Pot Metal Repairing a Keepsake

Sundragon · Sun Mar 24, 2019 7:43 am

I have a license plate frame that has broken.

It appears to be a zinc alloy pot metal type material.

It is a Boston Red Sox frame that my wife gave to her best friend about twenty years ago.

My wife passed away 10 years ago when my two daughters were 5 and 7 years old and this is a keep sake for her, and something my daughters and her cherish. Must be a Red Sox thing. We all went to games together with my two young daughters and it was a memorable event when Suzie bought this for her.

Any way, after doing research the only consumable I could find appropriate for this repair is "Super Alloy 1".

The kit is around 60 bucks or so.

I have no qualms about spending the money to make the repair using this product, but was wondering if there was a more cost effective solution.

Any other ideas appreciated, I am pretty good with the OA torch with thin gauge welding, brazing etc.

Thank You,

LtBadd · Sun Mar 24, 2019 7:48 am

I haven't used this, but am interested to know how this turns out.

SteveJustSteve · Mon Mar 25, 2019 10:40 pm

I have never had an ounce of luck with anything pot metal, it always just designagrates on me when I've tried the TIG. Haven't tried with the torch but has to work better than TIG. After destroying a couple of attempts I started using.... hate to say this here.... but epoxy or a metal putty. Good luck, hope whatever works for you.

LtBadd · Tue Mar 26, 2019 6:37 am

I've always wanted to try this, there's a few brands of this filler out there

"This video demonstrates how easily pot metal and zinc die cast can be repaired at half the melting point of the parent metal. "

YT video

ljdm1956 · Tue Mar 26, 2019 12:34 pm

I would want to repair a keepsake as best as possible. Problem is, if you try and Tig it, and it melts it away, you are screwed. Best bet would be JB weld, or any name brand epoxy. My two cents.

LtBadd · Tue Mar 26, 2019 1:51 pm

TIG definitely won't work, the pot, cast, zinc metal repair rod...maybe. If it were me I'd try the repair rod on something else first, get a feel for it, but then I want a reason to use that rod

BillE.Dee · Tue Mar 26, 2019 2:41 pm

Was at a car show or flea market and guy was repairing pot metal - carburator bowl using one of those deals like Richard mentioned. I never saw that done before but made a believer out of me SO, I bought some rods and got free stainless brush. Haven't used it YET but I'm sure my wife will find something for the "repairman" to get his feet wet. I can't remember the name of the stuff, but the same guy was also selling those aluminum rods to be used with MAPP gas. I did try that...

BINGO.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Bill

drizler1 · Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:23 am

ljdm1956 wrote:I would want to repair a keepsake as best as possible. Problem is, if you try and Tig it, and it melts it away, you are screwed. Best bet would be JB weld, or any name brand epoxy. My two cents.

Im a big fan of JB for this sort of thing. There’s really not much strength required and you can’t really risk experimenting with it. JB should be all you need all things considered. Good luck [emoji6]

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drizler1 · Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:31 am

BillE.Dee wrote:Was at a car show or flea market and guy was repairing pot metal - carburator bowl using one of those deals like Richard mentioned. I never saw that done before but made a believer out of me SO, I bought some rods and got free stainless brush. Haven't used it YET but I'm sure my wife will find something for the "repairman" to get his feet wet. I can't remember the name of the stuff, but the same guy was also selling those aluminum rods to be used with MAPP gas. I did try that... BINGO.
Good luck and keep us posted.

Bill

thats the same rod or similar to what HF sells. I’ve had great luck with it on aluminum. Very strong, easy to use. You just have to watch the heat with that propane torch.
The problem here is just one thing, sentimental value vs. metal that will suddenly slag down with no warning. I’d chance it if I had one similar to practice on but not under these circumstances.

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Arno · Thu Mar 28, 2019 7:10 am

drizler1 wrote: The problem here is just one thing, sentimental value vs. metal that will suddenly slag down with no warning. I’d chance it if I had one similar to practice on but not under these circumstances.

This..

Id' say use a good epoxy and as it seems the surround has a bit of an 'U' profile on the back, drop a small section of (roughed up) stainless TIG filler rod in the back to 'bridge' the break and then embed/submerge it into the epoxy.

The filler rod will provide some backbone to the repair and the epoxy around it should have a good surface to key onto and fixate it in place.

Plain epoxy in this situation may end up a little brittle/fragile on the break areas and fail again if ever dropped.

Bye, Arno.

ljdm1956 · Thu Mar 28, 2019 11:12 am

I had a piece of Al, did the same thing. Madee kind of a splint on the back side and epoxied it in. Def gave more strength to the repair.

drizler1 · Thu Mar 28, 2019 10:22 pm

Yup, make a splint. I forgot about that. It’s really handy when fixing crap plastic. I usually use large staples or small nails, heat them with a soldering iron till they imbed. Burying in epoxy does the same thing[emoji847] rebar!

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Jim_D · Thu May 16, 2019 10:10 pm

Tinning paste, 15-watt electric soldering iron and very thin diameter solder. Only use as much heat as it takes to get the solder to wet. Tinning paste flashes wet very fast. The melt point of the zinc alloy is so low that you want the smallest diameter solder you can find. You need the smaller mass of solder in diameters used for electronics so that solder reaches melt temperature while the zinc alloy is still acting as a heat sink. The frame you want to fix is so thin, you may even want to wrap wet cloth around it up close to the crack while soldering so the zinc has help staying cool enough to not melt from the soldering iron.