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@hms
Back to the frame build notes:
Day 3.
I start the day with some filing, safe in the knowledge that their is lots more to come. It's hugely satisfying seeing the fillets slowly fade into super smooth transitions. Feather, feather, feather. Move the frame. Always be comfortable and work head on. "Visualise the finished fillet" says Jon. "Work to that image." For a very brief moment I feel like Michelangelo looking for David inside that mammoth piece of marble but then I'm brought back down to earth with a bump. I've looked too hard and tried to evaporate a pinhole that wasn't there to be chased. Jon confirms I've taken too much out and my braze is looking a little weak now. At least we have the option to add more brass - Michelangelo couldn't do that with his marble - so its back to the torch to build it up again and then file it down again. Better.
Over on the jig Mick is tacking his chainstays and preparing to braze them in place. The ones I cut yesterday are still sitting in my box.. Whilst I wait for the jog to be free I practice some silver brazing on test bottle mounts. Silver melts at a much lower temperature, is much runnier and you are generally using it on the thinnest, most delicate part of the butted tubes. At least they are good first time - you don't get a second chance with the real thing.
After lunch I get my turn to prep and tack my chainstays and dropouts. The disc set up is a bit more involved than standard dropouts and it takes most of the afternoon to get in place. Today I find it much harder to see the difference between flux and braze and I struggle with chainstays meeting the bottom bracket shel. Like a proper workman I blame the tools and switch welding glasses. Nah - it's me. Weird. Yesterday it was crystal clear.
Tacking the fillets at the other end of term chainstays are easier to see but the much smaller diameter of the tube means the liquid runs around and builds up underneath much more readily than with the larger diameter tubes. Coaxing a lump back up and re-smoothing is needed a few times. It's a great feeling just using the heat to overcome gravity.
I'd hoped to get the chain stays all brazed up before close of play - but cutting and mitring the narrow tubes is enough for me. "Never braze in a rush" says Mark. "If you need a piss, go first. Don't answer the phone and always move the frame, not yourself." Sound words. Do it when you are fresh if you can.
Instead I drill the holes for the bottle cages and Di2 cabling before Mark silvers a cable guide on to show me the way. The disc brakes will need a lot of cable mounts so I'll get my chance to do some tomorrow. Thursday already? Could be a late one..