RE: [CR]LUGGED FRAMES VERUS FILLET BRAZED FRAMES

(Example: Racing:Jacques Boyer)

Subject: RE: [CR]LUGGED FRAMES VERUS FILLET BRAZED FRAMES
Content-class: urn:content-classes:message
Date: Sat, 3 Dec 2005 01:07:51 -0800
Thread-Topic: [CR]LUGGED FRAMES VERUS FILLET BRAZED FRAMES
thread-index: AcX3bTZWGuBeVI95R22Ip7i4uZZTPAAdnNMw
From: "Mark Bulgier" <Mark@bulgier.net>
To: "joel metz" <magpie@blackbirdsf.org>
cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

joel metz wrote
>
> yes, but what about jack taylors! norman is reasonably known for
> *not* filing his filets! (believe it or not - but thats what
> friends who have apprenticed in the taylor works tell me! ) :)

I have seen enough lugless Taylors with the paint off to tell you for sure that they were only minimally filed or not at all. I have also known several other classic and modern builders who developed their fillet brazing skill to the degree that no filing was needed.

<brag> I stopped filing my fillets (with rare exceptions) in the late 80s, and I doubt any of my customers noticed. After 10 years or so of filing and sanding, I was tired of it! Also 10 years of brazing is how long it takes to get that good. (Well maybe 5 if you're a natural!)

Then I started using thinner, lighter tubes on lugless frames, partly as a result - even the most careful smoothing of the fillet thins the steel, at least a little.

My own tandem has .6/.3 (lightest bike frame tubing ever made) for the internal bracing tubes, .7/.4 for the top tube, .7 plain gauge for the bottom (keel) tube. Such thin tubing also needs a fast technique with minimal heat input. Ironically I found that the faster I went (to a point) the smoother they came out. The degree of concentration that takes is very exhausting though - I frequently had to take breaks from brazing to do other framebuilding chores - doing nothing but brazing all day in a factory setting would be hellish, to me anyway. As much as I love it.

I have had some people who see those fillets think I am kidding (or lying) when I say they are in the as-brazed condition. </brag>

Mark Bulgier
Seattle WA USA