been inspired today to have a bash and frame building,(probably end up wasting money and killing my self) but anyway… Steel tubing btw

cheers

http://www.cylex-uk.co.uk/company/reynolds-cycle-technology-ltd-16972333.html ?

A friendly frame builder is possibly the best place so you can get the BB shell and cable guides etc as well. They can advise on and supply the filler wire / brazing wire and flux etc. Plus a choice of Reynolds, Columbus, and maybe True Temper, Vitus, Dedacciai etc

http://www.framebuilding.com/custom_uk_bicycle_framebuilders.htm

Reynolds, give 'em a ring.

Dave Yates do courses IIRC, but theres over a years waiting list. I considdered the homebrew route, but decided that there were 101 variables I could think of, and probably an equal number I hadn't so was best off buying a 456 and and letting someone else worry about those things.

The video tour of Rodriguez (R+E) Bikes is worth watching
http://www.rodcycle.com/

I've bought tubing from http://www.framebuilding.com/ mentioned above.
Friendly good service.

Another vote for Ceeway / framebuilding.com

Post is about £8 so it pays to buy a bundle of stuff. Look at the Columbus tube stocklists and find the Cro-Mo / older tubesets list down the bottom. This includes straight 1.5m lengths of thin wall Columbus plain gauge in 19mm, 22mm, 28.6mm etc. This is cheap and easy to practice with and OK for a first frame without worrying where butts end / which side to cut from etc – e.g the 1.5m of 28.6 is about £11 + VAT. In comparison a Zona butted top tube less than half the length is about £20 + VAT so can get expensive if using fancy tubes.

If you have a particular dropout design in CAD file then it can pay to get a local fabrication place to cut them (laser / cnc plasma / water jet etc) – mine cost a whopping £4 each from decent 5mm EN50B steel (not even worth picking up a hacksaw and file at that price).

Practice is over, starting the build after holidays…..

Tube notcher tools are not essential but makes things amazingly easy – I splurged here http://www.stakesys.co.uk/department/tube_notchers/

Whilst the diy framebuilders are around, anyone have real experience of which brazing alloy to use for fillets? Nickel Bronze, Silicon Bronze etc. Lots of contradictory stuff on the 'net. All my practice has been done with silicon bronze (allegedly not the right stuff) and I haven't managed to break anything with big bars and lump hammers.

There is some info on here http://www.nimbuscycles.co.uk/html/construction_techniques.html

Other usefull brazing advice in Tubal Cain's book Soldering and Brazing.

The choice of brass to use is down to whatever works for you, and which torch suits your style eg. propane/air, oxy/acetylene, propane/oxygen methane/air etc..
Propane is lower temperature but greater heat. The advantage of lower temp is that the zinc stays in the brass, instead of being fried-off with oxyacetylene and so leaving just the copper. Some of the Japanese builders that you can watch on youtube seem to use propane.
The fashion for massive fillets is achieved by some people by piling the brass on then filing and sanding (power sander) it back. The Taylor Brothers could produce the fillets without filing, as far as I know they were using Sif-bronze (silicon bronze).

Another source of tubes is
http://www.kvastainless.com/bicycles.html

Have built a few frames using Ceeway, very good service and their Brass and flux have been great, the guy can give you advice on tube selection aswell…If you are going to fillet braze youi must do a lot of practice before you ride anything..Worth doing joins and then cutting them up to see how well the brass penetrated. Ive not done lugged construction yet but I believe the same thing is in order. Its really satisfying though and theres nothing like hitting the trails on your own creation!

Good luck! 🙂

I was lucky enough to have my wife buy me the Dave Yates course as an anniversary present a few years ago. It was amazing. You can build pretty much whatever you want MTB or Road bike wise. And he's a no-nonsense down to earth geezer who really knows what he's talking about. I'm seriously considering doing the course again next year or when available… Its expensive but such a great introduction to building your own bike frames.

I've been using oxy acet at work but with a tiny tip and turned right down. Keep watching ebay for flamefast brazing hearths – they look good for safe (i.e. no nasty bottles) home use connected to propane or nat gas (self contained air compressor and loads of safety cutouts).

The silicon bronze I've got looks identical composition to the basic sif bronze (for mild steel) but with a smidge of silicon. The fancier sif bronze contains nickel. Ceeway sell both so don't know if nickel is for regular fillets or if it is for the stainless tubesets as an alternative to silver – will give them a ring and report back.

As mentioned above – lots to watch on you tube.

I couldn't break my work with small fillets (crushed the tube first). I also cut open an my old (cracked) Peugeot road frame with lugless / fillet-less "internal brazing". I always assumed they put a ring of brass inside the tube and there would be a fillet inside. Quite shocked to see that there was almost no fillet anywhere – inside or outside – just the brass in the tube mitre and that was about it. Amazing that they never broke at the joints and totally blows the argument for fillets if mitres are good.

I had an old Peugeot Altitude as my second. The brazing was pretty amazing, like they just stuck the tubes together.

After a bit more digging and a call to Ceeway SIF Bronze No.1 seems as good as anything and cheap / easy to source.

A guy at work has brought in the Tubal Cain book – very informative but says bronze welding is outside the scope of the book (?!)Inspired suggestion of a gas-air torch using a vacuum cleaner as the air supply!

Even better than a vacuum cleaner

Strong Frames has some nice videos and an amazing workshop too.

https://www.bikebiz.com/jobs/job/1938/frame-builder

get onto the mtbr.com forum here http://forums.mtbr.com/forumdisplay.php?f=142 and read everything there is

also go to http://www.frameforum.org/forum3/index.php as although it is closed now has a lot of information, the archive of the old site also has a lot of info

matt

http://www.framebuilding.com/

Try ceeway bike building supplies here