Manufacturing a Bicycle Frame: Crazy BRAZING skills
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- čas přidán 28. 10. 2020
- A big passion of mine is cycling. It always has been, so last year when I went to film how a bike frame is made, I was pretty excited.
I went to visit Lee Cooper, who is a frame builder based just outside of Coventry. He has been making bicycles frame for over 40 years so its fair to say, he's a pro! He knows everything there is to know about bicycle manufacture and his brazing skills are insane! Crazy good!
He takes a box of tubes and turns them into a piece of art, well I think that but I am bike biased. He does all the processes from cutting the tubes to notching them all the way through to brazing the frame together. A point to note on the notching is that Lee has a lathe to cut notches into tubes, but he also has a home made tube notcher. Its a grinder in essence that grinds the perfect notch into the tube. There are commercial tube notchers available, but I love the fact that Lee made his own tool! That's a proper sign of a genius at work.
To give you a bit of history about bicycle frames, if you went back 100 years, the most popular material of choice was steel. Partly because steel was readily available and other materials, aluminium and carbon, hadn't become commercially available. Fast forward to the 1980's onwards and the main material of choice changed to aluminium. This was because aluminium became readily available and cheap. Bicycles manufacture had moved location, generally speaking, to Asia (Taiwan in particular). Steel frames became less common. Fast forward another 10 years or so and carbon started to make an appearance. It became commercially available, it's super light, strong and people wanted it.
All materials have their pros and cons. Aluminium creaks over time and is difficult to repair, but its cheap. Carbon is also difficult to repair and expensive, but its strong. Steel is neither cheap nor expensive, it's kind of in the middle of the range. Its stronger than aluminium but not as strong as carbon and it's heavier than both. But the major beauty, is it is easy to repair. Well relatively, if you know what you are doing.
Now fast forward on the bicycle timescale to now. Carbon bikes are still really popular. Aluminium bikes are still available. But something that is on the rise recently is steel frame bikes. I think they're the best. I think, although a custom steel frame may be a little pricey, it's a lifetime investment. It won't creak like Aluminium and if you do break it, you can repair it unlike carbon.
Keep it real, buy steel.
Thanks Lee for letting me into your workshop for the day to film. It was a great day out!
#bicycle #steelframe #frame
"Exactly "What brazing rod are you using ? I'm seeing No flux. This is nice work and I want to be like you some day. Please reply, thanks
I'm not sure what the brazing rods are but I'll ask Lee Cooper the builder I went to film and see what he says. From memory, Lee has a gas flux which is inbetween the gas and the flame. In doing so he doesn't have to flux each joint. Glad you like the video.
@@EngineeredDAILYTV this is remarkable ! "Gas flux" you say ! This keeps getting more and more intriguing ! Honestly...I must know the specific rod, flux and this method of "Gas flux" as you say. This is too remarkable to be not shared with the world. I hope You see my passion on this subject. I've been struggling for years to be this good, without success. Sincerely ! Thanks. I'll be standing by for your response........
Lee is using a inline gas fluxer with silicon bronze rod's
@@thwangsworld1123 that would be Silicon; a metal. Silicone is a rubber.
@@OnerousEthic Silicon isn't a metal, it's a metalloid. And silicone is a man-made compound with high levels of silicon.
I agree that steel is still the best. Aluminum is cheap and light....and wears out through fatigue. Carbon fiber is light and strong but forget repairing it if it it is damaged. I have also seen enough CF joints that broke to realized that they may look good on the outside but often have voids or weak spots. I am an old time bike racer (70s and 80s) and have luged steel frames which are really nice and artistic. I also have a lugless tandem race frame build by the legendary Berrnie Miikkelson in California. The joints on that bike are works of art....every joint is a smooth flowing transition that is flawless. Best part of a lugless brazed frame is that if crashed and damaged, the tubes can easily be replaced and brazed again. Luged frames are a lot more difficult to disassemble and repair those joints AND maintaining structural integrity of the metal.
c'est du très beau travail...bravo!👏
Thank you so much for this explanation 👏🏻
C'est quoi comme baguette ?
Sinon très beau travail sur ce cadre .Ça donne envie de fabriquer son cadre de vélo perso .
Duuuuuudddddeeeeeee, That Is Awwesomeeee….
Thank you for this video.
Glad you like it. I will make more videos once the pandemic has got a little bit better.
Hello, can you guys design a specific frame? I want to built a specific bike for a while know. Just with the file drawing I'm happy. And how much can It be ?
Maestro excelente. Hermoso cordón.
Discúlpame mi ignorancia.
Esa varilla no se aplica la bora cuando se está soldando.
Creo que el está usando gasflux. El solvente ya va mezclado con el acetileno.
Compartir tu video también me gustaría saber qué tipo de soldadura es y dónde se puede comprar Y también si puedes pasar un video de cómo se llama esa técnica de sé que soldadura debe tener una técnica saludo de Venezuela muchas 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
can you tell me what is the cheapest and best steel for bicycle frame
Hi tensile. Crmo a little bit expensive but it has good property than hi ten
Propan butan tlen mosiądz i boraks twardy lut nie spawanie😊😊
Please anyone reply ...
I want to built steel roadbike can use this process instead of welding and please suggest which is stronger welding or brazing ????
Hi Achal, either brazing or welding is suitable and both will be sufficiently strong. The difference comes with the thickness of the steel tubes. Since welding melts the parent materials together, the tubes have to be thicker and therefore the bike weighs more.
With brazing a filler material, usually brass, is melted and bonds the two pieces of metal together. Therefore the tubes are thinner and lighter.
Both are strong enough, but both are different in other ways.
I think brazing was used in old times since the temperatures are lower, it was easier for people to achieve those temperatures before. Welding required expensive equipment and therefore wasn't used as much.
Hope this helps.
You can tig weld a soda can, so the tubing only has to be thick enough to carry the stress that it will be subjected too.
is this steel 4130 ?
Yez. Is cromoli.
Funny how the way forward is in the past.
Exactly that, nice they are though!
@@EngineeredDAILYTV I'm actually in the process of setting up a small run electric motorcycle frame factory in Bangladesh, seems I need a torch and cylinders 😁
Why brazing and not tig welding which is way stronger?
I’m not entry certain but I think there’s a few issues where welding isn’t always the best option. When brazing, since the parent material isn’t melted, it holds it’s material properties. With welding the metal becomes weaker on the heat effected zone.
Another area to consider is with brazing, smaller diameter tubing can be used, which overall reduces the mass of the bicycle. You can also file back a brazed joint giving a visually much better appearance.
I think the above reasons are why brazing is often chosen over welding for bicycle frames.
Brazing is plenty strong for bicycle frames.
Brazing is used in the Indian sub continent for the rickshaws and bicycle van frames. I have personally loaded a touch over 815kg on a cycle van plus myself on top (65kg) and have heard of over 1000kg of heavy industrial machinery being transported on them.
I assume they've realised that from all the common forms of welding, brazing is the strongest, although everyone refers to it here as 'pitol' welding which actually means brass... which I think is a mis reference to the actual rods they use. They look brassy in colour.
It can also be filed down to five the look of invisible seams.
Did you see the amount of brass ? That amount of brass is as strong as tig would be.
Not good make car
Bike good car bad