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Levelboss Cracked


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Hi

Does anyone know the going rate for welding a cracked frame.

I realise that every crack will be different so i am just after people who have had welding work done and have realisetic prices.

Also is it worth the hassle etc etc?

thanks a lot

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Hi

Does anyone know the going rate for welding a cracked frame.

I realise that every crack will be different so i am just after people who have had welding work done and have realisetic prices.

Also is it worth the hassle etc etc?

thanks a lot

hey im pretty sure most industrial estates will have someone that welds alloy i dont think its too expensive

something areound 10-15 quid

mike

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well heat treating typically happens after the frame is built. Bascially it involved heating the entire, welded frame in an oven to a particular temperature. At certain temperatures the molecular structure of materials changes. At this point you can either let it cool down naturally, which allows the molecular structure to go back to pretty much the way it was, or you can cool it down quickly, which will "freeze" the molecular structure in a particular arrangement.

In the case of aluminium and steel and probably many other things, this rapid cooling will make the material harder, more resistant to deformation, scratching or denting, but will also make it more brittle and less able to absorb vibration or shock without fracturing. Consider the difference between wood and glass. Glass is hard, but brittle. Wood is soft, but doesn't shatter (it's not brittle). This is what heat treating is generally about.

For instance I had an aluminium frame modified - I had a disc tab welded onto it. The tab was plenty strong, and wasn't about to crack, but as it wasn't heat treated after the modification, the new material was soft and it deformed with the pressure of the disc brake and the bolts holding the brake on. This sort of deformation is almost never seen on correctly heat-treated frames - they fracture or crack instead

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cheers 'ash-kennard'

i will keep that in mind buddy.

very well explained

easily understood.

i have lined up a beat up levelboss for a good price.(fingers crossed)

i wanted to find out if the repairs would out weight the cost of the beat up frame.

thanks for all the posts so far.

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3 cracks i will need sorting:

1. underneath head tube (important)

2. hairline crack on one of the rear brake mounts (a must i think)

3. sump guard mounting (no so important if i run a bash ring??)

this frame has been welded already in the same spot as your mates has so i see it may be a common problem

i hope the head tube crack is not common, or at least let your mate no about ti so he can check it out.

thanks again

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That's a pretty nasty crack man,

How bent out of shape is the rest of the frame? If the whole thing is as bandy as it looks in the photo I wouldn't hold up much hope for it surviving more than a month once re-welded.

Most trials frames suffer from micro-fractures at high-stress points & I reckon if you do re-weld the head tube area & plate it, all it will do is shift the stress point further down the tube. If it doesn't try to snap between the two plates.

I had my old frame (Saracen) re-welded a few times & all it really did was move the cracks further down the frame.

As for price, if you can manage to get chatting with the guy doing the work it can work out alot cheaper... Especially if he shows an interest.

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ash kernard seems to know his stuff, but my mate had his level boss reweleded on the plate between the bb and the stay and he didn't heat treat it and its still going strong after more than a year.

hope this helps

copy+paste= ash-kennard having god-like knowledge

Edited by ash-kennard
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Some steels need a heat treament after being weled be it tig, mig, braze! Mainly 835 etc from Renyolds!

All alluminum need a T6 @ least heattreament phase after any hot works on the frame!

I looked a long time ago when i had my roll cage built or my car by a local shop. Nearly £600 for 45 mins of T6!

Thats why frames are done in batches of hundereds and all done at same time!

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