Made a start nice and early this morning before the day became too hot to do anything except have nana naps. I was still working through washing blankets & etc and getting them out to dry, but with the laundry right next to the carport and my workshop I was able to get some work done in between washing cycles.
I salvaged some really nice old steel conduit from the council tip a while ago and I decided I would use it to make the new heavier chainstays. We don't use steel conduit anymore here in NZ because it's all gone plastic so the steel conduit must've come from renovations on a building from the 1930s.
With changes to my meds I'm doing a lot better and have more energy to do things which is why I'm able to get out into my workshop and do things again. It's really great to be hacksawing and filing away at metal and making something again out in my own little messy workshop
By the way I think the guy who invented flapper discs deserves a medal because they didn't half make a good job of cleaning everything up and nice and quickly too.
The big acid test for today's workshop session was of course seeing how my new brazing torch would perform. I decided to try ordinary propane first as I wanted to see just what it could do even though I'll most probably be using MAPP gas more often than not. First though, - shock horror, - I couldn't find my new packet of flux coated brazing rods!
My daughter and I have been having a big clean up of our workspaces as we were able to use some of the car sale money to buy one of those big red tool boxes on castors with lots of drawers that I've always wanted. So Ok, it's a Chinese knock off and we got it half price at a warehouse clearance because it had a dent in it; - selling a 1970s Datsun doesn't make us millionares afterall.
So finally we've been able gather up all the tools we own from where they've been scattered all over the house and workshop and put them in one place. Somehow during the great gathering up of tools I managed to misplace my new brazing rods. That's the only problem with tidying up, - you can never find anything afterwards
So after searching for twenty minutes I did eventually find them and got myself all sorted out with my Steampunk Girl cap on, my welding goggles and gloves & etc. The instructions for my new torch were cryptic to say the least and failed to explain how the safety lock on the trigger was supposed to be released, BUT we got there in the end and I got the thing lit. One thing I do really like about it is that it has an automatic lighting up system which means no more looking for gas strikers or matches in the middle of a job.
So how did it do? The fluxed brazing rods I'm using are made by the same manufacturer as supplies the gas canisters. I thought this would be a really good idea as the alloy used for the rods should definitely work with the the gas I was using.
I must say that after some ten years since I last tried to braze anything I didn't do too bad. With a little bit more practice I should be able to lay down nice even fillets like I could back when I was twenty something. The first thing I noticed though after having been spoiled by brazing with an oxy-acetylene torch in the past is that with propane patience is required as everything heats up more slowly. I was brazing a 1/16th inch thick stay tube to a 1/8th inch thick part of a cycle frame, so I knew I was pushing it. BUT not to worry because the workpiece eventually developed a nice luminous orange red spot that was able to be 'wetted' with my nice new brazing rod.
When I was younger and fluxed brazing rods had just become available I refused to have anything to do with that new fangled stuff. I could be a difficult little sod like that when I was younger (sigh). However to cut a long story short the new fluxed rods I'd purchased worked beautifully and I'd be more than happy to keep on buying them in the future.
Once the sun starts going down and the day cools off I'll go back and braze the other end of the chainstay. Then the next task will be making the combined stay and skirt guard mounting for the other side.
