chemical metal- lifesaver

233

233

Soldato
Joined
21 Nov 2004
Posts
13,521
Location
Wishaw
Well the ever reliable vectra Taxi sprung a water leak today :(


first noticed after a quick blat along the M8 this morning. pulled up at the lights only to be greeted by the sight of a small plume of steam escaping from the bonnet.

pops the bonnet to find a small fountain erurpting from the metal hardpipe at the front of the engine. so after nursing the car back to the workshop I found a tiny pinprick sized hole in the otherwise fine alloy pipe(wierd)


so jumped in the spare skoda and took a trip to the local Vauxhall dealer. after a bit of umming and aahing he finally located the pipe i need yep thats £115+ vat. So after picking myself up off the floor and rubbing my now sore back passage, i asked him to get me one expecting the usual fine service of order before 10am and receive for 3pm. "erm sorry thats on back order" so thinking it cant be that bad i enquired as to when i could expect my hard pipe "dunno" none in the uk none anywhere maybe 4-5 weeks ?

seriously though something as common as a waterpipe on a equally common vectra is not available wtf?

So one trip to halfords later i picked up some evostick metal epoxy putty.
interesting stuff comes in a doughy like roll with a different coloured centre(ie 2 different compounds) so cut a lump off with a stanley knife and following the instructions kneaded the 2 different compounds together. After that covered my holey pipe and left it for 15 minutes whilst i had a cuppa.
When i returned it was rock solid and now 100 miles later seems to be holding fine



maybe its just me being an easily impressed type but i'm amazed it works exactly as expected. time will tell if it holds though :)
 
Not used the metal stuff but I recently fell in love with epoxy resins.

The wooden window frames in my kitchen have been going rotten in places and last weekend I took the plunge to fix them. Needing to splice in new wood my dad gave me some SP System epoxy he's had gathering dust for 13 years from when he had a wooden boat.

The stuff is awesome. Doubly so as it is supposed to have a 2 year shelf life! Mixing the resin and hardener gives a fairly thin base I found perfect for glueing together a cracked plant pot. Penetrated 1.5cm into a 1mm wide crack.

For other jobs there are various additives to change the properties: a thickening agent; fibres to add strength and allow bridging large voids; and micro balloons to add volume and make it easier to sand when using as a filler.

Disappointed I've run out of things to glue.
 
ive used it for "glueing" spark plug helicoils after it came out with the plug and glueing in exhaust manifold studs, worked great.
 
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