I've built many machines. Most are, or at least were, detailed on here. Some will have been lost to the forum change. The only type of steering I don't use is direct into the head tube on a tadpole. I briefly tried it and hated it as it just fely awkward and wrong. USS or tank steering are both good and my latest tilter uses caster steering. There can't be more than a small handful of trikes using caster steering in the world. I ride on roads mainly. Tadpole hubs start around £15 each in Europe but you can use BMX wheels with 14mm axles to avoid that. Not many folk braze these days. The MIG is fine for anything bike or trike related.
If I ever build a delta it will likely be a Mosquito type.
Popshot- I will look for a "Mosquito" type delta- very new to this forum, so bare with me if you can.
Progress today- got the cable steering hooked up to my original size pinion steer tube (under the seat) but alas it could only move the front wheel about 3 inches either side of centerline, so tomorrow I'm going to try hooking the cables to the cross arm tubing. That will give me much more adjustabiity as far as range of motion for the limited space under the seat. Who knows it may even work! I still need to scavenge some seat stays or something similar off one of my junk frames and re- weld them into the frame in a way that will clear the under seat steering much better than what I had originally. I really want the ability to turn the front wheel to nearly 90 degrees if that is at all possible with under seat steering and still not have a twitchy bike at speed.
This may cause me to go back to a soap box derby type situation, but once you have ridden a delta trike that has a live axle, 2 wheel drive, and turns almost in twice it's own length, you are hooked!
It's fun to tinker, but I'm not riding anything in the meantime, so it's also frustrating to have the trike "down" until the mods are done..
Brazing- I would never be using this method normally, but when the tubing is very thin, the brazing method (or silver solder) is much more forgiving to the parent material. it does not eat into the tubing wall like a mig welder. In addition, the parts can also be dis- assembled if necessary without losing any of the joint material. A tig machine is still out of my price range as well as having to learn an entirely new skill from scratch. So for now I'm going to look into brazing a lot deeper.
I really cut my teeth on soldering, but the only close cousin to that is silver soldering and that may turn out to be the ultimate solution. I have to find out if Mapp gas alone can do silver soldering or do I really need an Acetaline rig.? The brass/bronze does not really have an afinity for steel as far as I can see at this very beginner level. Time will tell. What I do know is that the joints have to fit extremely close and the material has to be pristine clean for any kind of silver soldering so that the silver will wick into the joint. This is a sight to behold as the fillet is automatically created in the process and shines like mercury when it is flowing. Very little cleanup is needed afterwords, plus the joint is very very strong.
You were saying that hubs for a tadpole trike are fairly inexpensive in Europe? Can you show me a link? I can forgo the disk brakes, but it might be a nice option if the price was reasonable.
I built my own hubs from billet aluminum bars for the Delta trike I'm working on now. Each hub has a sprag clutch and a normal ball bearing. I run a live tubing axle and this creates a two wheel drive trike. But a trike hub can be much simpler and smaller, so it would reduce the cost and weight considerably. All three wheels are 700 C, but the rear axle carries most of the weight, so the tires on the back are something like a 45mm diameter whereas the front is a 25 racing tire.
I would like to see all your creations if possible. It's a shame that some have been lost to the machinations of the digital world. Many of my photos have met a similar fate.