http://www.caswellplating.com/solder-it-aluminum-pot-metal-repair-0-25oz.html This stuff is awesome. Works like a charm. I just repaired my horn ring. The lower half broke off this summer. It's a paste with flux mixed together. Just cleaned the ends, applied the paste on both ends and heated the area with a propane torch until it melted. Cleaned off the flux residue and done. Took only a few minutes and is supposed to have a tensile strength of 28000 psi - stronger than the metal.
Another low temperature way to solder pot metal. The only way to repair true pot metal. If you look closely at the claims of Tig welding pot metal you will usually find that what they are really working on is not really pot metal, but actually a low zinc form of an aluminum alloy. There are lots of them that appear to be like pot metal, but are not really true pot metal. Real pot metal will vaporize and be gone in an instant at the heat level generated by a Tig torch. The low temp methods are the best for true pot metal repair.
That's not entirely acturate... Yes. Pot mental will "vaporize" if you attempt to use comon welding practices. There's a video of a young man showing how he has welded pot metal but really makes a mess of things.... I've been welding pot metal for quite some time; it's an art that has never really been picked up by anyone. I can tell ya, it takes more patiance than most posess and the equipment setup is another thing. If you don't have your stuff together meaning knowing what it needs when it's heated to the melting point, it'll vaporize! Most tig welders won't drop below 1amp not to mention hold an arc. But that's what it takes, and some very creative programming as well. without it, you're pissing in the wind.
Pot metal is a zinc die cast. All the chrome side pieces on my convertible are all pot metal. Some had breaks in them the players I used took care of repairing them before they played them
I saw a guy repair VW handles. He melted down old broken VW handles and poured them into strips. This provided him with a rod of similar metal. I'll try and find the video.n
The guy Beau saw repairing pot metal is on the money ..I use to repair pot metal back in the early 50's and I would do the same .. of to the breakers and get a door handle of the model car that needed to be repaired melt it into a solder stick..
May I ask how'd they repair them? My guess is they ground open the cracks, copper plated and filled the voids with low temp solder. That's standard practice for chrome shop pot metal repair. Unfortunately, this method gets the parts out the door, but for mechanical pot metal parts, the repair is only as strong as the solder...
The accronym for "pot metal" is ZAMAC: Zinc, Aluminum, Magnesium, Copper. However, it's more commonly known as ZAMAK as well.
I'm producing a new video showing the differences between typical pot metal repair (soldering) and a piece thats been welded. I'll deminstrate how much heat before decenigration occurs, and a strenth test. Should be fairly interesting? I'll let ya'll know when it's published. That is, if anyone's interested??
I have used Aladden Rod (or its brothers) on pot metal with success. The first time I used it was a bust. The secret is to get the base metal hot enough to melt the rod but not hot enough to melt the base metal kind of like brass brazing. The joint has to be very clean and brushed with stainless. Tin both surfaces of the joint first and then use the rod as filler. If you fail you will have to clean the joint over again and repeat. I fixed this pot metal lamp shade which I thought was made of brass, suprise, pot metal, for my wife (brownie points). What some of the other guys said.--Phil
I modified a '57 grille bar using the Muggy-Weld recommended on this thread, turned out great. Just follow the instructions (I know that's tough for us guys). Cleanliness and a good bevel are key.