Re: [CR]Cinelli Lasers, bondo, and a more surprising fill material.

(Example: Framebuilding:Tubing:Falck)

Date: Tue, 08 May 2007 20:07:45 -0400
From: "Harvey Sachs" <hmsachs@verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [CR]Cinelli Lasers, bondo, and a more surprising fill material.
In-reply-to: <20070508.062932.15664.2811856@webmail32.lax.untd.com>
To: "brianbaylis@juno.com" <brianbaylis@juno.com>, Classic Rendezvous <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
References: <20070508.062932.15664.2811856@webmail32.lax.untd.com>


Brian - I don't think that you're right on this one, but I might be confused. My memory is that I used a fair amount of heat to burn the paint before the metal started dripping out, that the color was the grey-silver of lead, and I might convince myself that I remember it being heavy. But, that was over 30 years ago. It's also possible that Schwinn changed what they used over time.

The old-fashioned plumber's solder with the nice low melting point was pretty cheap. I still have a couple of rolls of it, and the Oatey is marked 40 tin/60 lead. Any alloy like this should have a lower melting point than either of the constituents by itself. If I recall correctly, the min. melting point alloy is the "Eutectic" mix; hence the name of the brazing/welding supply outfit.

On the other hand, I don't have any more of those tandem frames, and it might have been one of those trick alloys, like the stuff they used for teaspoons that melted when you stirred the tea. Yuck. My memory, but you would know it much better than I, is that some of these had such low melting points that they were used to fill stays and such before bending them, to keep the round cross section. Easy to melt and pour in, easy to melt out.

regards, and thanks for the note. harvey sachs McLean VA

brianbaylis@juno.com wrote:
> Harvey,
>
> I've seen some Schwinns like you mentioned. The filler is probably not
> lead, but a low temp. solder of some sort. The one I worked on the
> material acted more like aluminium than lead. Probably some sort of
> soft solder.
>
> Brian Baylis
> La Mesa, CA
>
>
>
> -- Harvey Sachs <hmsachs@verizon.net> wrote:
> Mssrs Schmidt and Hollenberg have, I hope, come to agreement that some
> Lasers do and some don't, which is good enough for me.
>
> For your reading pleasure, a Real Story. It was a long time ago, and
> I
> was using a little propane torch for stripping the paint from our
> early
> 1950s Schwinn Town & Country tandem, a fine, 4130 chrome-moly,
> fillet-brazed beast. Suddenly, there was a splatter. Then more. Yes,
> in
> those long ago days of yore, before OSHA*, Schwinn used a bit of lead
> to
> smooth the joints... I can't remember what I replaced it with, but it
> was probably bondo. :-) FWIW, a lot of lead was used for custom auto
> bodies in the pre-Bondo era.
>
> harvey sachs
> McLean VA
> *Caution: If you think OSHA is a town in
> Wisconsin, you could get in big trouble.