Leaking soldered pan.

[briduhunt]

I have worked my butt off the last two weekends and today I was setting everything up for a pratice run to work out my (new to me) system. I had a few leaks in my fill pipe going to my float system, had that all under controll when I decided to fill my pans with water to fire off the rig to set the fire brick cement and watch it boil then all He77 broke loose, I found 4 leaks in my soldered drop flue pans. I could actually see day light after I emptyed them and located all of the leaks. Now my problem starts as I have a soldered pans and I took my pan to a local SS welder and he wanted between 500 to 700 to SS weld it.
I can not afford dropping another 5-700 into this hobby right now as I already paided out this year alone over $5000 from the new shack, used evaporator and some other needed supplies.
If some one out there can point my in the right direction on how I can fix it I would be greatfull. I have soldered pipes before so I have a little knowledge of soldering, but not sure how to solder this area. Two of the leaks have a gap that are a little smaller than 1/8" wide. I think I can clamp the opening closer to gether so I can solder it but not sure this is the proper way to do this.
Thanks for looking and any help you might have.

[Uncle Tucker]

Do a search under solder, this has been talked about in the past.
Just rember DON'T use flame, only an iron.
Use silver solder and flux.


Or
The pan manufactures fix these all the time.

[Big maple]

where is it leaking? is it at a joint or is it a pin hole?

[3% Solution]

briduhunt,
You must have a local sheetmetal shop, they can fix it in no time.
Sometimes it's easier to let a pro do it!.
Just my thoughts!

Dave

[brookledge]

First thing you need to determine is the type of metal. Either english tin or stainless and if stainless 304 or 403. the 403 is magnetic the 304 is not.
Anyways the type of flux and solder will vary depending on what you have. I would say they have to be soldered and not welded as the reason they leak are they are old and have thin spots and pitting. Welding the stressed metal could cause further problems.
As for soldering it should be done with an iron. Open flame like a torch will be too much heat if you are not careful and burn bigger holes. If you can find a large soldering iron you could heat it with a torch and then do the soldering.
Practice on a srap of the same material.
good luck
Keith

[KenWP]

Question can you use a electric soldering gun. I wonder if a radiator shop could solder it also. I gave up trying to solder SS around here as I could only find the flux one place and it had a 26$ dangerous shipping policey.
One could also use the propane torch and the solid end could they not.

[markct]

well i too had a simular moment of disapointment when i had my new to me used flue pan up on sawhorses filling with water to clean it and noticed about a half dozen leaks, from a small trickle to just a weaping drip. well i had some stainless flux from the true value hardware store, its a liquid and works very well, then i pikced up a anchient soldering copper iron from a tag sale for 50 cents, the hardest part is cleaning the pits i found a scotchbrite pad on a die grinder to work well as well as a wire brush on an angle grinder with a light touch then heating and applying flux and brushing it off seems to help get it a bit cleaner. then i usualy take the initial chill outa the metal with a pass of the propane torch then put the heat and solder to it with the iron that i had been heating with the torch. they dont always look real pretty the solder spots on the bottom of the pan but all mine have been leak free after a couple trys and test fills. use lead free solder, the ez flow stuff that lwes sels works very nicely, i forget the brand but its like 20 cents more and says ez flow. i wouldnt try silver soldering, its more heat and may melt nearby solder, and tig welding is likely not very practicle on a pitted thin spot, but i have added a thermometer port to mine by tig welding and it worked well since it was an inch or so from the nearest solder joint, i wouldnt try it any closer or on any pitted area

[Haynes Forest Products]

I have seen attachments for the Burns O Matic torches that are a copper tip that gets its heat from the torch. Old time copper headed soldering irons would be a big chunk of copper on a handle that sat in a flame. Next you can get a chunk of copper and heat it up with a torch. If you try the heat a chunk of copper dont heat the very tip that needs to stay clean and tinned.
Dont worry about what the joint looks like if you need to clamp it do it.

[Fred Henderson]

There is a copper cleaner called sal amoniac the can be purchased from mc master/carr. Its comes in a brick form. I use it for tinning and cleaning my soldering coppers.

[maple flats]

Before trying to use an iron you should prepare it. Clean with an SS brush and then heat it up, rub it on so sal ammoniac (for a flux) and then tin it with the proper solder for what you determin the pans are. Next clean the area to be repaired with a ss brush, apply flux of proper type, heat iron enough to melt solder and hold the iron against the spot needing solder while you apply the solder on the opposite side. Then remove the solder you are using (wire, bar, whatever) and slide the still hot iron sideways to remove. A little practice will have you making your next evaporator yourself from scratch. It does take a little finess but most anyone can do it with practice.

[WMF]

Wendels in Colden, NY 716-592-2299 are a Leader dealer and do pan repairs at their place. If you don't want to tackle it yourself they would be your best bet money and time wise.

[Fred Henderson]

The most important thing now is to find out if it is SS or english tin.