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im not sure if this should be in this section or one for styling so feel free to move if needed. ive been wondering about somthing for about the last 11 years. just wondered if anyone had smoothed the welds off the frame? i can weld over them to build it up before smoothing and polishing it up but just wondered if anyone else had done this already?

my polished frame still has the welds...

so does mine but i wondered if anyone has smoothed it right down? just wondering if there would be any strength issues hence why i said about building it up first if i need to. i guess the only way is to find out. think ill try it with a swingarm first.

tobomoto wrote:so does mine but i wondered if anyone has smoothed it right down? just wondering if there would be any strength issues hence why i said about building it up first if i need to. i guess the only way is to find out. think ill try it with a swingarm first.

dont hit any potholes...

Are you joking?

Think about how you weld two pieces of metal. You butt them up together (no glue between them, right?) then you draw a line of weld in little furrows over the join. The prominent weld you can see on the surface is the metal which is holding the two original bits of metal together. And you're going to remove this.

Good luck, been nice knowing you......

Tirpitz wrote:Are you joking?

Think about how you weld two pieces of metal. You butt them up together (no glue between them, right?) then you draw a line of weld in little furrows over the join. The prominent weld you can see on the surface is the metal which is holding the two original bits of metal together. And you're going to remove this.

Good luck, been nice knowing you......

well, not totally correct, with professional welding, re-grinding and x-raying it is possible to make the weld as strong as the original base metal with only a small rib of weld protruding from the surface, a friend of mine welds together astute submarines and another earns $90/hr from the US government to weld pressurised nuclear reactor components...but can an amateur do it...nope, frame will crack. also this assumes a minimum frame tickness of ~5mm, thinner than this and it becomes very difficult...dont know how thick our frames are?

http://www.ndt-ed.org/EducationResource ... Interp.htm

Tirpitz wrote:Are you joking?

Think about how you weld two pieces of metal. You butt them up together (no glue between them, right?) then you draw a line of weld in little furrows over the join. The prominent weld you can see on the surface is the metal which is holding the two original bits of metal together. And you're going to remove this.

Good luck, been nice knowing you......

i know how to tig ally weld, i got my coding in overhead pipe aluminium tig...
i just wondered as i looked at some aprillia frames once and the welds were actually concave and the frame still held together. so if it held together in that state, if i built it up then smoothed it off would it have the same strength as a concave weld? by your answer im assuming you know somthing about welding so you will know that most of the time welds dont actually break on the weld but next to it on the heat affected zone, and that aluminium welds up in a different way to steel, due to heat loss over time ect. which is why i was wondering...
i wouldnt think the frame is 5mm thick as it would be too much weight and possibly too rigid. another thing i found out is that you need a chain guard for an mot so there goes the idea of cutting the lugs off the swingarm and smoothing and polishing it up.

If yo u are hell bent on doing it. Might be possible to smooth the weld ribs, but I wouldn't wanna be the one to re-weld a bike frame...