Tig welding aluminum in the DMV ?

[Riley Casey]

My poor choice in buying a cheap Chinese Rad bike in a box has come back to bite me. The top of the seat tube cracked off at the frame welds. Rad bikes has no frames and no interest in having anything to do with an 18 month old bike with a bad frame.

Best suggestion I”ve had so far for a repair is to drop a new piece of aluminum tubing into the old tube, welding that into the old tube along with the broken piece and installing a new, smaller diameter seat post that fits the new, smaller tube. Does anyone know of a shop in the DMV that can tig weld aluminum? I saw some old posts about welding but they seemed a bit past their sell by date thus the new question.

Thanks for any suggestions on welders or different approaches to making this bike rideable again.

Also, if you come across an ad for Rad Power bikes in your feed I recommend that you just scroll on past. Moral of the story is support your Local Bike Shop.

[n18]

First, TIG welding requires that you remove the paint(such as by using Acetone), and clean the surface as much as possible. I would try independent auto repair shops, but there is not much money they can make from you. You could get a torch($58) from Home Depot and aluminum brazing rod($5, but you might need several), and weld it yourself as shown in the following videos, but I don’t know if it would be strong enough. A new frame might be a better option.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtvOkI_pvMI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLAjeSa6CqI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SBfP4_i1Go

[n18]

There are few ads in Craig’s List for TIG welding:

https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/search/bbb?query=tig+welding

[Riley Casey]

Better search skillz than mine, thanks.

[Boomer Cycles]

Bruce the Welder, welds in his garage in Falls Church, just off the WOD near mile marker 6.5. Use to advertise on CL. I had him weld both CroMoly frame & Ti derailleur

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[chris_s]

@Boomer2U 198537 wrote:

Bruce the Welder, welds in his garage in Falls Church, just off the WOD near mile marker 6.5. Use to advertise on CL. I had him weld both CroMoly frame & Ti derailleur

Bruce rocks. I have his contact info if anyone wants to private message me for it.

[mstone]

longest seat tube that gets you to the right height plus glue (epoxy)? If there’s enough tube in the frame I’d guess the force on that little bit at the top shouldn’t matter much–it’s mostly there to be the clamp to keep the tube from sinking downward. If you clamp that tight to the seat tube, then glue it and the seat tube to the rest of the frame, you’d mostly be trying to counteract the rotational forces and I’d think there’d be enough bonded surface to do that. You’d just never be able to adjust the seat height ever again. On the up side, you could really mess with bike seat thieves.

[Author]

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