Cycle Repairing and Adjusting
With a Chapter on building a Bicycle from a Set of Parts

102 CYCLE REPAIRING Hints on Brazing.—If a first attempt is to be made at brazing, do not straightaway make that attempt on this job, but practise on some odd pieces of tube and lugs until a satisfactory joint can be made. The main thing is the means of heating the heaviest joint to a brazing heat, and this may be done in several ways, by a paraffin blow- lamp costing about 35s. to 40s., or, what is better, a gas blowpipe I in. or 1 in. in diameter, with at least ^-in. gas- supply pipe and a fan or bellows to supply the necessary air pressure. If fitting up a cycle-repair workshop and power is available, by all means fit a small fan ; it is far preferable to a bellows of any description, the flame being steady and constant, and the operator being able to devote his entire attention to the job of brazing the joint. In the absence of power, obtain a small circular double-blast bellows and hearth, costing about £5 with blowpipe. The brazing materials are brass spelter, No. 3 size, or brass brazing wire (the writer prefers the former), and powdered borax as a flux ; a tin to hold the mixture of spelter and borax, and one for the plain borax ; a piece of iron wire about £ in. by 18 in., flattened at one end to feed the spelter and borax to the joints ; and a brazier’s brush, which is desirable but not absolutely necessary, to brush the superfluous borax and brass from the outside of the joint as soon as it is removed from the hearth. This saves much work in filing up, and saves the files immensely. Do not purchase the borax ready powdered, but buy lump borax, as that purchased ready powdered is much adulter- ated’. In making the brazing mixture, use about equal parts, in bulk, of No. 3 spelter and borax.