Titanium frame repair in UK

:shock: OK 40 quid isn't much but "agriculural" is pretty accurate. If that's representative of what you can do with a Ti repair I think I'd rather consign the frame to the display cabinet.

Is is a case of pay more for a better repair / welder?

when you weld something like steel you set your welder up by testing with a scrap piece of steel of the same grade and thickness as that you want to weld

id say he did well considering he had no chance to test and he probably doesnt weld ti all day everyday like the people who made the neat welds , his experience was all he could rely on

A weld doesn't have to look pretty to be strong but thats fairly poor welding by any standards :shock:

There's no mystery to titanium welding it acts very much like steel when welding and in industry the weld procedures are almost identical to stainless steel.

I'd be amazed if the person who did that repair was TIG welding on a weekly basis let alone a daily basis :? the gas holes caused by not tapering away when he finished the weld is just plain sloppy :shock:

If my apprentice had done that I'd have cuffed him over the back of the head with a blunt object and he'd be back on tea duties for a week

It would be binned on a visual inspection alone in any other application but to be honest its probably fine for a bike frame so I wouldn't worry about it

I'm slowly setting up my own workshop, so it is a service I hope to be offering in the not to distant future but it may still be quite a while off

My initial thoughts when I saw this were :shock: :shock: however after coming back and looking again I think that the weld looks fine. Bearing in mind that this is a close up I would defy most people to spot this if they didn't know it was there.

Plus at £40 it means that the bike can be used again - no need to spend £40 buying kit to display it!

All in its a good job IMHO.

Mark

sorry to hear that you are dissapointed, I'm no expert on Ti welding but the weld does look a bit sloppy :? however at £40 and given it looks like it will keep the frame on the road I would be happy with it. Indeed a close up always looks bad and you will be more aware of it, someone else would prob. not even notice. Scratch is a pisser :cry:

buff the scratch out with wire wool ....should sort it no probs

Should have gone to Enigma

Took mine to Enigma a couple of weeks ago, met Mark, very friendly chap. Posted back the next day, weld certainly looks better than the one pictured above, plus as it is on the BB shell you can see inside where it has penetrated through. Proper job by a bloke that knows what he is doing. Cost £60 including posting it back.

Perhaps the welder should have gone to Specsavers

Must say this is the second example I have seen of Mr Barkers work and neither would encourage me to send him a frame of mine for repair or modification
The other job was a disc mount and it was less than pretty, sure it does the job, but think maybe he needs to brush up on his technique a bit

Well, you know what stickers are for.

Back to the drawing board. :roll:

If the weld holds up then great, as has been mentioned if it keeps the frame on the trails then its done the job. I certainly am not ready to put it in a display cabinet. I won't be dissapointed if in 3 years time its still in one piece.
Unfortunately there aren't a lot of alternatives in the UK, I tried to contact Omega but could not find any up to date contact details.
Vernon has got back to me saying he does not know how the scratch occurred so that remains a mystery (its too deep to buff out).