Monday, March 25, 2013

Not Fragile


Hey y'all.


  This bike is made for Colby Weber.

It's got some interesting lug work on it.
Y'all say you're into pics of metal work, so here's some highlights.
The head tube lugs on this bike are made by me, so this is how I do it.




First off, I braze the tubes together at their correct angles and finish them, just like any other joint.

Next I cut them apart and put the head tube portion into the lathe to bore them out to the right diameter for the tube that will fit inside. Boring the tubes out once they've been brazed allows for a lighter lug.
There is a certain amount of distortion that happens when you weld things together and a thicker wall minimizes that distortion. Once it's all brazed up, you can get rid of the excess and make sure the lug has nice round sockets.






 I cut out a rough window in the head tube to access the inside of the lug.





Next I chuck the top tube part in the lathe and cut out the back wall of the tube.





With the same half in the lathe, the top tube portion is bored out to fit what will end up being the top tube. 






Roughly cutting out and shaping the lug.





 Skip ahead :










A couple lugs ready to be brazed.
 

All brazed up.


Colby is going to be riding this thing up and down the canyons of the Wasatch Front.
Look out.




I'm certainly not the first one to use a half tone fade, but it always looks cool.

 Here's those lugs.

 

 
A little of the old and new.
Old school Cinelli style bridge reinforcements with a PF30 bb shell.






Not the usual lug lines.


Thanks, Colby.





Mom, you probably won't like this one.

8 comments:

mr rogers said...

Rad lugs. I dig it.

Jim Beam said...

Damn, dude, those are sexy! His design or your? Either way they are original and very sharp.

Sorry I can't say anything nice about the paint color tho....

blackcatbicycles said...

thanks, fellas.
the lugs were my design.
they're in the same vein as the road bike i built last year.

jim,
if you're older than 30 and you've got a hi-viz colored bike, than the terrorists win. fortunately, colby is a young man in his prime.

Fast Asleep said...

You big lug!

Miles said...

Wow,great work! You are in for a treat Brad!

Pete D. said...

This bike and the lugs are quite beautiful, but it's a shame that the craftsmanship on the lugs and details of the frame are drowned out by the thick-ass paint job.

troy said...

Inspiring work as always! Do you use brass for the lugs and then silver to braze the tubes to the lugs? Thanks for the pictorial.

blackcatbicycles said...

troy,
yep, you got it. brass and 56% silver.

pete,
i had just started using a new shop for powder coat. they were not quite used the expectations us cyclists have about the thinness of the paint/powder. with the customer consulted, it was decided to leave the powder as it sat rather than have it stripped and re-done. the powder coat shop in question has come a long way in a short time and care a lot about the quality they're putting out. they've got my vote.