Brazing

[wrecklesseric]

I stripped the paint of my Elgin and found a lot of the joints are not finished too well. I'm thinking about fillet brazing around the joints to fill the gaps and make a little bit of a radius just to make it look nice. What I'm wondering is am I going to totally warp the frame or have the joints come apart when I heat them? Any advice would be great. I know how to braze,but I've never attempted this before. Thanks,

Eric

 

[Rustinkerer]

If they seem structurally sound, I think you'd be better off filling in the bad spots with JB Weld epoxy, and then sand it down. Personally, I wouldn't put heat on an old joint unless it was already broken or loose. -Adam

 

[66olds98]

You wont warp the frame, you just need to heat slowly and evenly all around the tube and when things are getting nice a hot you start to concentrate on the area you want braze. I have never attempted to fix brazing, but have brazed from scratch. You should be able to do it just fine. Just dont get the entire tube red hot, like I said focus on the spot you want to tidy up. Good Luck man

 

[66olds98]

Heck, you might be able to do it with lead. Much, much lower melting point and would flow out just fine I would imagine.

 

[wrecklesseric]

Thanks for the input. I just found out this thing was built in 1935,so now I'm really nervous! On the other hand,it's stayed together this long. There was a few spot of lead already on there. I don't know if it was done at the factory or at some later date. I'm thinking I'll try the brazing on a spot not too critical like the fender mount and see how that works out. Wish me luck!

E

 

[sensor]

are the original joints cracked or coming apart? if not just finger some glazing putty in if you just want to mold them to look nice...
if they are cracked you can melt the brass out with a torch and just weld it back together(did that on my zep and have had no problems at all) with a mig,tig,or oxy/acetylene



man i cant spell

 

[user 135]

If you are playing with the bottom bracket area. Throw in a junk BB and crank. I think mine warp a bit when it was brazed. It may of been bent a little since the joint was already cracked.

 

[wrecklesseric]

Almost done with the brazing. Came out ok. It's alot like when I do spackle in the house,put it on,sand it off. I used a small tip and thin rod. I'll have to use a smear of bondo to fix the minor imperfections. All in all,not too bad.

E