I have used my stainless steel pot for more than 25 years. The brand is Meyer and it was bought in the United Kingdom. Now, its bottom is separated from the main body. Since the pot is good, I considered sticking the bottom to its main body. How to do it? Is there any glue can be used?
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2You could try contacting the brand, maybe they could try to help you even though the pan is old.– LucianoCommented Sep 26 at 14:15
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4a potential problem with fixing one of these is that there will exist some chance that moisture can be trapped in between the layers. I had a failure of one of these type of pots (about 2-3 years after acquiring it) where water somehow managed to get in and then when it was on the stove the pressure was enough to blow out a hole about the circumference of a pencil, deforming the copper into a sort of shape like the mouth of a ewer. very dangerous. (I actually am unsure if it was a copper disc or other type of metal disc)– YorikCommented Sep 26 at 19:25
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3It may be worth considering why the bottom detached in the first place. (For example, if it deformed, then that'll also prevent you reattaching it.)– giddsCommented Sep 26 at 21:32
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1What does your stove run on? If gas, you may be able to do without the heat spreading sandwich base at least for boiling.– Chris HCommented Sep 27 at 10:19
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3I would not consider repairing this pan. I would say that it's reached the end of its useful life and get another one.– WastrelCommented Sep 27 at 17:02
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5 Answers
Not a hope in Hell. It's probably a high-melting-point solder: bear in mind that that's not just a weld around the edge, the entire base is bonded to maximise conductivity. The effort of truing the two surfaces and bonding them together will be prohibitively expensive even if you could find somebody prepared to do it (but it /might/ be worth asking the original manufacturer).
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2I though about this as well. The high melting point (electrical) solders I know about, which should be meltable on a gas stove with the pan empty, are lead-based. I wouldn't want them in my washing up water. And unless you get a perfect layer, trapped (or almost trapped) volumes of air or worse water will cause expansion and contraction leading to further damage. And I doubt you could remove the old layer, add a new layer and melt it to fuse together, all evenly enough to work– Chris HCommented Sep 27 at 10:25
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@ChrisH the tiny amount of lead involved in what could possibly come out in the washwater is probably less than what you'll find in the dirt outside in some places. If the bottom is polished up properly and resoldered the layer of solder will be less than paper thin and exposed only at the very edge. Plus lead quickly forms an oxide layer, especially when heated, that's not water soluble and is fairly durable except in acidic environments. Which there probably won't be much of on the outside of the pot.– PerkinsCommented Sep 28 at 3:44
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@ChrisH Also, the really high temperature solders these days are made with silver instead of lead. And the go-to for this kind of work for the last several hundred years would be brass.– PerkinsCommented Sep 28 at 3:46
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@Perkins silver solder is a possibility though rather expensive in the volumes needed here. It was a few months ago that I was surprised to find so much lead when looking for solders an electrical experimental over 300°C. As for brass, its melting point gets rather close to the melting point of the copper in the base, and melting it evenly over a large flat area without melting the copper would be too hard to do at home.– Chris HCommented Sep 28 at 13:14
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1@Perkins A hobbyist might be better equipped than a toolroom or maintenance shop, but would be unlikely to have the sort of specialist kit that a production line would use. I don't believe there are self-fluxing solders for stainless, you normally get the flux in powder form and apply as a paste to both surfaces first. You'd probably then apply a preform of solder (a thin disc, or a spiral), clamp the parts, bring them up to temperature then apply and sustain several tonnes of pressure while they cooled. There's a /lot/ of stuff in there that a hobbyist could (but probably wouldn't) make. Commented Oct 1 at 6:51
Pan layers are generally welded on, or in some other way attached by heat, the metal is supposed to be fused together. You could take it to a metal shop and they may be able to get it permanently fixed on, it would probably cost more than to replace the pan, unless it's an expensive make.
You could try an adhesive of some kind, and it may work. You need the right kind though, as most cannot tolerate the levels of heat a pan will be exposed to. High temperature epoxies really only go up to 500°F (~250°C) which is too low. I've used high temperature silicone for engine gasket repair, however that's only up to 650°F (340°C) which is still too low.
My money would be on extreme high temperature metal repair paste. Products like JB-Weld ExtremeHeat can tolerate up to 1000°F (540°C) continuously, and occasional exposure to far higher than that. I've never used them myself, but they seem straightforward and are cheap enough that if they don't work you haven't spent much. Make sure to follow the instructions, and make sure both surfaces are clean and dry.
Note: I'm not saying this is going to work, it's still a long shot for a variety of reasons: it may not have the mechanical strength and so the bottom may fall off, you may also lose conduction between the bottom and the pan so it doesn't heat well. It's just the only product I can think of that may work that you could do at home.
