seal a water leak

Epoxy putty from the inside perhaps? Covering a decent diameter spot with a smooth slope so it doesn't impede the flow too much. Inside surface cleaned and sanded for a good bond. Perhaps a JB Weld filled epoxy putty?

Pete C.

Hi, Karl. Do your irrigation problems come in groups of three?

If I understand you correctly, the hole is a result of the clamp sliding on the side of the ss pipe. So, there is not really anything you can put in or on the hole that will not be quickly worn away, also. Can you use a narrow length of ss shim stock on the pipe, under the clamp to temporarly close the hole? Perhaps some JB Weld spread under the shim stock. I have not used it on ss, but where I have used it, it takes 12-24 hours to get to full strength.

Paul

Harris Staybrite tin-silver solder. Works at temps not much higher than soft solder, wets and stick to SS very well, considerably stronger than soft solder. A propane torch would be quite sufficient, no risk of burning thru the pipe. Red heat is way too hot.

Use StayBrite flux or ordinary tinner's fluid.

Most welding stores stock it.

What the heck, if you wanna try it I'll mail you a few inches of it. Can't mail liquid flux, though.

Staybrite comes in two forms, Staybrite and Staybrite 8. Staybrite is very fluid when it melts, doesn't bridge gaps well. Staybrite 8 with more silver has a plastic range (430 to 535F) and bridges gaps (and pinholes) better. It can be hard to find so I'm going to mail you about 8" of 1/8" dia Staybrite 8 in an envelope.

Clean up the joint with scotchbrite or something, use some tinner's fluid, heat gently with propane torch while dabbing or scratching the site with the solder. When the metal is warm enough, the solder will melt and yer done. If the hole is large enough to need a plug, use SS wire -- MIG wire, TIG filler rod, safety wire, a stainless screw, whatever ya got in SS. Once it's cool you can file it flush if necessary.

Thank you for the very kind offer. I appreciate it. The nearest welder's store is St. Cloud. I'd just as soon not make a special trip for the tinner's fluid. Will any of the silver solder flux products on page 3287 of

Karl

Closer to 30 right now. I've replaced every bearing and snap ring and seal in the machine. I'm on a first name basis with the parts guy. Only one minor problem with the well. And nothing wrong with the main lines. (One minor leak but I might get in over my head on the repair)

Considering its run over 120 hours a week since mid June, not too bad.

Nothing like last year when then traveler tracked sideways, pulled three apple trees out by the roots before the reel broke loose and dragged far enough down the row to break the hose to the unit. Then ran 200 gallons of water per minute at the break till i showed up an hour later. real mess!!!

Habit has made me always clamp in the exact same spot, I've got 360 degrees of possible spots.

Karl

Just so you don't think its nothing but trouble on the farm, I'll gloat a bit about my day...

I had my first truly great apple since last December today. It was a Zestar that was slightly damaged on one spot which made it ripen two weeks early. I had to look through 250 bushels of Zestars to find that perfect one. Now, I got to do this every day.

While I was eating the apple I seen two deer fawns so I stalked them up to thirty feet away. They could tell something was wrong so I froze at this point. They got curious and walked within ten feet of me before ambling away.

Karl

Gee, that doesn't sound all that difficult, if you have a decent TIG machine. I'm still struggling with aluminum, but I feel I have steel and stainless down quite well. I haven't had much trouble at all burning holes in SS.

Jon

If it is a big gash where the clamp wore through, you would probably do well to fashion a patch from some SS sheet material and bend it to conform to the shape of the pipe. Soldering this onto the pipe should make a really good patch.

Jon

Now that's cool!

Cheers Trevor Jones

I've went from fair, to poor, to truly horse&^% on my welding ability. For the last several years, "The Kid" did all the welding. He spent a summer welding 50 hours a week and I couldn't begin to match his skill. Plus, my eyes are getting old and I can no longer see a weld puddle - just a very bright spot light is all. Unfortunately, "the kid" is seldom home now.

Karl

No. Those are high-temperature fluxes used in silver brazing. One of the soft solder fluxes would work better. If there's a hardware store or Home Depot anywhere nearby, they'll have some kinda flux. I think Oatey makes a paste flux that's used with silver-bearing plumbing solder.

I see one flux for soft-soldering stainless that says "not for use with SS water piping". I expect (but don't know for sure) that they refer to potable water there, don't see why there'd be a problem with irrigation water if you clean off any excess after soldering.

Staybrite often works OK no flux, just brighten the work up good with scotchbrite, steel wool, sandpaper or a wire brush.

If you have any muriatic acid and zinc metal, you can make your own tinner's fluid. Just put a small amount (an ounce or so) of muriatic acid in a jar, put in some zinc and let it work a while. When the acid won't dissolve any more zinc, you have tinner's fluid. With a small amount of muriatic, a few heavily-galvanized bits would probably supply enough zinc -- but remove them when the zinc is gone because you don't want to make ferric chloride.

I'm sure I could TIG it too. But since the downside of an "eau chitte" is two weeks of downtime during a drought, I wouldn't try it without first succeeding on a practice piece. I'd silver-solder it. Staybrite is strong enough for refrigeration work and very easy to use.

KEWL

I thought you weren't a Chem E. I got a bunch of galvanized sheet metal scrap. I'll chop it up on the shear and soak it in a little muratic.

Karl

That'll work. Just pull the metal bits out when they change color and quit bubbling. When new metal doesn't bubble either, it's done.

I'm no ChemE! I mighta learned about tinner's fluid from one of Guy Lautard's books. Solder made the 6:00 PM pickup yesterday so you might see it today, tomorrow sure.

Oh, that much practice will make a HUGE difference! I have about 3-4 hours invested in aluminum fiddling, and maybe 10 hours total on TIG so far. So, I'm still a rank beginner. Plus, my

The secret is to use the torch to block the glare from the arc. Well, that's my secret, anyway. The arc and glowing electrode light up the work like a powerful floodlight, and if you can get something between the arc and your eyes, then you have an excellent situation to see the work. Yes, the melt puddle of the aluminum is hard to see, it looks a little like a mirror, and a little like a lake with some waves on it. Maybe it looks a LOT like a puddle of dirty mercury. My eyes have always been terrible, but maybe severe nearsightedness is good for some of this type work.

Jon

Hi Guys:

I'm going through the current topics to hopefully suggest a way to tag valid RCM traffic.

Add RCM: on the beginning of the title line - BEFORE the obligatory OT?

Hang tiugh - keep posting.

CaveLamb