Bill, I will challenge a few points you've made. On Saturday, February 29, 2020 at 6:35:07 AM UTC+8, Bill Lindsay wrote:
> > If that hypothetical BB shell was already on hand, then the lugged > assembly work would be cheaper. Maybe not a whole lot cheaper, but not > more expensive. > Why would the lugged assembly work be cheaper, even if you have a compatible BB shell on hand? In both filet brazing and lugged construction, the tube preparation is identical. With lugged construction, there is an additional step of preparing the lug. I've read that the best filet braze requires even smaller gaps, so perhaps that's where the extra cost comes from? If that hypothetical BB shell was NOT on hand and you had to go cast a new > one, custom, then that's prohibitive. Say $5000-$10000 and a few months to > get something set up to cast a new BB shell. Once you've done the prep > work, then manufacturing hundreds or thousands of them is not that > expensive, but that first one is really expensive. Nobody makes a true > custom cast lug. No frame builder casts custom lugs for their custom > frames. Will they someday, with metal 3D printing? Perhaps, but not today. > Some custom builders offer custom lugs that are cut from tubes and welded together. These are not stamped nor cast like traditional lugs, but the amount of work is substantial (read: expensive). In addition, some bike manufacturers have already integrated 3D-printed parts into their process. For example, Moots and Firefly both use 3D-printed titanium dropouts <https://moots.com/moots-3d-printed-flat-mount-dropout/> to meet the challenge of producing mounting points for flat mount disc calipers. At least in Firefly's case, the 3D-printed dropout is hollow but with reinforcement ribs. I would think this is at least as intricate and challenging to make as any lug, and certainly a BB shell. The question may be whether small custom bike builders, who practice a traditional art, have the skill and money to invest in such a tech. Maybe there's a market there for a 3D print shop that can supply custom steel lugs to individual small bike builders such as Nobilette. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/fdd1dbd8-9cfe-44f1-bee3-26a36dcdc0a7%40googlegroups.com.
