"Liquid Steel"

[Nowhere-Man]

Over the last few months I've been experimenting with steel adhesives. That is, adhesive used to join steel or metal without needing to weld. I experimented by joining deck girder drain channels on my boat. I sifted for information from a racing car forum where some of the mechanics had used adhesives to join parts of the racing vehicle. So far, so good.

Today I thought I'd try it on my radio. I needed to construct an H.T. capacitor holding bracket on the chassis but figured drilling holes in the chassis to take screws could be a bit brutal. O.K. if you have a really good drill!

After a while, an idea emerged. One large jubilee clip intended for engine hoses was insulated in sleeving. Base of clip was left alone. Radio chassis was given a quick sand-papering where needed. Liquid Steel adhesive was mixed with some catalyst. Then applied to the clip and spot on the chassis. Finally held into place firmly for 10 mins. And so far so good! Later I'll put a bit more of the stuff around the edge.

Finally the new Film 650 VDC smoothing cap can be pushed into the clip and then the screw gently tightened.

It sits on the surface of the chassis and the custom is to put close to the rectifier tube.

P.S. I decided not to use the motor run capacitors as they turned out to be way too large and comical to be used on a radio. I just got more regular H.T. caps. but a holding bracket is a "must" to have.

[Radio Fixer]

Um! Wont please the purists but it worked for you and presumably it is not a rare and expensive set. Perhaps a better and reversible way would have been to use a hot melt glue gun. This stuff has great hold but of course can be heated to remove the item in the future.

Gary

[Yorkie]

I've used 'Super Steel' made by Plastic Padding which I've found excellent for repairing Bakelite cabinets and for re-stuffing caps. I wouldn't trust it for anything structural, but it files, drills and sands well.

I've probably mentioned it on here before, and I  was a bit concerned given its title 'Super Steel' that it might be electrically conductive so of no use in situations where that might cause problems. However, I applied a strip of it about 75mm long to a piece of glass, then tested in on my Victor VC60B insulation tester at 1,000V. Infinite resistance. (On the attached pic, the reading '1' doesn't mean 1 Meg - it would read '1' for an open circuit). I've used it to seal the ends of re-stuffed caps which had formerly been sealed with pitch.

The KB 'Toaster' radio cabinet was in several bits when I bought the radio for a fiver at the NVCF. It had been dropped, but luckily the dial had survived, as had the base. I didn't take and 'before' pics, but there were some bits of Bakelite missing. I drilled sideways into the cabinet and inserted pieces of thick paper clips to form an 'armature' and bridge the gap, then I built up with several layers of super steel, sanded it to shape, used high build primer and acrylic red gloss to finish it.

I've never had much success with Milliput, for me, it never seems to adhere well,  and I'm not keen on Araldite either, which often seems not to set rock hard.

I do have a glue gun, and use that for quite a few tasks to good effect. As Gary says, they have the merit that you can re-melt the adhesive if need be.

[Crackle]

Finally the new Film 650 VDC smoothing cap can be pushed into the clip and then the screw gently tightened.

Hi
Do you mean "film" capacitor or electrolytic capacitor? What was the value of the capacitor?

Mike

[Nowhere-Man]

I've used 'Super Steel' made by Plastic Padding which I've found excellent for repairing Bakelite cabinets and for re-stuffing caps. I wouldn't trust it for anything structural, but it files, drills and sands well.

I've probably mentioned it on here before, and I  was a bit concerned given its title 'Super Steel' that it might be electrically conductive so of no use in situations where that might cause problems. However, I applied a strip of it about 75mm long to a piece of glass, then tested in on my Victor VC60B insulation tester at 1,000V. Infinite resistance. (On the attached pic, the reading '1' doesn't mean 1 Meg - it would read '1' for an open circuit). I've used it to seal the ends of re-stuffed caps which had formerly been sealed with pitch.

The KB 'Toaster' radio cabinet was in several bits when I bought the radio for a fiver at the NVCF. It had been dropped, but luckily the dial had survived, as had the base. I didn't take and 'before' pics, but there were some bits of Bakelite missing. I drilled sideways into the cabinet and inserted pieces of thick paper clips to form an 'armature' and bridge the gap, then I built up with several layers of super steel, sanded it to shape, used high build primer and acrylic red gloss to finish it.

I've never had much success with Milliput, for me, it never seems to adhere well,  and I'm not keen on Araldite either, which often seems not to set rock hard.

I do have a glue gun, and use that for quite a few tasks to good effect. As Gary says, they have the merit that you can re-melt the adhesive if need be.

I've used it before to repair steel deck girders on my boat. These girders are used to support the deck-boards as well as to drain off rainwater. I had to wire brush and scrape parts of the original girders to prepare for adhesion (power tools would make this easier). Then I simply lay out the new girders on top of the old ones and used the adhesive. First as a means to tack-weld and then along all the edges. I was quite happy with this as it saved me a fortune on hiring welders.