Colossi Factory Tour-Shenzhen China

[Dave Anderson]

These photos were posted on another forum and I thought they were interesting. They are building primarily with steel...mostly with Columbus tubes, including XCR. There's TIG, but a lot of fillet brazing, and lug work, going on there as well:

Picasa Web Albums - Colossi Factory Tour...

Dave

[Scheisserad61]

Interesting that it looks like they are using Italian Marchetti & Lange tooling for some of the operations. I would have guessed that they would have sourced / modified equipment locally (Jhu Yi).
Maybe they got that stuff used from a European factory that went belly-up ?

I wonder how the mid to high-end frame market will be affected when the Asian production shops start to more widely export higher quality frames made from the lighter tubesets. I think of current Maxway (and others) frames as usually conforming to the rough pattern of a $100 FOB Soma or Surly mid-weight frame - I.E. O.K., but nothing special.

[Clockwork]

Thanks, Dave, very interesting. The brass brazed XCr frame is a little different.

-Joel

[magnoliacycles]

As Dave mentioned this was posted in a thread in another forum. In that thread, Dave, you mention that it is likely nickel silver and not brass used on the XCr frame and that it is what you use for 953. How is the 953/nickel silver process? Is it any more finicky than brass and chromo? I would assume so as stainless is a bit more picky about heat. I assume you use standard brass flux.?

Thanks,
michael

[Andrew R Stewart]

I noticed the lack of eye protection in a few shots.

[Brian Smith]

How Frames Are Made

[JuanGrande]

Interesting pics...

Did a quick Google search and found this article about the person behind Colossi Cycles;
FIXIE FRIDAY: Jan Kole of Colossi Cycling

JC

[EricKeller]

As Dave mentioned this was posted in a thread in another forum. In that thread, Dave, you mention that it is likely nickel silver and not brass used on the XCr frame and that it is what you use for 953. How is the 953/nickel silver process? Is it any more finicky than brass and chromo? I would assume so as stainless is a bit more picky about heat. I assume you use standard brass flux.?

Thanks,
michael

I was going to ask Dave about his flux too. I have used nickel silver quite a bit on bikes, and it is very similar to brass. I would say it's just a little harder to work with than LFB. I have also used it to braze stainless, but not on bikes. It worked fine with gasflux blue flux for LFB. I always wondered if anyone was using it to build stainless bike frames, now I know.

[Scheisserad61]

People asking about Nickel-Silver : nickel-silver IS brass. Shout it out like Charlton Heston in "Soylent Green" : Nickel Silver is BRASSSSS !!


No silver in there at all. The name is in regard to it's COLOR, a silvery look in contrast to the more normal gold tone of plain Low-fuming or Naval brass. There is nickel in there and that is what gives it the silver color. It used to also be called "white brass". Has some different flow characteristics than LFB, but also a slightly higher liquidus. The nickel is what helps it adhere to stainless better, I think.

Fred Parr could add a bit here, I'm sure. IMHO the brass that Henry James and Fred Parr sell is a far superior product for bike frame use. Use the Fillet-Pro for XCR or 953.

[Dave Anderson]

I suspect that most of the folks on this section of the forum understand that "Nickel-Silver" is a Nickel bearing copper alloy with no silver content. Regardless, the filler material that I was referencing in the other forum, as noted by Michael, was, in fact, the material commonly known as Nickel Silver, and not one of the silver bearing copper alloys often referenced when discussing bicycles.

I do use Nickel Silver a LOT and it works very well for me, especially on stainless to stainless. There are also some LFB alloys out there that contain small amounts of Nickel that will wet to stainless, but I have not found any that I like better than Nickel Silver. See the Nickel Silver on Reynold's 953 fillets below. The black you see is the color of the flux that I am using and not heat discoloration. Note that less than 1/2" from the fillets the flux is not melted. The cleaned up joints were test joints only and so they do not have the degree of finish or consistency of "width" that I shoot for on a customer bicycle.

Dave

PS: I have not used Fillet Pro, but I am sure it works as advertised.

[magnoliacycles]

Beautiful work Dave! Thanks for the input.