I signed up for a welding class at Cabrillo College in the summer of 1983. I left the class and never went back. The 60 year old teacher was talking about plastic lighters exploding in your pants and going blind from the arc welders.
Sadly they are utter crap build quality. I made the mistake and dropped £15k on one. After a 20 mile (oil covered) ride the bike went to SRM for a survey. The bike had been wired up incorrectly, the frame wasn’t straight, the engine had 60” piston in an 80” bore, the gearbox was cracked and crankcases didn’t match. The hollow breather cam had been replaced by a solid cam so the engine couldn’t breathe, the rear break light had been connected to the brake obis a eve of chain link. The sit on but the eventually for repair up to the standard I should age river it was £10k. Even after all this the bike can’t be registered due to the fact Jerry took the frame numbers out the back of the Rickman book and stamped up new frames! DVLA shut him down yet he still sells them.DVLA has also removed the region dents over 150 of the original limited edition Steve MQueen bikes
It seems you really have to get the tubing red hot far longer than tig welding. Surely, there must be a risk of the tubes warping in some way hence misalignment
It’s known to have far less internal heat stresses than tig welded frames. Hence the need to not heat treat it after brazing. With brazing you never melt the parent materials, so the heat is less than electronic processes.
Its That your Chair Creaking or the Frame? Every Time I hear a Creak, Ting, Tick or Crack I know that there is a Stress Point Forming in the Joints across the whole system. Work Heat the Entire frame then Fusion Tack all the Joints, Then One should Go about the Fine Brazing procedures you are doing. I'm not telling you what to do, I'm coming from lotus Race team experience as a TIG Welder and I would like to take up Old Skool Brazing to make Bicycles in as my Hobby. In the moment I am here to learn from your Beautiful Work. I have not attempted to Braze since Jr. school.
nice fitment of joints and the braze looks too good to paint. i would prep and clear the bare metals to show off the time you spent. to bury behind paint would be waste full of your art work.
Looks very time consuming compared to TIG welding, I'm curious as to why you are you using this process? Dissimilar metals? A type of metal that can't be TIG welded? You're putting a lot of heat into the thin of a pipe with that big of a weld I would have to think that that's not very good I would have to think that stress fractures could be an issue.
Many reasons my friend, firstly this frame is designed to be brazed, for handling characteristics when bike is on its side around corners. There is far less distortion than welding, less interval stresses, also this process saves having to gear treat the chromoly after. These joints are strong and in some cases hold up better than a weld in high vibrations/frequency applications.. welding can also affect the chemical property of the material therefore creating a brittle area basically, prone to cracks.. this tube is thin wall and most likely bend the tube before the braze lets go.. cheers
What would be the reason to bronze braze as opposed to other forms of welding? I always heard it was inferior and only used in applications where strength isn't important, like cookware, or buckets. Yet here you are using it on a performance motorcycle frame. My grandpa was a smart guy, but he didn't know everything, and he fully admitted to that, but he always said that the metals don't mix when bronze brazing, resulting in a weaker bond.
Hi there, I know it seems unfamiliar but this method is truly strong and in some cases withstands situations better than welding.. Basically when you electronically weld you go beyond the meting point of the pairing steel which effectively changes its properties and makes it slightly more brittle, also high distortion with welding and stress unless the material is heat treated.. When brazing the parent materials there is a less HAZ area, we find these joints hold up better to high frequency and vibration applications. The Ariel motor company are still producing there chassis for all vehicles which are brazed, caterham cars, old lotus F1 cars, most high end bicycle makers, allot of classic vehicles where produced this way. It’s a very strong joint used for thin wall chromoly steel tubing which would most likely fail before the brazed joint. Cheers
@@stubbycuts My grandfather was a vet and a truck driver and I think he'd fully admit that he doesn't know what's best for performance vehicle chassis. I wish he were around to see this, because I think he'd find it to be very fascinating!
The tube is thin wall and will likely collapse before the braze goes.. comparing to a weld on this chassis isn’t comparable as it’s designed to be brazed. In the past similar tig welded chassis have cracked through the welds under high vibration.
If this is considered an exercise of craftsmanship I appreciate the technique and the skill of this operator but this way to joint metal has very poor mechanical strength and is not definitely the right choice to assemble a frame of a vehicle!!!
Your right, damn. You should take your findings to Ariel motor cars as they are producing some of the fastest road cars known, still brazed, Also be worth contacting caterham cars, classic lotus F1 team as all those race cars were brazed. 99% of high end bicycles are brazed.. the formula ford race series chassis are also brazed, during my time in America it was good too see trophy trucks starting to use bronze inbetween the tubular chassis and the steel body, why, because it doesn’t crack.. check it out bro 👌🏼
Hi there, I know it seems unfamiliar but this method is truly strong and in some cases withstands situations better than welding.. Basically when you electronically weld you go beyond the meting point of the pairing steel which effectively changes its properties and makes it slightly more brittle, also high distortion with welding and stress unless the material is heat treated.. When brazing the parent materials there is a less HAZ area, we find these joints hold up better to high frequency and vibration applications. The Ariel motor company are still producing there chassis for all vehicles which are brazed, caterham cars, old lotus F1 cars, most high end bicycle makers, allot of classic vehicles where produced this way. It’s a very strong joint used for thin wall chromoly steel tubing which would most likely fail before the brazed joint. Cheers
@@lingling2924 I was in the americas last year teaching brazing, it was good too see trophy truck builders starting to use silicone bronze to join between the tubular chassis and cab body, there reason.. Because it doesn’t crack like a weld over time..
