Brazing Lugs

[doctorfresh]

Hey gang,

I was just wondering if anyone had any tips on how to get better alloy penetration in a couple of tricky spots I’ve struggled with (granted this is only my second lug). Mainly I’m having trouble with getting good fill at the points of the lugs and getting good penetration into the backside of the rings. Other than that I’m feeling a lot more confident with the torch and I’m able to get decent penetration through the rest of the lug but I’m still struggling with those spots. Definitely planning to do more practice before I start putting my frame together for real.
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[Eric Estlund]

Even heating is key. The crotches are the thickes part of the the casting, and also have a fair amount of tube there. If the miters are gappy, that won't help if you are unevenly heated as the filler will just run into the gaps on the hot side.

It looks like the tip might be standing up off the tube. If that's the case, do more lug manipulation in advance to get that point down. If you tack there, it can help, but if everything gets too hot and underfilled, it can whisp back to try to fill the void.

Keep practicing, and work on more even heat over a larger volume of the lug.

[doctorfresh]

Okay. Thanks for the feedback. I bought a couple more lugs to practice with. Hopefully I'll get a chance to miter and braze them this week.