[DrewS]

Exactly what does fillet brazed mean? This applies to steel frames.

 

[Dog Welder]

From what I know its a welded frame with the welds grinded off or smoothed out. Makes the seam ultra clean, looks kinda like trek's carbon bikes where you can't find the seam. Aside from that I don't know if it actually doesn any thing. I was looking at a F. Moser road frame that was fillet brazed.

 

[ohio]

actually brazing is sort of like a high temp/high strength soldering. You're not actually welding (melting the tubes together) you're gluing them together using another metal (silver or brass alloy) that melts at a lower temp. It's the same way they make lugged frames. It's pretty sweet because it uses less heat than a fusion weld so the tubes are less heat affected and less chance of contamination. It looks like a one piece because they build up the brazing material a lot to reinforce the joint and have it attatch to a large surface area; that is the "fillet" part. To be honest, I've done normal brazing, and I have no idea how they build it up like that. It takes skill and time, I'd guess.

It doesn't really have any weight or strength advantages, but it it absolutely beautiful, and a sign that the framebuilder has put an obscene amount of time into the bike...

 

[reflux]

i'm pretty sure ohio nailed that one. i have seen several quality bikes using fillet brazing and it is by far the most beautiful craftsmanship i have ever seen. a few select small manufacturers (sycip for example) offer brazing as an upcharge because it requires so much extra time, skill and patience to perform.

 

[edoz]

That's about right. A fillet weld is any weld that fills the corner of where two tubes or plates meet. Just don't say 'fillay' say fill it'. When I first started welding, I made the mistake of pronouncing it fillay, and never heard the end of it. "Hey Red, you weldin' some steak over there?"