Pot Repair

When my enameled kettle suffered damage I repurposed it as a wood stove ash bucket and bought a stainless one, after trying some liquid enamel repair that didn't last underwater.

That first inexpensive 'stainless' 5 gallon kettle developed a pit that corroded through so I bought a better second one, and TIG-welded the hole shut. The heated area rusted but hasn't failed yet, in weekly use heating laundry water.

-jsw

My experience from a couple of decades on a near-zero budget, canning, preserving, no electricity etc. and maintaining everything as cheaply as possible is that nothing works really well for enamelware. Usual cause of a hole is rust following chipped enamel. By the time you've cleaned back to good metal for soldering or even JB Weld, you have a big hole instead of a small one.

Stop-gap: Very small flat-headed stainless bolt through the hole. Thin stainless washers either side, leather or silicone washers under the metal ones & against the kettle surface. If the hole is in a curved surface, you have to shape the metal washers to fit before installing.

Such bolts, complete with washers and leathers, intended for such repairs, used to be in hardware stores. I have some but haven't seen them in the store for decades.

My last failed enamelware item was a dishpan. JB Weld after acid prep worked but didn't last. No new enamel dishpans in store (although they do have the canning kettles you speak of) so I made a dishpan from 16 ga. m/s. (From pieces, welded up, not raised in one piece.) Will last my kids' lifetimes after they inherit it. A little heavier than its predecessor.

I did that to a water heater tank used as a solar heater. I filed the hole into an oval slot and located the 2 tapped holes in the larger patch at the ends of the oval so it could be correctly positioned inside the tank, using one protruding screw as the handle.

It was sealed with a sheet rubber gasket and rust-inhibiting LPS-100 grease. It lasted until the tank failed in other places about 2 years later.

I wonder if a rivet and vitreous enamel frit would work:

-jsw

BTW rubber horse feed buckets sold in farm stores like Tractor Supply are nearly indestructible. I store and carry my heavy chain falls in them and put them underneath when hoisting outdoors to keep the hand chain out of the dirt. They are also good to move rocks or mix cement.

I used to use galvanized buckets but the noise of the chain running in and out is very loud.

Thanks all,

I will pass on and maybe there is an answer imbedded it the content.

Have a good weekend.

Les

AKA a "Tinker's Dam"

Did you use the JB weld on the inside? I don't think you could heat it much over water's boiling point.

Well, there was a *hole*, y'know? So inside and outside both. And we don't wash dishes in boiling water. But no, JB Weld doesn't do well on things placed directly on the top of the wood-fired kitchen range.

JB Weld didn't last in the sandblasted fender rust-throughs on my car either. This time instead of carefully inletting a flush steel patch I overlapped the patch inside and rebuilt the fender curves with an edge reinforcement of MIG bead and Bondo.

I just bought an 8 quart stainless kettle to try cooking a roast on the woodstove the way the store meat dept manager suggested, under a larger inverted kettle. When filled it leaked at the handle rivets, which called for a bit of hammer and anvil work.

-jsw.

I've successfully repaired porcelain/steel once, when a hole opened up in a dishwasher tub. I cleaned the spot, applied silicone RTV in a thick blob. When it started to stiffen, I covered it with a bit of Glad-wrap, then pushed the silicone into a hill over the bad spot.

After it cured, it didn't leak again.

It's possible some silicone RTV products won't take the temperature, or that some fillers aren't food-safe, though. Maybe for canning (with no direct food/water contact) it's OK, though.