Originally Posted by
MassiveD
Then once you are done with all that, you still need to heat treat the whole frame. Not happening. If it is 7075, I don't think you need to heat treat it. but most frames aren't.
Now what could you get away with were the frame is tacked to some angle, and splint with some wire, and slathered with some epoxy, where the welds are just an initial reference, don't know. But maybe.
Again, you are missing the point. Field repair. Temporary. Enough to get by. In other words, not a permanent fix.
I've had
some experience with broken frames and having them repaired. It's where I found out how thin and difficult steel frames are to weld...difficult enough to tax the skills of the common shade tree mechanic, maybe even as difficult as aluminum. The welds were at the bottom bracket bridge on the chainstay (both sides) on a 1984 steel Miyata Ridge Runner mountain bike. The steel wasn't the thinnest steel and was probably a similar thickness to what you'd find on an LHT. The welds didn't last and eventually cracked again.
On the other hand, I also had an aluminum frame repaired. The same guy fixed both frames and never made any comment about the aluminum one being difficult to weld. This break was at the seat post/ top tube junction...don't use seatposts like the Titec Hellbent downhill post...the repair was simple and straight forward. It also wasn't heat treated afterwards and was still going strong after 6 years when I sold the bike. I wouldn't have expected the same result if the break would have been on the chainstays like the steel bike.