Bicycle welding porn!

[Alfaman]

I was browsing round for some info on titanium BMX frames, and came across this http://moots.com/our-craft/welding/overview/#5 American manufacturer, the quality of welds on the frames makes me want to hang up my helmet for good!

 

[Welderpaul]

Nice welds. Some right old waffle though...oxygen as a backpurge gas?

 

[Shox Dr]

The Ti Defiant made by Boulder Bikes I used to import had welds like those. I had one fail, sent it to a company in the midlands somewhere. Only charged me 20quid.
My mate still has the bike.

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/botm/b-o-t-m-june-2010-is-stefan9113s-boulder-defiant-ti/

 

[rtbcomp]

I think they mean purging oxygen from the weld site.

 

[Rrunnach]

Ti, is a lovely matl to nail, was doing similar joint configuration for UV filtration, ozone equip, sand filter equip, located within Burj Al Arab Hotel aquarium, water still crystal clear, equipment still working well, usual purges, trailing ect.

Bike mob certainly do write it up well. make it read like welding Ti, is a science, which it is not!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2-9FD9bg5I

 

[hotrodder]

Not knocking them as 1) there's usually too much (or maybe not enough!) caffeine/sugar/alcohol etc running through my veins to have hands that steady and 2) i wouldn't have the patience anyway but...

Moots as well as most of the other (at least Ti) frames with such perfectly consistant welds are all done with a 'double pass'. The first pass is ausually autogenous (or nearly so) either with a high frequency pulse or CC. The second pass is made with wire to fill the joint. Ti can have a very 'sticky' weldpool, especially when the heat input is very low as it would be doing things this way so a lay wire technique is common with a slow pulse to control how much/how frequently wire is added. It's a very slow, laborious, tedius, boring way of welding. Sure does look good though!

 

[Shox Dr]

^^and most Ti frames at one time were welded by a hand full of guys in the states. I know Rick Williams (Boulder Bicycles) did weld his own. Though not his 7005 Alloy ones

 

[hotrodder]

I forget how it went as everyone was selling up/getting bought out and then sometimes starting over but wasn't it Litespeed and/or Merlin (or at least their welders) that were responsible for nearly everything Ti at one point, regardless of the name on the frame?

Sooo much fiction doing the rounds it was hard to keep track. Some of the stuff spouted about and even by Cannondale (or clunkenfail as they were affectionally known) was hilarious... posters/adverts of their welders at work with sparks added to show their aluminium welders at work stories from Cannondale reps about their 'special' welding techniques when it was obvious the welds were just linished smooth

 

[tigler]

Hey, I love my Cannondale !!
One of the pics in that link above shows a female welder !!

 

[Shox Dr]

My memory fails me, I thought Litespeed and Merlin were in cahoots. I once had a Ti Defiant reviewed in MTB Pro by Steve Warland sideby side with a Litespeed BowTi

He did like the BowTi, and more or less said the Defaint was THE bike. yet at the end his summary favoured the BowTi. I ran him after wards to be told there were "other factors"

Sandvik was a name banded about at the time was it not HR.

 

[pedrobedro]

Hey, I love my Cannondale !!
One of the pics in that link above shows a female welder !!

You old sexist you She should be making the tea and cleaning up I suppose

 

[hotrodder]

Sorry Tigler, they'll aways be Clunkenfails to me I worked for DeKerf UK for a while after i left university and got to spend a bit of time drinking and riding with the man himself when everyone met up for trade shows and the like. Chris was a builder at Rocky Mountain bikes before he went out on his own and said they sent him out to Taiwan (or wherever) to 'apprentice' on the mass produced stuff. According to him a lot of the welders (and all of the best ones) were women

Sandvik... forgot about them, might well have been. I'm sure Merlin and Litespeed had the same owners at one point?

Magazine journalists... should probably keep my mouth shut but i used to hate the cozying up that used to go on and results in 'other factors'

 

[tigler]

You old sexist you She should be making the tea and cleaning up I suppose

Probably a clumsy comment ! I don't have a problem with women doing anything they choose but I was just surprised to see a young female in that environment.
Having said that, a young girly that used to hang around my mates raceshop would always say "I'd love to be a car mechanic" to which we would always respond, no you wouldn't and you couldn't anyway, which would pi55 her off !
One day I was changing the clutch on an Evo 6 and she came out with it again, so I gave her some nitrile gloves and tasked her to loosen the bell housing bolts.
5 mins later she's broken several nails and not even budged one 10mm bolt !
I just said, point proved then ?

 

[Shox Dr]

Magazine journalists... should probably keep my mouth shut but i used to hate the cozying up that used to go on and results in 'other factors'

They have their place and uses. I knew most of them. There wasn't a mouth go by with out my companies name mentioned and or recommended. But then I was spending 7-8k+ a yr with them all