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3My money is in this kind of repair not being DIY-able at home, possibly doable if the metal shop has a welding expert.– LucianoCommented Sep 26 at 14:13
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2I would be very wary of testing out a possible solution in a circumstance where boiling water or hot oil might unexpectedly spill all over you– dbmag9Commented Sep 26 at 19:11
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4These products have a fairly low thermal conductivity (compared to the metals involved, but much higher than air) so you'd want the thinnest and most even layer possible. Even then you'll probably find heating is less efficient and less even.– Chris HCommented Sep 27 at 10:21
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8My version of @dbmag9's worry is that it separates but remains partially stuck and doesn't fall off until you lift the pan, at which point the hot base falls onto the floor or your foot– Chris HCommented Sep 27 at 10:23
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1@dbmag9 as pictured, the pan is still watertight, it's the external sandwich base that's come off. I don't think I've ever seen a saucepan in which there was a join between the walls and the watertight base (i.e. one visible from the inside) except some ultralight aluminium camping stuff– Chris HCommented Sep 27 at 14:59
The fact that it's a stainless pot makes this tricky. Stainless steel works by forming a layer of chromium oxide on the surface of the metal that doesn't like to react with or bond to anything. That makes it devilishly hard to weld, solder, or anything like that.
But, it can be done. You'll need somebody with a setup for handling metal in inert gas. Argon is probably required in this case. If it weren't stainless then you could get away with CO2 since messing up the metal hardness likely isn't a concern in this case, but I'm not certain that the heat wouldn't be sufficient to make the O2 split off and bond with the chromium and ruin the bond in this case. Someone who works with stainless more often than I do might have a better idea of the requirements.
Probably the way to do it for a repair would be to polish the surfaces up as much as possible, make sure they'll still mate up perfectly with no weird gaps, then put it in an Argon environment, polish the oxide off the stainless pieces, and either solder or braze it back together again. Arc welding it would, unfortunately, be tricky because that really only gets things near the electrode path and in this case you want the bond to cover the entire bottom of the pan. So it needs to be heated slowly and evenly with the bonding agent in between the two layers, and then pressed together tightly while it cools.
The local metal shop might have the equipment to do this. If not, check if there are any modern blacksmiths in the area since it's definitely more similar to a forging process than any of the more typical machining or welding processes.
If it's a really cheap stainless that's just a coating on the surface instead of being stainless all the way through, you might be able to do it yourself at home without needing the inert gas, but I'd definitely recommend consulting with a smith on your setup since metals at these temperatures will cheerfully give you third and fourth degree burns if you mishandle them. Not to mention burning holes right through your floor and into the basement/crawlspace...
In terms of glue... JB Weld or similar that's specifically designed for repair of high-temperature metal parts might work. But if the thermal conductivity isn't really high then the parts are going to expand at different rates as it's heated and that will eventually pop them apart again.
I think this is practical, though perhaps not economical, provided the two pieces fit together without a gap (little warping).
The two parts need to be cleaned so that bare shiny metal is all you see on the mating faces. With a wire wheel, Scotchbrite, sandpaper etc. Then slathered with flux and silver-soldered. I would use an NSF approved cadmium-free silver solder such as Harris Safety-Silv. A fairly powerful gas torch is needed, the melting point is around 1200 degrees F, which is a dull red heat. Maybe you know a ‘Model Engineer’ or other person who does metalworking locally who could help.
answered Sep 28 at 11:11
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Interesting. Do you think you can torch the bottom without it warping!? Perhaps it would be better to heat (and cool) it slowly and evenly in a pottery kiln! Commented Sep 29 at 11:07
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@Peter-ReinstateMonica Interesting idea- yes think a pottery kiln would work, but part of the process with a one-off is to poke at it with a pick and see and encourage when and where the hard solder has flowed. Once there is a smooth flow around the outside rim it can be cooled, but that’s hard to estimate if you’ve never done one. Also slow heating all the fire bricks probably means more cleanup of the whole pan unless you have access to a controlled atmosphere furnace. It gets heated pretty unevenly in normal uses after all. Commented Sep 29 at 12:10
You can try to send it to the manufacturer; I know of an instances where a high-end brand replaced a pan that had clearly been destroyed by the customer's abuse, as a gesture of goodwill. (Actually, since the manufacturer is in Great Britain this is not a viable option in your case, if you are indeed in Malaysia, because of the prohibitive shipping cost. It may be an option for domestic products though, so I'll let the suggestion stand for other readers.) After all, this is probably a failure mode that simply should never happen. Perhaps they'll do it out of sheer respect for your chuzpe to contact them with a product failure after 25 years.
But in all reality, it's time to buy a new pot. Say a short thank-you prayer for this one that has served you so diligently for a third of your life, and buy your ultimate or penultimate pot.
As an aside, this is a reminder that no composite item is as long-lived as a single-piece-item made of cast iron which you can pass on through the generations.
answered Sep 29 at 10:57
