I have this steel Dean cross frame and there is a tiny tiny crack on the ds chainstay near the dropout. I’m thinking of ways to repair it and I’m wondering if I should just replace the whole stay or repair it with silver. It is really tiny and hard to find where it starts/ends. The location also makes it hard to drill out the ends to prevent the crack from spreading. Any ideas? Do you think silver would be sufficient or should I just replace the whole thing?
Thanks!
Run a pointy carbide burr over it to get a bit of groove tracing the crack, especially at the end. TIG over it carefully. Tie the weld into the original weld.
Maybe I’ll brush up on tig for a bit and then go for it. Thanks!
Looks very repair-able. If you want my two cents (having repaired many a frame) if you run a big tig bead over that you should be good to go.
If you heat the tube till it turns blue you will see the crack better because the color won’t go across the crack.
If you want to check the crack with a penetrant dye kit it will cost you a hundred bucks but if you just buy the can of “developer” you can use diluted ink for the dye and skip the expensive can of cleaner too.
If you do braze it, bronze will be a better choice because it will be a lot more tolerant of whatever dirt or rust is in that crack.
