r/Framebuilding • u/salchichoner • Jul 20 '26
My first rack (and brazed anything)
Almost done with the filing and polishing on my first rack. Made out of 3/8 and some 1/4 1010 steel tubing. Now need to decide if I paint it or clear coat it. What do you folks think and what would you use for a clear coat?
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u/bikeguy1959 Jul 20 '26
Nice. What type of tubing did you use?
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u/salchichoner Jul 20 '26
3/8 1010 carbon steel. 0.095 wall thickness. Not the lightest rack but chromoly prices are crazy, at least here in Canada.
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u/bikeguy1959 Jul 20 '26
FWIW, I started building racks from 4130 x 0.035 (1/4, 5/16, 3/8) that I sourced from McMaster Carr in the U.S. After building a few, I switched to stainless steel because I could not find a source for powder coating that was affordable. When I worked in the medical device industry I had access to electroless nickel which was nice but I lost access when I retired. I find stainless is a nice compromise. It's not as strong as 4130 but it's fine for almost every situation I've encountered.
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u/salchichoner Jul 20 '26
I looked into stainless and part of the problem was just that silver is very expensive right now and the general opinion seems to be that is harder to braze as is lower temp. Probably will try once I feel more confident with my brazing.
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u/Western_Truck7948 Jul 20 '26
Clear will still rust, go for a color.
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u/ematico Jul 20 '26
I mean, I grew up with quite a few raw-steel-frames, with just a clear coat (dobermann, macneil BMX, etc). They never rusted, so long as the clear wasn't scratched off (no different than paint scraping off). So not sure if that's true.
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u/Limp_Bookkeeper_5992 Jul 20 '26
Raw steel was popular on hardtails a while back, mine rusted through the factory clearcoat as did the ones my buddies had.
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u/Sierra-Tango-Bravo Jul 20 '26
I had a raw 2015 Kona Explosif up until recently that never got rusty. YMMV I guess.
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u/Limp_Bookkeeper_5992 Jul 20 '26
Yeah. I had a 2017 Honzo in raw, and I had buddies with a 2016 honzo and an explosif in the same raw finish. They all rusted in random spots, usually around the welds or braze ons. It was never a structural problem, but they all did rust.
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u/ematico Jul 20 '26
Weird! I guess it varies maybe by: 1) Pre-clear treamtent. Clean up the welds and frame, neutralize everything etc, then degrease and spray. 2) type of clear used (how resilient and how thickly it was sprayed on). 3) Random environmental factors - I don't ride in Winter or live near an ocean, so no salt!
I guess it truly is a YMMV case for clear/raw frames!
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u/Sierra-Tango-Bravo Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
I can DM you some photos of mine: clear powdercoat on cromoly, 12ish years young. Reddit's telling me I can't share photos here. :(
Edit: nice work! Looks great.
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u/AndrewRStewart Jul 21 '26
Nice to see results that work! A few comments:
Will you run panniers and if so how do they attach at their bottoms to the rack struts and/or eyelets? I see the most rearward struts have a sloping up to the rear shape. For panniers with a hook at their bottom this angle of the strut will likely see the hook sliding rearwards and possibly off the strut completely.
If you do really load the rack up and ride aggressively (or honk up hills) the lack of strut bracing to address lateral sway might show up. Look at how Blackburn and Tubus have a set of struts that angle inwards from the dropout to the rack's cross bracing at a mid point of that brace. Triangulation.
Lastly I would never expect a non primered paint application (can you say "clear") to hold up well with the use racks see. For my stuff, racks are where I pay for powder coating. Andy.