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

CYCLE ENAMELLING AND PLATING 73 is suspended by it the end of the brush will not quite touch the bottom of the pot. Care is required in selecting a good make of enamel, which should be obtained from a reliable manufacturer. First-coating and finishing enamels cost about 6s. per gal., and can be had in £-gal. tins, ready for use. The finishing enamel, however, generally requires thinning down, with turpentine for preference. The correct thinness can only be found by practice. When the enamel is of the proper consistency, the brush works freely and smoothly over the tubes ; when too thick, it causes the brush to drag on the work, and tends to pull out the hairs. It is important that the enamel should be kept in a suitable warm place, such as on a wooden shelf near the stove ; do not keep it on a cold stone or brick floor. When the enamel has been open in the pot a considerable time it may become dirty. It will then be necessary to strain it through fine muslin or a linen rag before clear work can again be produced. Bear in mind that the higher degree of finish that is put on the work before enamelling, the better will be the result. The work should be well rubbed down with emery cloth, both coarse and fine, say No. 2| or No. 3, and then finished with No. 1 ; and the lugs and sharp corners should be well polished with strip emery. In large cycle works the frames are bobbed before enamelling, and thus given a highly polished surface to receive the enamel. When the frame, etc., has been thus prepared, it should be thoroughly dusted with a linen rag ; a fluffy cotton rag must not on any account be used. All holes and corners should be well