Wednesday 13 July 2011

Back to welding!

Now my Uni course is over for the summer, I can return to my first love - welding!


Some of the boys who are studying engineering (yes, we fashion girls sometimes mix!) are currently messing around building new 'extreme' bicycles for themselves - recumbents, and double-deckers and so on. They often ask me to modify the frames for them, but you have to be very careful. Depending on the make and style of bike, the frame tubes may be joined with lugs that are Sif-brazed. They are very strong and very crack resistant but if you later weld lugs near the joints, you can soft-melt the brazing material, which then oxidises and may later fail.

As well as a fashion designer and welder, now I am becoming a bicycle designer!

11 comments:

  1. When do you weld and when do you braze?

    N

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  2. What a strange question....but if you must know, I braze on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and weld during the rest of the week. Except Sundays, when I glue.

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  3. It was you who mentioned glue not me?

    I use nylon tie wraps and duck tape on odd and even days respectively in case you were interested (probably not)

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  4. That's so cool! What kind of welding did the boys used to make their bikes? I've always wanted to try that, make my own adjustments to bikes and scooters and things like that. It would be so fun!

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  5. Hello Alice:
    Fashion and welding, what a marvellous combination. Clearly you are a woman who will be able to rise to any challenge in any situation in which you may find yourself. And, now you have turned your very capable hands to bicycle design, Karl Lagerfeld needs to be a very worried man tonight!!

    We have found your most delightful blog via the incomparable Camilla, assisted by the stunning Miss Scarlet. And, how pleased we are to have arrived. We have signed up immediately as Followers and wonder if, although we see you live in the UK, you are in town with us [Budapest] for the Grand Prix weekend.

    Until the next post....!!

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  6. Wow! I am flattered to have new visitors - but Gary: are you just selling welding gear, or do you really want to know about welding bikes?

    And Jane and Lance - obviously I have Camilla to thank for your visit! She is like a special Aunty to me. I hope you enjoyed the Hungarian Grand Prix today - a great win for Jenson! He looks nicer when he has had a shave and it seems to make him faster too!!

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  7. All this talk of welding and brazing, and I'm still stuck on sellotape.
    Sx

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  8. Alice,

    Very cool. I'd probably stick with gorilla glue, but my knowledge of welding stops at 70s era Honda motorcycles. I think back then they were still rubbing pieces of metal together until they got hot and just stuck. Though, my information is limited.

    Brady
    Behind Bars - Motorcycles and Life

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  9. More visitors! I am flattered!

    Scarlet, even sellotape machines use welding! And I have used it to hold thin plates together whilst I tack them!

    Brady, Gorilla glue is jolly good stuff! I don't think there is much on a Honda motorcycle that is friction welded, but there was on older Honda cars - things like drive shafts!

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  10. Alice,

    I didn't even know friction welding was a real thing. Ha. Well, that's egg on my face, I figured it would work, but... Honda's biggest technological breakthrough was the motor that always ran and oil that stayed inside. The frame, well, could have been better.

    Brady
    Behind Bars - Motorcycles and Life

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  11. That's really cool, I've always wanted to make an extreme chopper-style bike with really long forks and a lean-back seating position... I better get learning about spot welding quick time!

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