Best Way to Repair Pot Metal

[bobb]

Hi Guys,

Looking for the best way to repair a cracked pot metal tonearm elbow on my Columbia. There is actually a chunk cracked out, but I have the chunk. I figure you guys have lots of experience with repairing pot metal parts.....so what's the best way to do it? Surfing the internet last night the best thing I could find was from muggyweld at http://www.muggyweld.com. The videos make it look easy (always do I guess). Anybody tried the muggyweld system (flux and low heat rod)? Is it good, ok, or don't waste the money?

I'm assuming (always a bad thing) that I'll have to take off the nickel plating around the crack and grind out a little pot metal from at least one side of the crack so the molten rod has somewhere to go. The crack in the elbow runs right thru a small screw hole that is used to limit tonearm movement. I'm assuming (again) that I can melt the muggyweld rod right around the screw and it won't stick to it, with the screw being steel and the rod being a low temp alloy....but I'm going to contact them and see what they say.

So what do you guys think.....am I being overly optimistic with the muggyweld....or do you guys have a better way?

thanks,
bob

[bob27556]

I just watched the video about welding 2 pot metal parts together. It looks like a lot of cosmetic work would be required afterwards.

I've only done a few pot metal repairs and got good results with JB Weld but these repairs were in places that are not highly visible.

I too would like to hear from anyone who has used MuggyWeld.

[alang]

I've used JB Weld to re-attach a broken off pot metal piece on a Columbia tonearm and it's close to invisible. I cleaned and sanded only the inner invisible side and the joint of course. That way the only places JB Weld stuck was in the joint and on the inside backfilling and adding some additional strength. The little bit that was pressed out onto the visible nickel plated could be easily removed with 0000 steel wool after the whole thing had been left to settle for a day.
There is also a product called Solder-It for pot metal, but I have not tried that one yet.
Good luck
Andreas

[donremus]

I had a Starr Reproducer made from Pot metal repaired by the guy at Calumet Phonograph in Hammond, IN you could not tell that it was repaired. He only charged like 20 bucks.

[FloridaClay]

I have a Pathé lateral cut reporducer that has a potmetal body. It broke where the elbow shape comes out of the back of the diaphragm case. Out of desperation I tried super glue. It has held and played well for months. The break was fresh and had lots of jagged edges to provide bite though.

Clay

[bobb]

Hi Clay,

I'm glad the super glue worked for you. I tend to shy away from super glue because I really don't know what materials it works on and what materials it doesn't work on. Problem I have is when it doesn't work it's impossible to remove the super glue from both sides of the parts you're trying to join together....and then nothing sticks to the old super glue. There are also a million different "super glues" out there, all just a bit different. But I do appreciate you sharing your experience and will give super glue (probably Krazy Glue) a try on some scrap pot metal and see what happens.

thanks,
bob

[FloridaClay]

Bob, the one I used is Gorilla Super Glue. I suppose another factor can be that the alloy mix for potmetal varies as well. Perhaps I was just fortunate.

Clay

[frenchmarky]

I've used superglue on a few reproducers but they only had small cracks, not missing chunks. Letting it soak into the cracks and then cleaning up carefully with remover seemed like a decent way to strengthen those areas and maybe keep it from breaking for a longer period of time. Have done some repairs using JBweld but it's always been on internal working pieces so not real concerned about appearance or using a lot of the stuff, and in those cases I like to add extra pieces of metal or washers within the JB to help make the repair stronger. As long as it still allows the part to fit and work right of course!

[Orthophonic]

I've used JB Weld and the epoxy that comes in a roll and that you mix with your fingers. I like to use a small strip of flat metal to help hold it or some metal mesh. It works pretty well on orthophonic supports but I still do not trust it as much as I would a mount in good condition...

[Henry]

The beauty part about "super glue" is that the repair is seamless, if you're careful and apply it sparingly, whereas with JB or epoxy there's usually some finishing required, if only for appearance's sake. OTOH, I don't know if I would completely trust super glue for repairs in moderate to high stress applications. It's great for model building and the like, but that's a display function. But it's worth a try. Let us know how it works for you.