Just another note to confirm what others have said - you can fillet braze with silver filler. You'd use a non-eutectic alloy, one with a temperature range between its solidus and its liquidus. No silvers have much of a range there compared to brass, but it's enough to work with. The going is slower, requiring a little pause after each dab of filler to let the fillet cool a bit before the next dab, but it's subtle difference, not night-and-day. Sorry I don't remember brand names or part numbers of the wire but it was definitely one of the wide range of available silver brazing fillers. Definitely not talking about "nickel silver", which as you may know contains NO silver!
The strength of the filler being low is not a problem as long as the cross-section of fillet at the root is about 3 times as thick as the tube wall - and remember there's an inside fillet as well; though smaller it adds substantially to the strength and reliability of the joint.
Mark Bulgier
Seattle WA USA
>
> What percent silver was your wire? What brand and part
> number? How did you get your miters good enough to use
> silver? Without any lugs, the gaps would be even more
> critical. How did you build a fillet with high-silver-content
> wire? That sounds a bit fishy to me, unless the silver
> content was actually quite low.... Professional
> framebuilders, what say you?
>
> Greg Parker
> Ann Arbor, Michigan
>
> -------------- Original message --------------
>
> > Seeing as how I have a fillet silver brazed Columbus KL
> frame I did 25
> > > years ago still in my basement the answer would be yes, you can
> > fillet braze with silver. If I remember right you need a
> higher sliver
> > content brazing rod. The stuff was thicker and didn't flow
> as well as
> > standard 60-40. It did flow smoother than brass. Less
> cleanup filing. Also had a lower flow temp so didn't cook the
> columbus tubing. Columbus apparently doesn't do well over 1450F.
> >
> > Hope this helps.
> >
> > Steve Leitgen
> > La Crosse, WI
> >
> > On Dec 3, 2005, at 11:57 AM, gpvb1@comcast.net wrote:
> >
> > > Gaaaaah! A dagger to me aged heart! Don't say
> silver-solder! Claaaass!
> > > Claaaass! Sister Mary Elephant says please pay attention! ;-)
> > >
> > > Frames are brazed. They are not soldered together. Plumbing is
> > > soldered.
> > > And Dursley Pedersens don't count, so there! I don't believe that
> > > they are soldered anyways, so neener, neener, neener!
> > >
> > > I'm also not aware of any silver brazing wire that you can
> > > fillet-braze with. Has that changed recently?
> > >
> > > Greg Parker
> > > Ann Arbor, Michigan
> > >
> > > Date: Sat, 3 Dec 2005 11:26:09 -0500
> > > From: Angel Garcia
> > > To: CLASSIC RENDEZVOUS
> > > Subject: Re: [CR] modern KOF fillet brazed builders
> > >
> > > The high end Moser TK2 bikes are fillet braze construction using
> > > silver solder (tubeset is Deda 16.5 EOM steel).
> > > Angel Garcia
> > > Verona, Italy
> > >
> > >
> > > On 12/3/05, rodk3d@comcast.net wrote:
> > >
> > >> All this talk of fillet brazing has me wondering who the
> modern KOF
> > >> fillet brazed builders are. 3 modern builders that come
> to mind are
> > >> David Kirk, Jeff Lyon and John Slawta, I'm sure there are many
> > >> others. What do you owners of newer fillet brazed frames
> think of
> > >> them overall?
> > >>
> > >> cheers,
> > >> Rod Kronenberg
> > >> Fort Collins, CO