from dried out state to somewhat creamy, but many chunks. As soon as the joint approaches temp the flux goes black. Is there a time limit on shelf life of flux? Garage temp was around 25 degrees fahrenheit. Tip size #2, neutral flame.

unterhausen

I really don't think flux ages, although something might have precipitated out. I usually use heat and water to reconstitute flux. What kind of flux is it?