Let's try this again... shall we

Ok so I screwed up the 1st set of chain stays by cutting them to short... it was kind of fate anyway because the 1st set wasn't as high quality as I want. So I ordered the correct flux to use with my bronze rods and below are the pictures of my brazing steps.
By the way I also just bought an oxy/acetylene set up on craigslist that was a great deal and it is so much easier to use than the MAP gas setup.


All fitted up and ready for flux...

Getting ready to braze...

Wow that went so much better than the last time, I couldn't see that there was a bubble and not enough bronz in the joint so I needed to go back and dump a little more bronz in there.

Ah much better, I built much more of a filet inside the joint and this thing is solid!

These are presoak brazed...

After about 30 minutes of soaking... almost clean.

This is after about 15 minutes of filing and sanding... looks pretty good

I am especially proud of this joint, there are no voids, no extra bronz anywhere and once I sanded it down it looks great.

So this is basically the finished joint, I will finish it after I have done the seat stays and brazed it into the BB.

I realized I haven't put any pictures of the cleaned up front triangle yet so I will post some those tomorrow.

Starting slowly...

Well I got my order from Nova with the new chain stays and fork blades so I started on the chain stays last night. I am taking this a good bit slower than I did previously and I am really seeing a difference in my filing ability and knowing exactly how I want to approach this stage.

These pics are after I have found the true center line with V-blocks and the machinist square, then I made a nice flat/square cut of the tip with a tube cutter (big help here) and then made my alignment marks bigger and more representative of what I want it to look like. I am sinking the drops in about 8mm deep so the main black mark is 7mm deep for the hack saw cut.

You can see I used a small knife blade file to start my cuts

The cuts with the hack saw are hard to keep straight but I have plenty of room to straighten everything out with a file.

Initial filing, I will work down to the hash mark with the file and get it nice and square.

The initial fit is very nice, no slop and nice and straight and square to the center line of the stays.

Trying a little design cut, I like this look better than the tapered cut I did previously.

Finished with the non drive side cuts and filing.

This is the cog side of the drive side stay, I have a little clean up to do on it but this is with a taper for the cassette to have as much clearance as possible.

I am really proud of how these stays are starting to look, I think I did a much better job of cutting and filing these to look nice once they are brazed. I am confident that I will be able to braze them in nicely without burning the drops like last time.

I hope to have the rear triangle done this week end and then finish up the braze ons next week... and maybe build it up to ride next weekend. I plan on building it up before painting and get a few rides so I know that it is ready to truely be finished then.

minor set back...

Taking measurements for the chainstays to cut and miter;

Well I cut them to short by about 1 centimeter! DOH! well I had to do an order with Nova anyway so instead of using these and having to let the air out of the tire to install the wheel I will try it again with new stays. I will probably recycle these for a later bike with a steeper seat tube angle.

I am really looking forward to finishing this frame possibly this weekend so I can build it up and ride it. I think I will get it powder coated instead of trying to paint it myself because I want to improve my building skills before I start on paint skills.

I ordered the tubes and lugs for my next frame from Henry James yesterday and will get started on that over the Christmas holiday break. It is going to be a Road/Cross frame so I can go for road rides and hit some of the local fire road trails as well.

Well it has been about 2 weeks since I have even touched the frame... Thanksgiving then shoulder surgery has benched me. I am chompin at the bit to get back at it but I think it will be another week before I can.