Norris Lockley wrote:
> As for the appropriateness of this open-end style of stay end..it is
> certainly more eye- catching than the straight end that often was used
> by Columbus and Vitus, but it does leave the stay open to the entry of
> water, salt etc etc etc. It is doubtful if it is needed to vent the
> joint. A better form of this file-profiled end is to flush in some
> brazing material with the aim of filling the hole while at the same time
> retaining the concave flute. By producing an area of brazed material, as
> opposed just to line contact, this method is far stronger than a void
> and far more attractive. I have always brazed these joints with silicon
> bronze..never silver-soldered them..and have often seen them brazed with
> very strong nickel-bronze . .. and would be interested to hear why
> other builders have preferred to silver-solder them.
At Trek, the vast majority of dropouts were brazed closed using nickel-bronze, but for some of the early 753-tube frames (mostly team issue frames) we used silver with the open end treatment. We also did silver with a closed end treatment on some of these frames before switching to silver with a socketed, investment-cast dropout. I don't recall any dropout failures with any of these treatments, though. I think the changes were done for cosmetic reasons.
--
John (john@os2.dhs.org)
Appleton WI USA