Araldite to seal a tender tank

I am completing the tender tank for my Claud in 5" gauge. Its been a long job, since 2000, and the engine hasn't been started yet! But I have been using works drawings. I plan to seal with solder but there are some small internal places where the gap might be slightly too wide for this. Once finally assembled there will be some inaccessible areas that I have in mind.

Are there any experiences in using Araldite as a seal? Just for water tightness, not for structural reasons.

Best wishes

John Billard

You could use petrol tank sealer.

Neil

John;

On a recently completed tender, I soldered it together, but there were a couple of small pinhole leaks.

I let it dry, (the wifes' electric hair dryer helped) and dribbled in that quick setting clear liquid glue that does a good job gluing ones fingers together - the one I used has the trade name "Crazy Glue". Once set, I tried it again, and no leaks. (what's the generic acronym for this glue - ACC??)

I could have tried solder again, but did not want to go through the reheat.

Anyway, just a data point for you.

John

A bead of silicon carney should do the trick.

Roy.

I woundnt use Araldite to seal a tender. it doesnt have a good bond on brass and is likely to leak after time.Crazy glue comes up as a cynoacrylate and i definatly woudnt use that near water.

If you have access through the top of the tender, you should get a small flame and locally solder the gaps. What lead solder have you used so far. Plumbers solder fills bigger gaps, but has a higher melting point. Their are lower melting point stuff that would work also.

You need to get it right at this point because a leaking tender will mess up your paintwork and will be a real pain to fix thereafter....... and make you cry....

I have known people to use motorbike petrol tank sealer, its an expensive option, but seems to work

When I have soldered tanks including petrol tanks, I seal them and use a pump to gain a bit of negative pressure in the tank so that the solder gets sucks into the joint.

Blimey, I always thought Diane was a carbon-based life-form!

Neil

Hi I would stay away from silicon or araldite and look into using POR15 a sealer many people use to seal fuel and water tanks , I sealed the tender on my Marshall Roller some 5 years ago with it and it's still perfect

Oh gawd, that didn't come out the way it was meant.

it was just a play on words; chilli con carne= silicon carney.

sorry Diane.

Roy.

I used an epoxy floor paint for my work shop floor and the bumph that came with it said it was ideal to seal the insides of tanks with. When it set on the floor I could see why. Very even coverage and hard as glass. May be a worthwhile investment,BMW use it for their showroom floors. Let me know and I will send details. Mick

This is what I did last time - and it works perfect. Make sure any intended holes are either accessible or bunged up with something covered in grease, then mix a cup of fibreglass resin and pour into the warmed tank. When warmed it goes very runny so gets into the leaky bits. Swirl it round up the sides etc then pull out the bung and let any excess run off. Cheap and completely effective, tried and tested!

Some interesting ideas here. Thank you.

What is the objection to silicon sealer I wonder, Scrumpy? I have looked up POR15 and this comes up as an anti rust treatment - is that right?

Yes could you send details of the epoxy floor paint Mick?

I'd be interested in gap filling properties.

Kind regards

John

Just checked again, POR15 is sold by Frosts as a tank sealer.

Thanks

John

Why not? It needs moisture to cure. It is used by the medical industry and the aquarium industry. Now, we know that it is not a all-round perfect glue, as it has like zero shear strength, but for pinhole leak filling?

Now, I would not glue a tank together with it, but for sealing, why not? (background, I did use it on my Tich, mid-80s, and seems to be just fine there, but should have a close look this coming spring, maybe I'll be in for a surprise!)

John.

Hi John,

Try to dress the joints a bit.

I always use Bakers Fluid Flux and old fashioned sticks of plumbers solder. If there is any external excess it can be removed with various implements especially a Stanley blade etc.

My platework is always very bad, but I have always found the above very forgiving of my lack of skill in platework.

Cheers,

Julian

" I plan to seal with solder but there are some small internal places where the gap might be slightly too wide for this"

If you have a few joints with gaps then poke some brass shim or copper wire into them and then the solder will bridge the gap

Greetings,

There is a grade of epoxy specially made to bond copper brass and other metals, made by evo-stik.

It works best when the joint area is roughed up with coarse emery.

I have also used Gurit brand which is an epoxy used in boat building.

On one of my early locos, the soft soldered joint started to weep, and i used a small rotary wire brush to clean the area, epoxy applied, no problem.

Remember that copper metal catalyses the epoxy reaction which can then cure very quickly.

It is always best to keep the joint gap as small as possible.

regards

Brian

Why I say stear away from araldite is some 6/7 years ago my brother used it on his 5 in King over the next few years we had to keep cleaning the injectors of araldite .

On a different forum it was suggested we use POR 15 which we did since then no problems we purchased from Amazon in a few weeks I will use it on my traction engine I have full confidence in this product

Frost automotive have a good data sheet

Nick Feast wrote up a construction series for the Q1 locomotive.

Pg 328, 11 March 2011 he starts describing how he used an automotive adhesive to glue the tender together.

Has anybody any first-hand knowledge of how well this worked out over time?

John.

Thank you everyone for such interesting replies. Further opinions will be welcome of course. Looking at my tender I will be using solder for the basic structure but some aspects will certainly need the cold treatment as it will be impracticable to use heat in certain places.

Best wishes

John B