Quote from Hilary;
>And about four or five years ago I bought a 753 aero tubed Raleigh road
> frame - this was built lugless with silver as there were no suitable lugs
> and its fillets are a similar size to the ones I have seen on early
> Silverlights and on Ernie's frame.
The "Dynaflyte" frames, I think that's the correct name Gerald chose for the Aero sectioned 753 Were silver brazed with 2 different rods. The first was Silver Flo 55 made by Johnson Matthey which was the rod used to silver braze all of the lugged 753 frames, but with a minor modification. The rods were 1 mm in diameter and a ring was bent from a rod to fit inside the tube and flowed beautifully. The mitres were all filed by hand as they had to be very accurate, very tedious and time consuming.
The joint was then carefully heated and the internal ring of silver solder "teased" until it flowed through to the outside of the joint.
A second rod "Argo flo", another proprietary JM rod, with a lower melting temperature the silver flo, and a very "pasty" character was then used to form the fillet. Hence the original silver flo capillary joint was not melted.
It is fairly obvious from the foregoing that it was not an economical proposition which is why only a few were made.
I built the prototype in 1980. It was a 60 cm frame and finished in pearlescent gunmetal with a Campag SR groupset and Cinelli "Gentlemen" bars & stem finished in red suede with a saddle to match. I rode it to the Bath Road 100 that year and it caused quite a stir. I would love to know if it still exists somewhere?
Mike Mullett
Reading UK