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I’ll generally do them with the torch. It’s a bit less elbow grease and the filing/sanding is quite easy going as you’re removing silver which is much softer than steel.
I also have a few different ‘surface preparation’ discs that go on my drill (or grinder) which are a kind of a plasticky polymery abrasive thing. They will remove silver much faster than they remove steel so you can kinda blast over it and get a lot off pretty quickly but used incorrectly they will definitely remove steel so it does take some finessing. I don’t use them in the grinder much as with the higher rpm it’s a lot easier to over do it.
I’d say that I’ve made the mistake of cutting too close to the tube with a hacksaw and nicking it more often than I’ve gotten the heat in the wrong place and pulled too hard and deformed anything doing it with the torch.
M_V-
Thanks, that's very reassuring to hear that you generally use a torch to remove them!
Yeah I definitely would be concerned about nicking the tube with a hacksaw. Was thinking if I removed the braze-ons without a torch then I'd cover the tube with multiple layers of masking tape as a safety net incase of an unlucky hacksaw or file stroke gone off-course.
Main concern with using a torch is I'd rather avoid a situation where the frame gets distorted and it needs re-aligning/re-straightening. If doing it this way I'd definitely want to do it under the guidance of an experienced framebuilder.
I wouldn't mind leaving the melted silver leftovers on the tube so long as the silver is relatively flat and no sharp edges anywhere. Gives the tube a bit of character and an excuse to not have to use any files or sandpaper haha
Phes
Cheers for the heads up dude!
Ahh I hadn't considered that filing & sanding would be necessary after de-brazing. Thought I could just get away with melting the silver 'til the braze-ons fall off and the silver melts flat against the tubing profile.
So since filing & sanding is gonna be an inevitable part of the process whether I use a brazing torch or not, I'm thinking it might just be better to take off the braze-ons purely via filing & sanding.
Suppose one advantage of not using the brazing torch is that I wouldn't be risking warping or deforming the tubes from the heat.