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

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

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

Neil

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.

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!

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

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

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.

I’ve had a lot of sucess sealing tenders with automotive seam sealer.
Mark P.

Hi John, yes it works well, cellulose based, paint it on, on a well degreased surface give it a couple of coats and let it dry between coats. Work it well into corners if you can rough the surface up a bit first so much the better. It seems to stay a bit flexable so no cracking or flaking. Give it a try.
Regards Mark P.