Cast Lugs, was: Re: [CR]Pinnicle of the vintage lightweight era?

(Example: Framebuilders:Cecil Behringer)

Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 14:55:03 -0500
To: rocklube@adnc.com, Doland.Cheung@sce.com
From: "Harvey M Sachs" <sachs@erols.com>
Subject: Cast Lugs, was: Re: [CR]Pinnicle of the vintage lightweight era?
Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
In-Reply-To: <3ABCE2E7.703A@adnc.com>
References: <OF5BFE14A6.FA354E20-ON88256A18.008026CF@sce.com>


At 10:11 3/24/2001 -0800, Brian Baylis wrote:
>Doland,
>
>The investment cast lug only allows builders (who choose to use them) to
>put less time and "actual care and precision" into building a frame. The
>lug does not hold the frame together and never has. The strength of a
>bike frame joint is in the material of the tubing and the correctness of
>the fit and brazeing material used. To cast blanks would be
>counterproductive to adding "soul" to a frame in that there are plenty
>of pressed steel blank lugs available if one cares to find them.

<snip>
>Also, if anything, investment
>cast lugs encourage a lack of quality control in framebuilding. The
>reason is that it allows higher production numbers, less skilled
>builders, and a false sense of a "stronger frame" on account of them. My
>feeling is that investment cast lugs allow amatures to have apparent
>success when in fact the true skills of building exceptional frames are
>not always present.

<snip>

I'm not a frame builder, and have enormous respect for the wonderful artisans who build The Right Stuff. But, Brian's comment got me to thinking (not always a good thing!) and sent me browsing in the Rivendell lugs calendar... I may not have kept good count, since I kept getting diverted by the beauty of the pieces and the photography, but about 1/2 of the lugs illustrated in the 2-year monthly calendar are cast. One or two are old sand castings, but the rest of investment cast lugs used by serious builders. Richard "no relation" Sachs contributed to some of the designs, and obviously uses them himself. Good enough for me. Clearly, one can build a "pinnacle" frame with investment cast lugs.

Harvey "no relation" Sachs