Dears, I need advice regarding patching the Hasag 102 Spiritus tank. All steel, eleven holes approx. 1-3 mm diameter including one in the bottom. Plenty of rust removed from inside. Holes were discovered after derusting, steelbrushing and plating removal. Please advise what to do - my idea is soldering (hard/soft ?) these holes, polish and then epoxy from inside, but I have never done anything like that so I would appreciate your recommendations. Such a surprise, but hope it can be saved. all the best, Piotrek
I would soft-solder (plumbers’ solder) the holes, and ensure they are fully airtight, then use a fuel tank liner such as “Caswells” or POR 15. There are examples of these techniques here on CPL. Tony
I would do like tony suggests plenty of soft solder then file and tidy it up outside with wet n dry. Then a tank sealer inside good luck it can be fixed Piotrek
Not sure about the conditions and integrity of the steel tank, but judging from the numerous holes that aren't that small, I think it might be too far gone. The wall might have become rather too thin from the corrosion. Repairing and re-using it can be risky since spirit is very inflammable, almost like gasoline. If you're going ahead with the repairs, it might be safer to convert it to burn kerosene instead of spirit/alcohol.
Caswell now make a specific lantern font sealer (2-part). It may not be easily available outside of the USA. Tony
That fount is way beyond salvage. I disagree with patching any rust compromised fount, but this one is far, far beyond even thinking about rescuing. As far as I know Caswell didn't make any changes to their product that was designed for non-pressurized tanks, they just changed the labeling when people started using it on lanterns. I've cut open several founts that had pinholes, and I stress pinholes, not great huge holes like the one in this post, and the remaining metal was so badly rusted that there were more holes just waiting to come through. To have rusted through as badly as the fount in this post, especially in the upper areas of the fount, which are much thinner than the baseplate, means areas of that fount are paper thin.
I once repaired a jiffy Kook 15. It had a few holes similar, I too wondered what to do to save it, are you going to use it or shelf queen it? The JK had rather thick skinned, I used a small grit blaster to reviel what the extent of corrosion, I made brass plugs tapered to suit all the holes, tapped them in to seal the holes, then silver soldered them in place. I re assembled my JK then applied pressure test, it all held together, then I rampt it up more pressure and I left it out in the sun for a day, it was all good. I disassemble the stove cleans filed made good and painted my stove, it worked for me, you can follow my thread Jiffy Kook 15 search and you will find. As fellas have pro’s and con’s as listed above I recommend extreme caution flammable liquids under pressure a disaster waiting to happen.
Thank You Guys for your opinions. I will try to do it anyway. I am not going to sell or use that lantern much - most likely just once to verify if it works. Air pressure test to be done before for safety reasons. The fount was treated in citric acid solution for very long time, cleaned roughly with nuts etc. from inside, cleaned roughly with drill and metal brush from outside so weakest spots were already exposed. There were no visible holes before tank cleaning. We will see, plenty to learn with this lantern for me… Any ideas/opinions are still much appreciated. All the best, Piotrek
OK another opinion. I think we all like to try to restore and keep everything going that we get our hands on. You have indicated it had no visible holes pre-treatment and lots of rust from inside. I think fixing the holes as an exercise would be interesting and it would then make a good shelf queen. However, with pressure vessels, steel tanks, high levels of internal rust the copious signs of more holes to come; all of that would say to me, err on the side of safety even if it can be sealed for the present. We just have to let an occasional find go to the spares box.
Since you are already aware that this would be a high risk gamble and have decided to go ahead with the repairs despite all the odds, I wish you all the best. Ok then, first check what type of joints did they use for this Hasag., i.e., are they soldered or by other means of jointing. For such repairs, I will use hard-soldering or brazing as primary repairs. Once all holes have been sealed, subject the fount to a severe and prolonged pressure test before anything. If it fails, repeat the brazing/soldering repairs till it is all good on the pressure test. ** the pressure applied during the test should be at least 4 bar or around 60psi. Leave it at that for at least a week before proceeding. Use fluids that are highly penetrating and non-volatile to check for leaks throughout the test. Once it passes the test, you can further supplement it with secondary reinforcements like Caswells or POR-15 fount lining to stop any further degradation of the fount's structure by corrosion.
