Some recent bead by my co-worker, some guy named Frank The Welder;
Frank lays down different shapes and styles of bead on different bikes for shits and giggles and the sake of doing cool stuff...
Sometimes there is no bead at all....
FACT: Most of the "perfect" welds you see on "custom" steel frames and all welds you see on Ti frames that look super smooth are double passed.
There is an intial structural pass and there there is a secondary cosmetic pass. This is a gimmick.
The strongest, most effective way to join thin tubing is shorter slow stitches, sometimes 4 stitches on a steel toptube(like the Max one below) are necessary to make things groovy and finely regulate penetration and heat.
We could run another whole pass ove the tubes to make them look like an I.F. but we don't, because it's not needed and doing uncessary shit doesn't make better bikes.
The bead below is tig-welded silicon bronze
Frank and Chris used to use it to attach bosses and bridges onto Yeti frames and I see it from time to time on various steel parts. It's pretty cool stuff. It goes on at low temperature than tunsten and flows quicker. It's much easier to sand down too, almost like brass.
Added content;
Chris Herting(3D/Ex-Yeti/occasional Spooky subcontractor) lays down a bead that looks a lot different than Frank's
I can easily tell which one of them welded an old Yeti based on start/stop marks and the way the bead is shaped.
and... Yeti bead in general looked different from both of them.
The below is Chris;
Frank lays down different shapes and styles of bead on different bikes for shits and giggles and the sake of doing cool stuff...
Sometimes there is no bead at all....
FACT: Most of the "perfect" welds you see on "custom" steel frames and all welds you see on Ti frames that look super smooth are double passed.
There is an intial structural pass and there there is a secondary cosmetic pass. This is a gimmick.
The strongest, most effective way to join thin tubing is shorter slow stitches, sometimes 4 stitches on a steel toptube(like the Max one below) are necessary to make things groovy and finely regulate penetration and heat.
We could run another whole pass ove the tubes to make them look like an I.F. but we don't, because it's not needed and doing uncessary shit doesn't make better bikes.
The bead below is tig-welded silicon bronze
Frank and Chris used to use it to attach bosses and bridges onto Yeti frames and I see it from time to time on various steel parts. It's pretty cool stuff. It goes on at low temperature than tunsten and flows quicker. It's much easier to sand down too, almost like brass.
Added content;
Chris Herting(3D/Ex-Yeti/occasional Spooky subcontractor) lays down a bead that looks a lot different than Frank's
I can easily tell which one of them welded an old Yeti based on start/stop marks and the way the bead is shaped.
and... Yeti bead in general looked different from both of them.
The below is Chris;
