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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 ;)

Got screwed over yet again by timewasters.. if anyone is interested I'm still trying to unload the stems and the Chris King headset, drop the price on the CK to £50 posted, i'm desperate to buy some paint, thanks Jay
the Arione, Rolls and Pave have been sold or traded, also the bolts went yesterday

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 (:

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.

Will do. Haven't tried that yet.

And yes, it's French. This one has British threads though.

try using "Black Magic" by Forch, make sure you really shake it up 1st though and let it soak overnight, in the morning it will come right out. I've had so many problems with seized stuff and used to reach for either the torch, a handy 1m of scaffolding pole or the pneumatic hammer. Its about £10 per can but works better than anything on the market. If you have trouble getting any drop me a pm and I'll send you the sales reps no.

I'm not sure but I think that TIG welding that lug may be difficult/impossible- it may be a cast lug. Also bear in mind that heating the lug may weaken or fatally loosen the GLUE that holds this frame together. I might glue the broken bit in place and make it look neat. Why not try a collar above the lug- less bother and pretty neat looking?

too true, mine is carbon glued to the lugs, I ended up losing all the clear coat but did'nt need to reglue, it looks so much better now all polished up. The trick is to keep the tubes frozen. Someones gotta be constantly spraying them while welding and we also used an oven glove material to wrap the frame points.
A fix you could do at home is making a bracket like the "fix" mentioned in the above posts, you'll only need a couple of files and a drill. Have a close look as you might have enough metal to be able to run 2 or 3 thin threaded pins, from the front to the back instead of fixing from the side and I would still glue. Check out the Forch or Wurth brochures, they both have some useful and interesting glues and threaded pins. I've used the Forch glues on alloys before and they are pretty amazing that combined with 'pinning' should hold fast for years of riding

Tokyo Fixed Gear

I visited that store for the first time yesterday, I felt really old and un-hip ):

Who is your mate?

Its Ed! an american fellow who moved over here in the 80's, the next event he's showing at it Wheels Day in Aldershot, well worth a day out just for the paint jobs and we always seem to get wasted by the end of the day.
Next job is to see if we can buy the alloy polygons used by Cadillac in their black paint. The paint was used in that tv show American Chopper when Paul Jr made the Cadillac Bike, the idea is to mix a bag of the polygons in the laquer or the candy coat for a really nice and deep sparkle effect.

Damn this thread is full of Win

Cheers Vinyl, gonna try and fab some 'bullet" shaped end caps for the frame today and weld them in.... then she's ready

Nope, only the CHRIS king, sorry

thanks for the positive comments, got the bars finished over the weekend, took for ever but managed to use just a tiny bit of filler and filed the welds nice and smooth. A good method I found was to use a light coat of etch primer so I could see roughness of the weld,high points and was able to smooth it all together..

I'm looking forward to getting the painting started, I'm trying to convince my mate that it might be a good side avenue of work instead of classic cars as he's one of the best hot rod car painters in the UK and a stickler for detail.

edited

edited

I restored a nice little 1964 velosolex a few years ago, one of the funniest bike related things I've had the pleasure to work on

I think the test run is still on you tube, but its pretty dorky considering my age

You got some nice bikes Chater Lea, any chance your hoarding some old velosolex's over there (desperate for an engine and newish muffler)?

TIG it just remember to turn the temp down if you've been welding steel, it will be better than new. If you want a fix like post no.4 its not that hard to do yourself with a couple of files and a drill. If your stuck and can get the bike to Oxford I reckon I could fix it for you.

thanks for the DMR chainring arrived promptly this fine morning.

How do you find riding that bike. I got bored of ending up on my arse so made this - http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s720x720/307453_10150328016326724_651611723_8299264_1238850595_n.jpg

Thats looks like a lot of fun O'Shane! I was thinking of welding on a wheelie bar at one point in time but instead found that putting on wider handlebars helped keep the weight forward

Nice work. I'm surprised at the lack of replies, maybe the thread title doesn't quite match the ambition of the project.

