Dropouts welding advice

[Martini-night]

Hello my childhood mountain bike has got a crack on the rear dropout weling.
(Left picture)
The dropout actually bends left and right with my finger.
This crack was confirmed when i stipped the paint for a respray.
What's my options?
I would like to change to a better looking dropouts as well (picture on the right) as the ones i got are too long and ugly ha ha.
My friend has a welding machine,its just a case of cutting them off and weld new ones? After geometry measurements etc? Thanks in advance

 

[bikeworkshop]

Dropouts of this period are usually brazed - there's not really enough metal or structure to take the heat of a weld without being too brittle.
The drops you pictured are also for brazing. Those end tabs plug into the stays.
So you'll need oxy acetylene - it can be done with Mapp but it's much more difficult getting enough heat in the right places - and melting the braze to get the old dropouts out its easy to overheat the stays and damage them.
If you've only got welding stuff then I'd say carefully weld a little patch over the crack.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Additionally if you want to use the vertical dropouts pictured, you'll need a jig to hold them in place so the axle ends up parallel to the bb. A shloping dropout like the frame has already is much more forgiving, therefore cheaper to manufacture and easier to replace.

 

[paton]

Swapping to a different , smaller / shorter dropout.
Will shorten the chain stay slightly. And will place the wheel too high, relative to the cantilever bosses

That is if it can be used. Placing the new dropout next to the old one will show how much of a difference there will be. It might not bridge the gap between the end on the chain stay and the seatstay.

 

[Martini-night]

Dropouts of this period are usually brazed - there's not really enough metal or structure to take the heat of a weld without being too brittle.
The drops you pictured are also for brazing. Those end tabs plug into the stays.
So you'll need oxy acetylene - it can be done with Mapp but it's much more difficult getting enough heat in the right places - and melting the braze to get the old dropouts out its easy to overheat the stays and damage them.
If you've only got welding stuff then I'd say carefully weld a little patch over the crack.

Thanks for reply. To be honest i didn't had a clue about dropouts, aye I'll weld a patch over the crack. Thanks for the info