Leaky pan results

[talahi maple products]

I posted a couple days ago regarding my leaky pan that I bought thinking it was in good condition, and I thought I'd give a update, I searched around all the local welders & none wanted to attempt it, afraid it would be to much of a headache, So I did some research on it & started Soldering it myself a couple days ago, Its been a learning curve & I had to do alot of expirmenting , But it's coming, The hardest part is testing the solder patch, I patch it & turn it over put some water in it & check it again, if its good, great,if not, dry it off & start over again. alot more failures than sucess. But like I say it's coming,(by the way I did call the previous owner & he said It didn't leak when he sold it :mad:)My question is has any body gone thru this & found a better way to test solder patching, My wife is only 98lbs & 5'2" & having a real hard time rotating the pan while I hold the torch ;)

[danno]

Shine a light on one side of the pan and check for light coming through from the other side. It's not perfect, but works pretty well. At least, if you can see any light coming from the other side of the pan, you'll know that patch did not work. Also, try doing all patches first, then test with water and mark the ones you did not get. Won't have to turn the pan for each hole.

[markct]

an iron will work much better than an open flame! and made sure you have the good liquid flux for stainless, and clean it as good as you can where ya need to solder

[Haynes Forest Products]

Try blowing compressed air from the inside out. Use stright soap. Get yourself a 2 ft peice of copper tube and extend the air nozzel so you can blow it from the inside and watch the outside. If you cant get a area you solderd to stop leaking take a small punch and pean the area till it stops leaking and call it good. Its time to get going its spring

[3rdgen.maple]

I got to thinking about your pan problem and I recall with the older stainless steel pans that the soot from the fire on the bottom had a tendency to eat through the pans if not cleaned off in the off season. I wonder did you scrub all the soot off the bottom of the pan? If so I believe this is why all the holes suddenly appeared and maybe the guy was right that it didnt leak when he had it.

[talahi maple products]

Thanks for the advice guys, I took the day off to finish up pan & get all the last minute details in the ss done. I can understand the soot eating thru the flue part; but what about the float box? Theres where the most of the pin holes are. oh well doesn't matter Its getting done today or I'll go down to a buddy of mine who has a 2x6 that he doesn't use any more & I'll bring it up to my shack for the season ( by the way the 2x6 is not for sale):)

[Kribkeeper]

I had the same problem this year with my Small Bros. Lighning pan. Pinholes x 12. 3 welders didn't want the job and 2 no return calls. I figured patching was too much of a job and maybe just replacing. Gave up on getting someone to repair it (add to that it's tap time) and am taking a shot with patching it with hi temp J. B. Weld. It's holding the test water back but we'll see once flame hits it. Soot eating through the bottom seems to make sense since I've taken care of the pan (except washing down bottom). This must be one heck of a job for the big boys.