Home of the Braze pt. II

Okay, you're reading this backwards.
Part One is below.
For those of you coming up here from Part One, please read on.
All others, scroll down.
Anyways in Part One, you saw my first attempt at making a brazing connection.
It's a connection, that's about all I can say.
Brazing is like soldering.
In fact it is soldering and the metal needs to do the same thing.
Meaning you need to heat up both sides of whatever you are trying to braze, and let the solder/braze flow.
If the parts are not sufficiently heated, you'll get a cold solder/braze.
Using an O-A torch, you don't want to get too hot for you'll make a puka in the metal so to regulate the heat, you need to pull back on the torch a bit and not get too anxious.
Second attempt, this time on the corner of the joint:



Now we're talking!
Okay, this part was really easy as the brass just sort of knows where to go.
I mean it's not like brazing a flat surface.
Most of my corner brazes looked like this.
Boy did my head get all big.
Until I did the other side:



Still having trouble controlling the puddle.
You can use the pressure of the flame to actually move the puddle around.
Sort of.
My first concern was making sure the metal was "bonding" together, meaning I had the steel hot enough so that the braze could do it's thing.
I got a little better:



Kind of.
You can see that the lower tube didn't really get a nice cover of braze, it sort of all stayed on the top tube.
Then there was the tube that wasn't aligned very well:



There, the braze just dripped right on through.
Which is why them frame dudes mitre everything as close as possible.
Actually, I started to think that fillet brazing a frame isn't out of the question as long as your joints are set up properly.
A good one:



All in all I did five joints, each one getting a little better.
Once you figure out how to control the heat and the brazing rod, it's actually sort of easy.
What I learned in art school:



I'll have that piece of abstract art up for sale on my Etsy page soon.
Okay, not really.
What is real is that with a bit o'time and practice, I'd say building a frame at home is not out of the question.
In my browsing last night, I figured you can get a set of Richard Sachs lugs and drop outs and some Columbus tubes for around $300.
I haven't figured out the jig yet, but I'm thinking for a couple of hunskies more you'd be all set.
Next I think I'll try some MAPP gas and some silver braze I got somewhere around here and see how that works.
I've used MAPP on copper, but never on steel.
I'm sort of interested to see how it turns out.
Stay tuned.

Sunday Early Edition

Oh what a night!
Late December back in '63.
Oh wait.
That's a song.



Now that I think of it, it's sort of appropriate.
More on that later.
Anyways last night, the lightning show was pretty spectacular!
Okay, most of you out there are like "big deal! what's a little lightning?"
Well lightning here used to be sort of a rare occurrence, I mean we'd get lightning maybe a couple of times a year.
This year however, the storms have been spectacular:



I mean that was going on practically all night!
Like there was a disturbance in the Force.
Or something.
Maybe.
Seems like Purple One Kenobi called it right.
I went too far.
I may have gone over to the Dark Side.
Could I be switching over from the Alloy Goodness to SRAM?
After all the frame searching I did, and I don't know how I missed it the first time around, I found something I just couldn't pass up.
Well, I did pass on a couple of vintage Faggins, both in really nice condition, but both I believe were free wheel bikes and I didn't really want to go through that again.
There were also a couple of Scapin frames out there, but they were a little too much for me to justify hitting the Buy It Now button.
Then there were the to two Cannondale folks who didn't want to ship to Hawaii.
I also kept on going back to Nashbar to look at that Fuji.
There was this one frame though, that caught my eyeballs.
It was one of the original frames I was looking at and at the time, well even now I suppose, is no longer available.
Can you guess what it is?
No, not a Colnago or DeRosa.
Too much scratch for me.
I got me this:



More of my money flying through cyber space!
It just caught my eye like a rolling ball of thunder!
So to speak.
I've put up my beloved Chris King wheels on the eVilness to help see my new project to completion.
Boy did I take a wrong turn somewhere around page three of Bicycles and Frames and after stewing about it practically all day, and after visiting the High Oracle of Dedacciai and making a sacrifice, I hit the Button of No Remorse.
Which may turn into the Button of Great Remorse for the frame is a 50cm, one size larger than what I'm riding right now.
Still, I couldn't let it go.
It came out to only a hunski more than what that Fuji would have cost me.
Now to figure out what I'm going to do about a group set.
There may be more thunder and lightning tonight!
Stay tuned.