Originally Posted by
3alarmer
https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/q...-advice-needed
With the exception of watching the lecture at NAHBS, I have never considered welding titanium. I guess it's possible that training of the average machine shop welder has progressed significantly, but I'm dubious. I actually did first learn welding at a Votec outside of Charleston, S.C., but they were mostly tuning out welders for the shipyard there. So we ran beads on steel plate with heavy duty stick welder for hours and hours. Maybe Votec education has changed since then too, but it would need to have changed a lot.
It's not just running a bead on your crack, and getting full penetration. There's also the issue of gas shielding the interior of the head tube, as the weld progresses.
If this were easy, there would probably be more people doing it.
Precisely. This is why the OP's very casual statement below (as well as some other posters' suggestions -- I got a particular laugh at the one who suggested taking the frame to the local high school) is so ridiculous. I've known plenty of people who can weld steel, and even a few who have welding gear in their garages. Titanium is a whole different animal, though. That's why the crack shown in the OP's photo is almost certainly fatal.
Originally Posted by
amazinmets73
agreed. I'd weld the crack in between removal and installation