Re: [CR]Now: Bilaminate construction Was: Ritchey with faux lugs?!?

(Example: Component Manufacturers:Chater-Lea)

To: OROBOYZ@aol.com
Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 18:26:51 -0400
Subject: Re: [CR]Now: Bilaminate construction Was: Ritchey with faux lugs?!?
From: "Richard M Sachs" <richardsachs@juno.com>
cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org

dale-issimo - ohmyfreekin'gawdddddddddddd. are you saying that the 3 part hetchins story that tom rawson helped "out" last year contains errors with respect to the mechanized methods of cutting lugs n' stuff en masse*? e-RICHIE aka Richard M Sachs Chester-Upon-Dingwall, Connecticut * means "in masse" in french

On Wed, 19 May 2004 18:05:04 EDT OROBOYZ@aol.com writes: Herewith begins the opinion section:

Chuck, I don't believe that.

I think it's an urban myth or something... I have heard it a couple of ways, it doesn't seem plausible and I have decided, using my superior intelligence and intuitive powers, that the "stack of lug sheets, cut into fancy shapes all at once" idea is bologna.

I am supported (thanks goodness) by the Ken Janes interview in the Hetchins Historic web site, http://www.hetchins.org/kenjanes-01.htm

He says:

"There were no master patterns [for the Latin Series lugs,] only sketches

made on a blackboard and a few copper bi-lams [see below] for repetition work."

And:

"Claud Butler pioneered this technique of bi-lamination after the War; the frames were brazed together with lugless joints, then 'bi-lams' were added to the joints later. Hetchin apparently use this method, too, in addition to

castings and pressed-steel lugs. "Design and handcutting came very expensive for seat tube bi-lams, 16 pounds in the 1970s."

And finally:

"Stack-cutting of lugs Ken considers "a load of rubbish". The saw blade would bow outwards and distort some of the layers. Ken, at any rate, did not use this method, although I have reliable sources who claim that others did; perhaps the stack-cut method was developed later, after Ken left the firm, and was used for other, simpler designs than the Latin Series."

That last is Flash's speculation and I don't believe anyone actually did it. By the time it would have been possible, fancy lugs had faded in popularity, and the "cut and curl" or "shaved" style with tacked on "embellishments" took over for the few remaining quasi-production bikes made with fancy lugs...

Dale Brown
Greensboro, NC