Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: MillCreek on December 17, 2008, 01:16:09 PM
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I may have mentioned before that I roast my own coffee. On one of my stainless-steel mesh roasting drums, a small stainless steel bracket has come off of the spot weld. The bracket secures the lid of the roaster. Without the bracket, the lid will not stay attached and I cannot use the drum. I don't have easy access to welding equipment and I have not the faintest idea where my old soldering iron is, if indeed I still have it.
It occurs to me that a small dab of high-heat epoxy putty would be just the ticket to secure the bracket. Does anyone know of such an epoxy or other adhesive that can withstand 600 degrees and is food safe; i.e.: does not decompose or give off toxic fumes at such temps?
Thanks for any suggestions.
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Maybe JB Weld.
I'd just take it to a local shop; someone can weld it up for not too much money.
Do you have any friends with a MiG or Tig machine?
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Get a small piece of metal, and pop-rivet it to the thing. No worries about goo.
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Get a small piece of metal, and pop-rivet it to the thing. No worries about goo.
Use a stainless steel pop rivet.
or your could drill a small hole and make your peen own rivet with stainless steel welding rod.
probably be cheaper and easier to have a independent welding shop tig it back together.
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If I'm envisioning your setup correctly, I think a weld, rivet, or other hard fastener is the only way you'll get long-term reliability from the repair. There might be some adhesives that could hold the broken bracket at the temps you describe, but my guess is, if the bracket is under some load holding the lid down, the adhesive would drift under that load and at that temp.
That said, I'm not sure there's anything food-grade that exists, at least from an FDA/USDA standpoint. Most of the food-grade adhesives I've dealt with usually don't see more than 200-300 F, and even them I'm wary of using them since, over a period of time, heat-ups, cool-downs, and sanitation cycles will invariably cause the adhesive to break down, and potentially contaminate any food source you have in its vicinity.
For a home roaster, you probably don't need to adhere to such stringent standards, but it's likely that a polymer-based adhesive would give off fumes as you suggest. My $0.02.