Sunday, May 01, 2005

Bottom Bracket Blues

Last night I tried brazing up a downtube to a bottom bracket. I was hoping that it would be the basis for a kiddy bike. That was probably ambitious because I haven't done a bottom bracket before, plus I went with Allstate 11 bronze and I haven't used bronze before on a lugged joint. Oh well, sometimes you just have to jump into the deep water and swim.

My problem is, it felt like plenty of rod was used (up to my handhold on one rod), but I didn't see a lot come out on the bottom bracket side. And, I couldn't get more to flow into the joint (probably had used up the flux at that point). I know the joint got hot - the BB was glowing. And, the tube got warmed up, but didn't see to over heat.

So, I have an inquiry into Freddy Parr. He'll be able to best diagnose whether I should just cut the BB up, or keep going.

I should have taken pictures as I went, but didn't. I will post some soon of the effort to date.

addendum:

Freddy got back to me. Allstate 11 is only for fillet joints. ah-ha :) So, on to the next step.

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