Thanks to Lance my optimus no.1 can keep it's original burner! when i seen this hole i figured it was beyond help then Lance did this amazing silbraze job! wish my pics were as good as his work! |imgRemoved| also ground off a blob of old braze in bottom of the burner i didn't even mention! and pressed the loose thread ring in the 111 spirit cup! now i have good burner instead of a paper weight! thank you so much! Brice
i would think the repair stronger the the rest. maybe its a bad casting that caused the hole? either way its mainly a collectible and much more presentable now.
exactly on stainless steel such a phenomenon is caused by intercrystalline corrosion concerns brass, I don't know.
Hey ya'll Brice, if you plan to or would like to burn your Traveler and you are concerned about the repair, I may be able to help. I have a Traveler with a stress-fractured tank. I'd be fine with a burner trade, as mine will certainly never burn again. Let me know with a PT if you are interested. This is not to say there's anything wrong with the repair or Lance's skills. I would have thought it was fine, but there's lots I don't know about metallurgy, too, so.... Hope that helps all the way round. Cheers, Gary
I'm no expert either. Gregoriy is stating a genuine concern. I suspect the rest of the burner could be the failure risk. Expansion rates should be similar between the silbraze and the brass. ive seen brazed repairs on cast iron stoves that never failed. It's a professional repair by a skilled man, that's for sure. i will let you know Gary, thank you.
Hi, I agree with Grigoriy. The photo of the original fracture shows a fully brittle failure i.e no deformation of the tubing surrounding the piece that fell out. Brasses are known to be prone to Stress Corrosion Cracking, or inter-crystalline corrosion. Your failure looks very like the result of such SCC. Lance has carried out a very neat repair of the hole, but you must wonder about the state of the remaining tubing in the burner. If one piece fell out what do you reckon the chances are of another similar failure in another location? Keep this burner as a paper-weight and take up Gary on his generous offer. Best Regards, Kerophile.
Hi all : I absolutely agree with Grigoriy and Kerophile. While Lance's repair is first rate it did not fix the problem. The picture of the missing piece clearly shows a major fatigue problem with the part. It is one thing to solder or braze a leaky seam or fitting that has come unsoldered or brazed. However once the metal has avulsed or cracked, that is a sign of molecular structural change inside the metal itself. In that case a unit that operates under pressure is unsafe. It is best cosmetically repaired by a master as Lance and relegated to display only. Mike...
I find it interesting that many here think nothing of heating a burner to red hot then dunking it in cold water (then using it as a "presure vessel") an operation which is far more likely to cause stress fracture then a simple sil-braze repair which is stress relieved upon completion. My suggestion to Nagant is to use it and if it fails then, yup i made a mistake and the worse to happen is a kerosene spill which can be quickly mopped up. And just how much pressure are we talking about, 1 or 2 or even 10 psi. On such a small scale as the burner tubes you are not looking at the thousands of pounds of surface pressure which might be exerted on a tyre or even the pressure in the fuel line of your automobile. I stake my reputation to the repair and if it fails i'll pay the repair costs to any damage caused by such failure, so long as proper attention is paid to the stove in operation. lance
Hey Lance: Your repair looks magnificent and is most likely bullet proof. There is no question about your skillful repair holding up. I am sure it will outlast the rest of the stove. The concern is with the rest of the structure which clearly showed signs of catastrophic molecular failure in first photo which would not be limited to just the area of repair which is now better that new. Again Lance a job well done. I would let you weld for me anytime, and will "PT" you about such. Mike...
Hi Lance, your braze repair is first class and will likely outlive the rest of the burner. However, if the remainder of the tube or tubes in the burner have micro-cracks, the burner is very likely to fail at another position. If you want an automotive analogy, it is like putting a first rate patch repair on an inner tube which is perished. Best Regards, Kerophile.
To all: My apologies i got my dander up a bit there. I've seen such holes before in different structures from salt water piping onboard ships to cast iron pipe for soil lines. One of my instructures in welding school taught me to preheat the entire unit if possible and then when the repair is complete do a stress relief post heat. the preheat will realign the metals and the post heat will release the stress built up from the higher heat needed to perform the repair, by again reforming the inner structure of the metal. In my examination of this burner i decided (from my experience) that most likly the spot which failed was the result of a quench in that location. It is my balief that most stress fracturing we see is the result of the press forming of the metals not from pressure and release of pressure of the stove unit. They just don't see that kind of pressure. i have a little blowtorch which was fully stress fractured about its body (having more than 10 such fractures) and every one of the fractures fell along the lines of scratches in the metal from the press forming process. Bernie if you would send me that fount i'd be pleased to attempt a simular repair and see how it goes. I remember some time back telling the site about a Coleman M-530 stove i'd done a soft solder repair to and just recently i redid that repair using my sil-braze process. Testing of the fount following the repair has indicated no failure of the joint and no leaks from the fount. It is a user again in my view. The only other choice i had was to find some brass pipe and rebuild the stove. i was reluctant to do so. but i am thinking of another project which may be more usefull to me and others here. I'll keep you informed. lance
