Current Projects chat and miscellany

Hello hello hello, what's this? Looks like a road bike to me, surely not?

I retract my snarky GIF.

Appreciated ;)

Hello hello hello, what's this? Looks like a road bike to me, surely not?

Looks like chicken, smells like chicken, must be chicken.

Its still British built and steel, its kinda appropriate, plus its sooooo prettty.

DA 7400 stuff is readily available and cheap right?

Yes, "Sandra" does look rather pretty, will have to pop down and have a look.

I am curious if anyone had welded any rack mounts or eyelets onto frames before. I am sick of using p clips to attach fenders on my surly (cromoly steel) and was wondering what specialty welder I should contact before having someone ruin my frame.

Get a frame builder to braze them on.

Drill and tap the track ends cheapest and easiest way to get mudguard eyelets

I can't see much room in the Steamroller's track end to do that, or is there?

Yea, the trackends are pretty obnoxious, not gonna lie. That lip the lies over it makes it pretty close to impossible to drill into them with any use.

Get em welded, cost something like £25/30 I think (might be worth asking them to do a full mudguard eyelit as you combine the rack with mudguard.

Has anyone here tried smoothing out Tig welded joints by Fillet brazing ontop? Bad idea?

Easier to get them lead filled like they used to do with car bodywork, not sure if it'll withstand the heat of powdercoating though

also its lead, which means you wouldnt be able to lick your bike anymore.

True dat.

Or maybe i could just use some fine filler. But i thought fillet brazing might add to the strenght of the joint. Tig welds feel sketchy.

tig is stronger than brazing isn't it?
you can get fillers that will withstand the heat of powdercoating, not bondo though.

Has anyone here tried smoothing out Tig welded joints by Fillet brazing ontop? Bad idea?

You'd be suprised how smooth you can get a Tig weld with some files and a little time.
And Tig is gonna be strong as all hell.

What jay said, some fine filing with round, half round and triangular 2nd cut then smooth cut files, finished with emery cloth will yield satisfying results. 6" or watchmakers lenghths as opposed to 8" and over engineers files. And then some fine fillng grades of wet qnd dry for a superfine finish. Plus elbow grease!

Could use a Crosscheck frame instead?

let the slavery begin...

You were crying poverty the other day, what changed?

sweet wheels btw...

What's the frame?

compiled a surprising amount of birthday money

you appear to be pretty tall for a high-school kid then

What jay said, some fine filing with round, half round and triangular 2nd cut then smooth cut files, finished with emery cloth will yield satisfying results. 6" or watchmakers lenghths as opposed to 8" and over engineers files. And then some fine fillng grades of wet qnd dry for a superfine finish. Plus elbow grease!

I found that to get it perfect I had to use the tiniest amount of filler after filing, just basically to get the "lines" to match up on both side. When you get close to finishing try spraying a little primer, it makes it easier to see the high points..

This is what I ended up having to do as I'm not a great TIG welder, there was more weld on the right hand side so I was able just to use files and emery cloth, the left hand side I ended up using a little filler (use as little as possible), after priming it looks identical. The use of lead (classic restoration style) ,would in my opinion be better than filler but its way out of my skill set. I asked a friend about the baking process when powdercoating or enamel and he said modern fillers will withstand the heat.

Its important to get it right now as when the paint is applied any weld bump will stick out a mile.Be prepared to spend a lot of time to get it right, the weld in the above pic took about 2 hrs to finish off smooth. If you need help get in touch and good luck (:

That weld is so lovely, it makes me smile :)

That weld is so lovely, it makes me smile :)

thanks nuts,its been a steep but simple learning curve... For more smiling welds check out my current project, all welds are gonna be as smooth as butter ;)