Thanks Lolo, I reckon this kinda project isn't really that interesting to most users of this forum although I might change the title to "Gold Ciocc panto'd NJS track bike, with spok" for some more replies
But all joking aside if your interested in trying something different like this, its not as hard as you'd think, all you really need is a hacksaw, set of good files, welder and a bit of time. For the next project I'm making a frame jig as its completely from scratch, but with the schwinn it has just been a case of eyeing it up and tacking it in.

rolls still available?

yes

any chance of getting the rack off you for a tenner?

yes +pp...
edit for further ref. both timewasters......

closed thread, nothing for trade

This is cool. I love pictures of stuff being welded. New frame looks heaps better, somehow faster, you should paint it red to get faster still. Actually it looks pretty good raw, also raw is so hot right now.

thanks Harold, I def. going for red of somesort, I'm doing the work at my mates car restoration place so he wants to do something special with the paint so no go with the raw look.

AWESOME!

Really, really love this build.

On the colour, I'd say do both. Black on the very bottom 1/3, running horizontally fading upwards into a candy red. Plus if you matched the rims to the bottom black I recon it would look awesome.

As for the brooks, I'd go for something like a black flyer. Sprung but not too sprung...if that makes sense.

I'm not a big fan of the sprung seat look, was thinking something "faster" looking. I'd like to of painted the rims but unemployment and lack funds is holding me back (I'm having trouble just getting enough cash to lace up the rear wheel.) I tried a fade on the "garage" bike used for going down to the postbox (its close by the way). And also was thinking of using a "harsh" fade on a TT bike I'm restoring so was thinking of keeping the cruiser simpler.

Are you using TIG?

yep TIG, I practised on the mini bike above as it needed repairs and strength for the weight of some of my friends, its been tested at 25 stone so far with the all new intergrated layback flex of the handlebar seatpost...

Just dib'sed a new solid chaninring from mdcc so might try filing out a logo in it or painting it frame colour as the current one looks too "off the shelf"

Got some of the stem and handlebars smoothed out this afternoon, went pretty well I reckon..
before...

after....

the idea is to use as little filler as possible, so its a case of putting a load on then sanding back as close as possible to the weld.

Depends on the type of chain. Half link chains stretch, standard chains don't

either way (bearinings, links etc`) this way does work pretty well and gives the bike a clean look. I used to always run single speed this way on a road conversion. I found those KMC single speed or Sram PC1 chains worked well, I'd measure so it was just a tad tight, then put the chain on a bmx cruiser, messenger on it for a day and by night time I had the chain perfect, then every week I'd replace about 4 links to take the slack out. I found those QBP or TA chainrings worked well with a shimano freewheel or dura ace fixed

no need to weld a tab, just fix it to the stay with a p-clip

yeah I've got that but it looks crude, at the moment the hub in the pic has a little tab I've fitted to bolt onto a disc brake tab.
I'm slowly smoothing out the welds this afternoon

I think I screwed up on editing the op again, but it might pop back up...
sprayed a candy blue over silver test card

and spaced out my rear hub to fit..

think I'm gonna weld a tab on the rear stay to attach to the brake arm.

I started up this project again on friday, thought I'd post this up to keep me motivated to finish and might be helpful to other members as its getting near painting time.

Started off with on old one of these with a dented downtube...

Next cut out the downtube

and figured put where I want the new down tube

bent a tube and cut and filed it

cut up the chainguard

made a little head badge out of some alloy....

Thought I'd have a little mock up...

Not too happy with the stem/handlebar combo so used some of the down tube and on old quill stem to come up with something different...

Next was the seatube, always wanted an intergrated seatpost/tube like a fancy carbon bike and also wanted to add a little strength...

Almost finished with the welding, just the two sweeping tubes need to be capped...

I saw a paint job here by a spanish fellow who filed and filled his welds for a super smooth finish.
So the last few days I've been getting all the welds smooth, handlebars look great all smooth will post pics later... I sprayed some test cards yesterday to try and get some idea of paint schemes/colour, I think I'm gonna go for a candy red or a black glitter, my friend has been raving about this new "glitter" additive shaped like tiny diamonds that don't need to be put in a heavy gel coat.
Overall its not that bad so far, rode it for a week to see if I could snap any welds but thankfully everything stayed together and feels really solid but not too heavy. I'm only missing a seat now, was thinking of going for a brooks swallow.