Anyone got any recommendations for frame Repairs/welding, specifically titanium.
My trusty Blade (nearly 20 years old now) has finally succumbed to a really sh1tty piece of design around the seatpost.
No, I bought it as a 2nd hand frame about 8/10 years ago (about £350 I think). It doesn’t really owe me anything but I don’t want anything newer/better so if I can get it fixed reasonably I will.
If I can’t I’ll have a long think about whether I need a TT bike at all and retire the frame to wall art status.
???
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I do own a welder (although not a Tig) and have done mild & stainless steel in the past but the thought of trying to weld such thin sections of Ti scares me to death and would probably result in:
Ps. That image was supposedly a Ute caught in the Australian bush fires 
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oooh! That’s quite exciting! Or at least it is to me, who lives in a flat and so looks at things like welders as something I aspire to own/use… but have zero clue as to what I would use one for.
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And a lathe 
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Oh come on… that’s showing off. Next you’ll tell me you have a table saw and a milling machine!?
I don’t think even original owners have that anymore, since ABC bought out Litespeed.
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No table saw but I do have a milling attachment for the lathe, like this one.
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So far so good here so can’t comment 
always liked the blade tho.
Expect you’d need to find a specialist.
Wonder how far down the tube with the clamp extends into the aero bit.
Ti welding is a bit of an acquired art, I watches a presentation about them making the ti chassis for Ariel Atom to save a few grams 
basically a massive tent with a zillion gloves access points !
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I’m pretty sure that’s the problem, I don’t think it extends into the aero tube at all so all the forces from the seatpost go through those welds. I’ve got 3 Ti bikes and they’ve never been an issue (despite me being around 100kg most of the time) I think this is just a poor bit of design that was bound to go eventually.
I’ve found a place near Derby that advertises as a specialist in Ti repairs and I’m going to ask them, firstly can it be fixed and secondly can it be made better than it was, maybe by fitting a longer tube and securing it further down the aero tube in some way.
I really don’t need a TT bike if I’m honest but I love the Blade and will save it if I can, if not I may get a cheap TT frame and rebuild onto that. There’s a Moda Mossa (Aluminium) on Ebay for £250 new that caught my eye.
Just phoned the first place I found online (Vernon Barker Cycles) and they’re about to move premises so aren’t taking on any work for about 8 weeks, FFS!!!
He did chat through the job with me and reckoned £80-100 for the welding. I also asked if it could be improved with a longer tube extending down the aero section, he said they could probably do that too but would obviously be a much bigger job and would need to have it there to see what was possible.
Ps. Also messaged Enigma & a place called Limit Fabrications that get good reviews too.
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Reilly ?
Just messaged them too, thanks.
Just stripped the frame down and getting seatpost out showed cracks to be worse than I first thought.
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Might be worth giving this guy a call; he removed my stuck Ali seatpost from my Van Nic. I realise that your job is more than that, but he seemed a pretty knowledgable guy, or at least might know someone else that could sort this for you.
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Thanks Wheezy, never does any harm to ask.
I’ve got a couple of lines of enquiry on the go at the moment.
Limit Fabrications (Norfolk) have come back and said they can do it for about £150 but I have to arrange couriers & insurance there and back due to value of frame. I found them on Intranet with some good reviews on bike forums.
Megarweld in Wolverhampton - not a bike specialist but some good testimonials for doing bike frames and some other fairly obscure titanium items. I’ve gone back to them with a question about reinforcing the area rather than just welding up the cracks and see what they come back with.
Local Bike Shop - went to scrounge a box for couriering really but took the frame with me and asked if they had any contacts and they said they’d speak to a local guy they knew tonight and get back to me.
The first one sounds the best in terms of specialisation and reviews etc. but I like the idea of taking it in person and speaking to the person fixing it which I can do with the other two.
It certainly sounds like I’ll get it done somewhere and then we’ll just have to see if it lasts but earlier on I was thinking it’s a write-off which doesn’t seem the case now, at least in the short term.
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might be worth giving Enigma Bikes a call - they do a lot of Ti frame welding and to quote
"in the hands of our talented craftsmen, we now paint and refurbish any frame, whether steel, aluminium, titanium or carbon. "
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Yeah, I’ve messaged them but not heard anything back yet.
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