Shotgun rebuild

[RETed]

Originally Posted by Ender

Now, what should I do about this? See that divot in the outer sealing area? I'm sure there's something I can use to seal it, block it off, but I don't know what would work well. I have some assorted glues, JB Weld, body filler and fiberglass; would any of those work well for this?

Unfortunately, none of those would work well.
A proper fix would be to reweld the aluminum and machine it down to tolerance.
Unforunately, that labor intensive and requires special machinery to do properly (or expensive).

Your rotor housings look like you use some type of sealant on the o-rings?
I don't like to use RTV types of sealant on those o-rings, but it's the only option you've got outside of the more expensive option mentioned above.

Luckily, it's on the outer o-ring, so the stress is not as bad versus the inner o-rings; you don' t have to worry about the inner combustion chambers!


-Ted

[Ender]

Originally Posted by RETed

Your rotor housings look like you use some type of sealant on the o-rings?
I don't like to use RTV types of sealant on those o-rings, but it's the only option you've got outside of the more expensive option mentioned above.

Damn, you're sure I couldn't rough up the pit and put some liquid steel in there or something? When I got the housing there was black stuff built up in that pit so I cleaned it out. I'm not sure what the stuff was, but I certainly don't want my seal to bear the load of keeping that gap shut.

[RETed]

Originally Posted by Ender

Damn, you're sure I couldn't rough up the pit and put some liquid steel in there or something?

Here's the problems with any epoxy (yes, "Liquid Steel" is an epoxy)...

First, heat expansion...
These epoxies do not expand and contract like the surrounding metal.
Due to the heat cycling of the metal (i.e. aluminum), the epoxy will eventually work itself loose due to the heat cycling.

Second, how does the epoxy react with the coolant?
A lot of them do not like being immersed in chemicals.
You need to confirm with the manufacturer that it is okay to be "submerged" with your coolant.
Most epoxies do not like to be in contact with glycol based liquids and will eventually erode away.


-Ted