Frame Restoration

[Steve Little]

Larry. I had better watch my P’s and Q’s with another metal worker looking over my shoulder.

Toprock. (stress relieve the welded area by heating red hot with acet torch and back off slowly for a slow cool)
I don’t feel qualified to answer your question. I had to ask questions from a drag race, car frame builder about straightening techniques on chrome moly.
Tempering and case hardening was a subject that we were taught as apprentices, but in a limited (intorductory) sense.
Heat treatment of steel is a Trade/skill on its own, and the Tradesman I knew that was skilled in it, had an opportunity to work in that field for a while.
My skill set in this field is restricted to hardening the tips of my cold chisels when they get soft. And in my metal working days I have used heat contraction, to straighten the bends that truck drivers chains had put in 10” flange X 2 foot high X 40 foot long beams. I did this with heat, but your question is out of my experience.
Also, I am not sure if you are asking a general question or you feel qualified to post this as part of the procedure? Can you clarify that?
As a safety measure, I might have a poke around on the web and see what I can find.
My internet is a bit slow today for some reason so I will try and load pictures of the next steps later on.

[harleytoprock]

Since it is chrome moly, would it be a good idea to stress relieve the welded area by heating red hot with acet torch and back off slowly for a slow cool?

[larry]

I've only used argon.

[Steve Little]

Purging the tube with argon during welding will make the inside look as good as the outside, and make the weld stronger by eliminating oxidation in the root.

Hi Larry. Do you have experience with helium as well?
Out of curiosity, I'd like to read a comparison on the 2 shielding gasses.

[larry]

Purging the tube with argon during welding will make the inside look as good as the outside, and make the weld stronger by eliminating oxidation in the root.

[Steve Little]

There are people making/selling replacement tubes for the front spring fork.
Anybody know what material these people are using.... chrome moly or mild steel?

[Steve Little]

This part of the repair is complete. A quick blast and coat of paint, and away she goes again with a backfire and a puff of smoke.

[Steve Little]

The next step was to do the weld preparation.
I selected a 3mm (1/8”) cutting blade and used it as a grinding blade.
This allowed me to make a nice tight V to a certain depth for weld preperation.
Before starting the grinding process, I measured the thickness of the leg wall and planned the depth of the V from there.
The vernia reads 0.1435, but I believe the wall thickness of the leg would be 0.140” if I scraped the rust off the inside wall, for a true reading.
The depth of my V was around 0.100” leaving a small wall thickness of 0.040”

As I laid the root run with the TIG, the remaining metal burnt away and helped form the “Back bead” of the weld and also allowed me to use less heat during the weld.

Wouldn’t it be great if I had one of those probe diagnostic tools to take a picture of the penetration on the back edge for you…..but I don’t. So you will just have to trust that I have done a good job.
TIG stands for Tungsten Inert gas. I used Argon 61 as the shielding gas and 3/32” Chrome Moly filler rods.

It is my understanding that you Northern hemisphere welders like to use Helium as the shielding gas, but it also makes a hotter weld.
How hot? I have no idea as I have never welded with it, but if it’s all you got, you could try welding faster to keep as much heat out of the fork as possible.
I kept remembering the drag racers hint while I was welding….Heat will anneal the chrome moly.....Dont listen to him, just do a good weld!!....Heat will anneal the chrome moly!!!.

[Steve Little]

Hi Jerry. Good to see your in the fray.
Can I clarify, that the leg of your springer is bent, and broken, between the stem crown and the spring crown? Can you add a picture?
Appologies if the crown terminology is a little strange. I am trying to use Harley Davidson terminology on the rigid leg components, so that we all know what part is what.

[Jerry Wieland]

Steve

The one front end I have that is broke like that is also bent above the cross brace. I think I have to weld it first and then try and straighten it.

Jerry

[Steve Little]

A thorough cleanup with these two tools, and the tack weld took nicely.
Note. A clean surface in this type of area is standard procedure, but will not always guarantee a good weld.
Braze can get into the pours of the metal (particularly when it is overheated).
The copper and brass will release during the heat of a weld and be drawn into a weld.
Be prepared to grind out an effected weld and do it again.
On the few occasions this has happened to me, I find that the contamination will be drawn out on the first weld and a good weld can be laid the second time.

[Steve Little]

I should mention, that before making the tack weld on the back of the leg, I had to take care of the brazing on the steel.
All braze material had to be removed before a steel, tack weld can be applied.
If any braze is left in the weld area it will liquefy during the weld and be drawn into the weld. As soon as the weld starts to cool, a crack will form because of the disparate nature of the two metals.

[Steve Little]

Springer weld repair 010.JPG
I put three evenly spaced tack welds around the break.

[Steve Little]

Hi guys. The fisrt thing I did was blast the effected areas to get a better look.
Springer weld repair 006.JPGSpringer weld repair 007.JPG
I think calamity was just around the corner if this bike had been ridden much further.
Springer weld repair 008.JPG
Align it in both directions, and put the handlebar clamp on to hold the top in alingment.

[exeric]

That rigid leg can be bent and broken in a lot of places but that looks to be as bad as it gets. I'll be very interested to see how you go about this. I'm trying to think of how I would approach it and I'm drawing a blank.