I recently did a job repairing a large crack in the stationary part of a metal shear. I torched out all the crack and Vd the metal out so I had room to put the rod in. This was 6" plate so it was Vd to the middle on both sides, all in all probably a 4x4x4 triangle was cut out on both sides. I then filled this back up with weld. It went well and has not cracked again yet, however I was just talking to someone today about it and they suggested something that interested me but I'm not sure if I agree with. What do you guys think? His idea was to drill and tap bolts into the sides of the v at regular intervals and than burn weld into the bolts as your filling up the v. It struck me as analogous to doweling in rebar to existing concrete before pouring new concrete, but the metal and concrete are very different, obviously. When you dowel concrete  that is the only thing that holds the new and old pours together because the concrete doesn't fuse together. Welding obviously fuses and at the end Is hopefully a monolithic piece right? So the Bolt used as a dowel would make it not monolithic right? Just curious what someone else thinks of this theoretically and Practically. Or maybe this would wook better on a smaller scale? It would be more work to do and those bolts would probably get in the while laying beads up the v. Anyways food for thought.