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

BUILDING A CYCLE 103 In preparing the work for brazing, see that the surfaces are bright, clean, and free from scale. The joints should be a good tight fit, free from shake, and where a joint such as the back forks to the bridge lugs is being made, see that the tube edges fit close up to the shoulder of the lugs all round, and do not depend on the brass to fill up a badly fitted joint. In brazing the joint the chief things to observe are to make a sound joint the full depth of the lug, and not merely to get a thin film of brass round the outer edge. To do this the flame should be directed on to the thickest Fig. 44.—Serrated Liner part of the lug first before getting the tube too hot, and feeding the joint with borax before the metals get hot enough to scale. As soon as the lug and tube begin to get a dull red feed with borax only, then with brass and borax, when it should flow almost like water and penetrate to the deepest part of the joint. Another very important thing is not to “ burn ” the tube by getting it too hot, which will spoil it and cause an early fracture. If the above method of heating the lug first is observed, and the tube near the lug kept “ wet ” with borax to prevent it scaling, this should not happen. Where a joint is being brazed which lends itself to inside loading, the work should be so placed on the hearth