IMLTH artistic opinion, not pretty but VERY functional, especially the part about the care taken to get good weld penetration...
I picked up an early 80's Bertin SSC Reynolds 531SL frame a number of years back. When I finally got around to building it up, upon close inspection I noticed what appeared to be a scratch in the DS dropout. Scraping away some paint, I realized the it was a crack!
I took the frame to Ed Litton to see what he thought about replacing the dropout. While we were discussing the problem, he'd already started grinding a 30° chamfer into the crack. As he started on the inside the crack broke through, probably residual stress. He TIG welded both sides and was all done within 20 minutes including a shot of primer! Not pretty bu functional!
Those Shimano UF dropouts had a reputation for cracking/breaking in the area!
I was being extra vigilant in my inspection... Previously that same week I found a Stronglight crank arm with laminar cracking due to a defective billet.
Also I had a brand new Nitto Pearl stem that when admiring the workmanship when I spotted what looked like a scratch. At 200x it was clearly another crack! The good news is that I contacted Nitto in Japan. They sent me a replacement stem from Japan OVERNIGHT!!! Also a shipping container to return the defective one! Talk about product support and service.
Anyway, nice work on the Centurion repair.
verktyg
