When we visited the old office of DeRosa along the road to
Brianza to use a pump in 1983, I was surprised to find no
production facilities. Then I knew it had new workshop near the
old office.
I don't know exactly what " carrousel " means but I found a
production line like a horseshoe when I visited there to order a
frame in 1983. There were several young men including at least
one son of Ugo but were not working then. So I cannot say whether
the long stand like horseshoe was a automatic conveyer or not.
The Casati at Monza made a large workshop comparable to DeRosa in
1983 but I did not find that horseshoe line but a vacant space.
I heard that in early 1970s when Mr. Nagasawa, who later made
the frames of Nakano, was at De Rosa, there were only Ugo, his
wife and Nagasawa .
And I was surprised to see a magazine of 1998 and to find the
factory of DeRosa was much bigger than that I visited. Also
surprised to find a palace of Colnago , big factory of Rossin
........
Takao Noda
Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan
> I also admire the de Rosa style and the de Rosa ride, but as
with many other
> brands we could name, the older ones had better workmanship. I
think the
> brazing carousel was the downfall of de Rosa quality - and for
every other
> builder that used a carousel too.
>
> I've seen maybe 5 de Rosas with the paint off (in for repaint),
and on 2 of
> them the seat lug was about half brazed. Small sample size
indeed, but a
> seat lug with no brass at all around half of the seat tube
pocket AND the
> top tube pocket - that should NEVER happen - yet I've seen two.
I just
> can't imagine that happening except in a carousel environment.
>
> With the brazing carousel, the guy brazing the seat lugs has to
finish in
> the same amount of time as the guys doing the top lugs and down
lugs. When
> the frame moves on to the next station, if you're not done,
tough! I'm sure
> the seat lug guy can yell to whoever is controlling the
carousel "hey wait
> I'm not done yet", but how many times is he going to admit he's
too slow
> (and risk getting fired?). There's a big tendency to just let
it go. Also
> the concentration required is immense; speed up the process,
and make it
> super repetitive (no top or down lugs or BBs to relieve the
tedium) and
> there's bound to be lapses in concentration.
>
> I don't know when de Rosa went to carousel brazing - I'm
guessing late
> 80s-early 90s? Individual frames after that point might be
superlative, but
> I'm afraid the average quality had to have gone down.
>
> There are advantages to brazing quickly - the steel is damaged
not just from
> peak temperature, but also time-at-temperature, so a technique
that makes
> the heat cycle shorter is usually a good thing. The trick is
to avoid
> "burn-out" of the brazer.
>
> I made forks on a carousel at Davidson, but it was just two
guys, and the
> brazer had control of when the carousel moved on - the other
guy was just a
> fluxer/loader/unloader. That was actually fun, and making the
forks faster
> made them better forks. When Bill started talking about a
frame carousel
> though, he practically had a mutiny on his hands - all the
brazers hated the
> idea. Luckily he never got one - I think he knew quality would
suffer, and
> he cared more about quality than quantity, bless him.
>
> I downloaded this video of the Colnago frame carousel, I forget
where, but
> you can get it off my server if you want at
> http://bulgier.net/
> you guys with fast internet connections. The narration is so
full of
> bullshit and lies that I lost what little respect I had for
Colnago after
> viewing it. Imagine yourself one of those brazers, and
remember it's
> ungodly loud and hellishly hot, and this video was staged for
the camera so
> the reality is much worse. Then ask yourself what sort of
craftsman would
> work under those conditions. I think the answer is "one who
couldn't keep
> any other job".
>
> Mark Bulgier
> Seattle, Wa USA