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Thread: Practice, Practice, Practice or Wax on – Wax off

  1. #1
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    Default Practice, Practice, Practice or Wax on – Wax off

    After completing Bike #2, I realized that I wanted to go back and spend some time improving my brazing technique. Overall I was pleased with how the second bike turned out, but knew I wanted to make improvements. In addition, while at UBI, Ron Sutphin and Tony Pereira really stressed developing filing and cutting technique. As such, I decided to put together a series of exercises that would help to develop my filing, cutting, and brazing.

    I ended up with a set of exercises resulting in almost 300 individual work-pieces, all of which were hand cut, filed, de-burred, and sanded. All of this turned into just over 150 brazed joints:
    o “Brake Bridges” brazed with internal rings of 56% silver – I had some previous issues with bridges pulling away during brazing
    o “Lugs’ brazed with 56% silver – I wanted to focus on better shore lines
    o “Tabbed Dropouts” brazed with bronze – I’ve had limited experience with bronze
    o “Seatstays” brazed with 50% silver – As 50% silver can fill a small gap, I thought it might be a good choice for brazing Seatstays to the Seat Tube Lug
    o “Canti Bosses” brazed with bronze – More experience with bronze

    While I still have a lot to learn, this was a great experience where I learned quite a bit, and know that my next bikes will be better for it.

    If anyone is interested, I posted a number of pictures on Flickr: Brazing Exercises - a set on Flickr 

    A few photos are included below.

    Thanks for looking.

    Work-pieces prepped and ready for brazing
    7617037248_18e9355687.jpg

    Brake Bridges
    7617037720_cf6188eb4d.jpg
    7617038142_0dbb47f6cf.jpg
    7617039216_cdb585f4dc.jpg

    Lugs
    7617040446_9023e91ffa.jpg
    7617041176_2b6a90651c.jpg
    7617042304_2747e23a67.jpg

    Dropouts
    7617043914_5f84cafb69.jpg
    7617045356_c6a1695242.jpg

    Seatstays
    7617047118_e7461460be.jpg
    7617047884_1a2d25ea6e.jpg

    Canti Bosses
    7617048954_6f97859e8a.jpg
    7617050224_092a91eca5.jpg

    Lots of brazing
    7617051398_2ec46a7fba.jpg

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Practice, Practice, Practice or Wax on – Wax off

    That's pretty damn cool.
    Keep it up!
    -Luke
    “So this is how the world works, all energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet." - HST

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Practice, Practice, Practice or Wax on – Wax off

    Sweet mother of practice!

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Practice, Practice, Practice or Wax on – Wax off

    Bloody excellent

    Did you find yourself more comfortable with flowing the filler and controlling the heat as you progressed?
    _______________________________________________
    Keith Marshall
    Kumo Cycles, ACT Australia
    Australian Cycle Design and Gasflux Distributor

  5. #5
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    Default Re: Practice, Practice, Practice or Wax on – Wax off

    Good plan, it'll pay off in the long run. I bought 30ft of 4130 for practice before I built my first frame.
    Eric Doswell, aka Edoz
    Summoner of Crickets
    http://edozbicycles.wordpress.com/
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/edozbicycles/
    In Before the Lock

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Practice, Practice, Practice or Wax on – Wax off

    Quote Originally Posted by Kumo Cycles View Post
    Bloody excellent

    Did you find yourself more comfortable with flowing the filler and controlling the heat as you progressed?
    Keith - I did get more comfortable with flowing the filler and heat control as I worked through this. In part because I got much better at "reading the flux." I did these in batches of 5 or 6 joints at a time so I could inspect each batch, see where I needed to focus, and apply that to the next batch.

    Thanks!

  7. #7
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    Default Re: Practice, Practice, Practice or Wax on – Wax off

    Nicely done! I did a whole pile of less organized practice first too. Let me also practice filing techniques for fillet finishing. Amazing what the repetition does for - as you say - reading flux, and heat, and the impact of a good warmup , or of tacking order... keep at it!

  8. #8
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    Default Re: Practice, Practice, Practice or Wax on – Wax off

    well done, i'm gong to definitely need to do something similar before i start frame #2

  9. #9
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    Default Re: Practice, Practice, Practice or Wax on – Wax off

    As a hobby builder that has long periods of time between frames I find that practice keeps me perfect (just kidding!) Actually I'll do a bunch of practice brazings every so often. Most are fillet/brass. I have a growing object of stubs of tubing brazed at odd angles. A couple of "students" add their parts as they have time.

    "Reading the flux" This is an important point to reinforce. Whatever the lighting in your shop, torch tip size or filler rod the flux condition says a lot. Andy.
    Andy Stewart
    10%

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