Brazing Interlude

I'm taking a bit of time this week to remind myself that I'm not actually spending all this time JUST to make a bike rack.  I went back to doing some practice brazes and found that the work on the rack had really helped.  My heat control has improved, and perhaps as important, I'm a bit more patient and less jittery.

Fake Lugs

I'm going to spend more time doing fake lugs before I waste more real lugs.  I'm stealing this design from Andy on the forums (don't worry about which forums, he's all over the place).  A lot of people use nesting tubes, but he cuts them at an angle, which both looks cooler and gives you a  better feel for drawing the silver through varying distances on the same piece.  

On the first run, I drew the silver through nice and cleanly.  I overheated things a bit, but not too bad.  The shorelines were pretty clean and would require minimum sanding.  

When I cut it open, it looked just about perfect.  This might be a bit misleading, since I cut it pretty low.  It's possible that filler flowed around through that area when I touched up the shorelines by melting the very edge.  My instinct, though, is that I used a light enough touch that this is accurate.  

I did a second practice bit, and had a bunch of gaps.  While disappointing, it gave me some valuable insight. On the first bit I was methodical and slower, on the second, I overheated things, and skipped around the tube by a third while it cooled and came back.  I think it's pretty clear that I need to slow down and force myself to relax and move in a straight line. 

Breaking Ground

I just prepared the dropouts for the new frame by brazing on eyelets for a rack.  I did it with brass, both because it's stronger than silver for this sort of joint and because it's higher melting temperature will keep it solid when I attach the chainstays and seatstays with silver.