I remember chatting to Dave Yates at a NEMBA race – he mentioned filing them hot (he also mentioned the file could get quite hot and useful to have some spares to swap between 🙂
I’m not really experienced enough regarding the heat – however a lot of the pretty pictures / videos on the internet are using a gas fluxer which leaves the joint much cleaner and tidier. One thing I’ve never worked out is that some of the videos look a bit on the “cold” side – SIFBronze No.1 melting point is nearly 900C which would need steel to be cherry red.
Do you know what size rods you are using? I’ve been making practice joint using 1.6mm which is easy to melt but needs a pretty rapid feed rate to build up fillets. I’m considering buying some 2.4mm and wondered if you have any advice.
I’m just at the end of a pile of house jobs – some quality framebuilding time has now been sanctioned (need to have it finished for SSEC in May).
Mick