At work we have a pre-rinse sprayer similar to this one.
If you look at that picture, you’ll see the stainless steel area in between the handle and the end of the unit where the water comes out. Right in that area ours has developed a small pin hole leak. It’s not a big deal, it just sprays out a mist of water. My question is, if I sand that area down and heat it up with a torch, could I solder the hole shut? Will solder be drawn in to a pin hole? Will it stick? Will the heat ruin the stainless steel?
Yes, I can go out and by a new part, but it runs about $50, but I have all the tools for soldering (soldering copper water pipe anyways) on hand.
solder will not stick to steel.
steel could be welded.
you might try epoxy forced into the hole.
Silver solder will solder stainless easily.
Some discussion here: Fabrication: CNC Laser, Waterjet, Plasma, Welding | Silver solder stainless ? | Practical Machinist - Largest Manufacturing Technology Forum on the Web
I might have some silver solder here from an HVAC job a little while back, I’ll have to look. My hope is that even if it doesn’t work, as long as I take off all the plastic parts and wrap a wet cold rag around the valve I won’t make anything worse.
Now, am I expecting the solder to be drawn up into the hole? The hole is actually to small to even see. The only way to find it is to look for where water is spraying out. My gut tells me to drill the hole out bigger so I can do a better job, but I don’t want to ruin anything. I guess I’ll have to see what the inside looks like, it might be better to do it from the back.
You need to use a torch to solder with silver solder. The metal needs to get almost red-hot. So, make sure this isn’t going to ruin anything, including the finish. I’ve used liquid flux with great success. If the piece is correctly fluxed, and at the right temperature, the solder will be wicked into the hole - no need to enlarge it. Make sure everything is very clean - use a bit of sandpaper to clean the surface before you flux.
Will acetylene get stainless steel red hot? In that case, maybe I’ll skip the wet rag and take the valve out. It’s an old unit and I fear that if I start messing with the valve I might not get it back in correctly without more problems that I started with.
Yes, acetylene will work. Actually, the hotter the torch, the less chance of damaging something nearby (the heat is concentrated near the repair, and for a shorter time). Only you can make the decision as to whether this is fixable by soldering.
Another suggestion: you can drill the hole out, and put in a self-threading screw with a washer. It’s ugly, but it works.
Hmmmmm…that could work. OTOH, I get worried if I try something like that this thing is going to disintegrate. I’m just hoping to get a few more months out of it.
Actually, now that I think about it, it’s on non-flat part of the sprayer so a screw probably won’t work…but I’ll look into it.
My suspicion and experience is that if there’s one pinhole, more will follow.
On the assumption that the sprayer is about to become one big piece of swiss cheese, I’d be thinking about sanding the area and coating it with epoxy, and/or putting a pipe patch on it.
Then, plan on replacing the sprayer.
I agree that soldering probably will not work. I don’t think low temp solder will “wet” with/on stainless steel. Think drops of water on wax paper. Without this wetting, the stuff won’t stick very well. Now, you might be able to braze it (brazing is kinda halfway between soldering and welding).
Then there is the chance you’ll get the thing hot enough to mess up a rubber part in there somewhere or mess up the metal itself.
Here is what I would do. Really clean that thing well. Use something like comet cleanser then rinse really well. Then lots of soap and water and rinse again really well. Then some serious rinsing with alchohol.
Then sand the thing well with pretty coarse sandpaper. Not just near the hole, but all the way around the tube. And NOT sanding lengthwise along the tube, but AROUND the tube. You want sanding scratches that wrapp AROUND the tube. And try not to get your greasy hands on it, leaving oil (wash your hands well with soap and water before doing this and try not to touch the metal). Then give it another good rinse with alchohol. Remember though, you just want to sand enough that the whole surface you are going to cover with expoxy has nice scratches for the expoxy to lock onto.
Now, get some JB Weld. You should be able to find it at any hardware store, Walmart, or auto parts place. Get the fast setting stuff (5 minute?). Don’t get the hour/day stuff because while it may get sorta hard pretty soon, it will flow like very thick syrup for hours. Cost about 5 dollars give or take.
Mix up a decent fraction (about half) of what you have and put a moderate layer (like the thickness of two/three pennies) on the hole, all the way around the tube , and as far up and down the tube as the amount of expoxy you have allows.
Now, wrap that with some small diameter wire. If you dont have any wire handy, some fishing line or nylon thread/string will work. Put enough space between each line wrap that the epoxy can ooze up between the lines. Don’t wrap so tight that the line cuts down into the layer of epoxy more than a smidge though.
Finally, mix up the rest of your JB Weld and put that over what you already have. Once you have it all on, you can use wet fingers to smooth out the top surface and push it around till it hardens enough to quit flowing.
You have to be pretty fast between the first batch and the second one so that you get a good bond. So, have everything laid out and ready to go once you start.
Anyhow, thats how I’d try to fix it.
Oh, if you think the whole thing is about to pinhole, use PC7 rather than JB Weld. It will cost a bit more, but youll end up with more like a cupfull of epoxy to work with rather than a few ounces. PC7 is a bit harder to find. I think ACE hardware stores generally carry it.
Metal duct tape, not the cheap plasticy kind but the real Metal stuff, sticks pretty darned good. For just a pin-hole it should stand up to a little water pressure and it’s already designed to withstand being heated. The metal tape wouldn’t blend in perfectly but it would certainly look better than burn marks all over the faucet parts. It’s not cheap to buy a whole roll but you just need to get a small piece (and it’s easy to share because it has a paper peel-off backing unlike cheap duct tape).
I don’t have any experience with Gorilla Tape so I can’t say if this is a job for it.
That I have on hand as well, from the same HVAC project. It sticks well to ductboard, but I can’t see it sticking to stainless steel that’s going to be getting soaking wet (and soapy) on a regular basis.
Yes.
I forgot about that metal duct tape. That stuff is pretty damn good. I actually considered using it to tape sections of thin plastic sheeting together to make a canoe of sorts.
I think if you followed my prep work as described above, but used the tape instead, that would work nice. The upside is that if you buy a whole roll, you can do/redo the repair many times over. Just try to put the tape on without getting any creases or wrinkles in it (At least for the first few layers.
Good idea Dogratcat!
If you clean the area, you can drive a small sheet metal screw with some JB, pipe joint compound, or even silicone caulk into the hole.
Hmmm, maybe I’ll try that, can’t hurt and I can always take it off. We’re talking about the stuff with the fibers criss-crossed in it, right?
Silicone might work as well, but I want to take it apart first, that might be better applied to the inside.
No, this stuff is like very thick aluminum foil. And thats what it looks like, shiny aluminum foil. No fibers. And the adhesive on it is very sticky. You’ll know when you pick up a roll of it because it feels quite heavy for its size. Because its basically a roll of metal.
Not sure this fix is a sure thing, but like you said, its easy to undo or redo and it does have the advantage that its probably the easiest thing to try.
That stuff will probably work. The adhesive is usually silicone and should stay water tight for a while.
I got interrupted before finishing my last post, so I’ll mention that the low cost sprayers with a lot of plastic parts have a limited life span in general, so a replacement head might be good to go ahead and get and be prepared for the inevitable.
Forget welding, If you don’t wan’t to change the part, epoxy sealers will hold for a time
One good one is called “plumbers seal” others are available (bi-composite charged resins in the form of two “cut off” products to mix together) perfect cleaning of the metal part is better, and respect of curing times is an absolute.
From your description though, unless you actually see a pinhole (quite rare) check to see if you leak isn’t coming from the threaded joint, in which case some teflon would be much better.
Good luck