There you can see that I managed to put sharp edges along the sides of the crown. This resulted from a process somewhat like sharpening a knife.
Above are the brazed-on spring retainers for the brazed-on Mafac bosses. Good Lord, what a lot a work it was to make those silver fillets, then file them to a nice shape, and then try to work that shape into the shape of the crown! I don't think I'll bother with this very often (my Mafac bosses came with aluminum tabs to use as spring retainers), but this looks nice in any case.
There's the back of the crown, showing the much thinner and swoopier shape of the crown, as well as the properly filled brake hole.
I'm in another holding pattern now, as I wait for head tube facing tools and some track ends to complete the rear triangle. But I was able to finish capping the stays. With all my filing practice from working on that cursed Nervex crown, the full process of brazing and filing these took about 45 minutes.
This is sort of what Monty will look like. He'll be a nice bike! Click to enlarge.
While I wait to finish off his rear triangle, I have begun the "investment stamping" process for the Greg Curnoe bike. These are Cinelli CS lugs, and I'm not going to do much shaping, since I like their avian profile as it is.
Indeed, the more I work on frames the more I question my tendency to engage in needlessly time-consuming things like filing ugly crowns into shape, filling obsolete lugs with brass, brazing on spring retainers, etc. Perhaps I'll be reminded why I've done it when the frame comes back from paint.
Next steps: finish the rear triangle, start on the stem, and then start the Greg Curnoe bike.
2 comments:
That seatstay cap looks really nice.
Thanks! As is often the case, the easy things often come out looking nicer than the ones that take days and days!
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