Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Brazing


When you are braze you use both hands one to hold the torch and one to hold the brazing rod. When you are brazing first use a paste flux and apply it over the place you are brazing light the torch by turning the acetylene on a little bite and use a striker to ignite it once lit turn the oxygen on slowly making a neutral flame. Heat up the flux and steel in tell the flux get to look watery and add some brazing rod and keep going till done let cool down slowly (do not cool in water) then once it is cooled down turn on hot water and rinse off all the flux and sand it making it look nice.

TIG Welding

In Tig welding you use both hands and a foot to do a weld. One hand is holding the torch while the other hand is feeding the filler rod to the torch the foot pedal is used to control the power of the arc and how long it takes to melt the steel that you are welding. Tig welding is not as easy as it looks it could take months if not years to perfect. You have to have somewhat good hand eye coordination to do a good straight bead.There are lot of shapes and sizes of Tig welders and prices ranging from $450 to $5000+.

Bike Frame Building 101 frame alignment and welding

Here is a step by step of alignment and welding of a frame:
                                              
1. BB/ DT  weld /align                                    Abbreviations :
2. Tig Tack frame in jig                                   DT Down tube
3. Weld HT/ TT                                             TT Top tube
4. Weld ST/ BB                                             ST Seat tube
5. Align DT and ST to BB                              HT Head tube
6. Align HT/ ST                                              BB bottom bracket
7. Weld DT/ ST                                             CS Chane stays
8. Align HT/ ST                                              SS Seat stays
9. Weld TT/ ST                                        
10. Align HT/ ST
11. Weld CS
12. "Face and chase" BB
13. Align DT and ST to BB
14. Align HT/ ST
15. Align HT/ ST/ CS
16. Braze CS bridge tube
17. Align CS
18. Weld dropouts
19. Weld SS
20. Align dropouts
21. Braze SS bridge tube
22. Align dropouts
DONE