Topic: What happens when you put buckshot in your bird feeder...

[gmonkey]

... and leave your rusted through tank laying around?  You get pigeon $#!t all over it.

[gmonkey]

Ok, I guess people didn't like that one.  Does no one call bad spattery welds pigeon $#!t?  I'm just making fun of my own soldering job.

Anyway, I thought I had A pinhole.  Finally got around to taking a torch to the tank, poked around at some fishy spots in the paint and found about a dozen more places where it rusted through including on the side.  Patched those up and next the tank's getting electrolysis.  If it doesn't just disintegrate from that, whatever new holes appear are getting solder.  Might just redo the welds I have there too, maybe with flux applied to the inner side of the hole for better coverage.  After that, sealing.

Any pointers?

[Ved]

I had a tank like that once on my Yamaha XJ650. I bought it from a guy who apparently left it setting out in his back yard under a tree for 15 some odd years. It had more pinholes in it than the condoms they give out for free at the planned parenthood office.

I welded, I soldered, I over painted... Nothing worked. That was until I coated it with KREEM once a day for a week then repainted it and it's still leak free after several years. I still thank my inline fuel filter for keeping the bike running. 

[gmonkey]

Found more holes so needs more soldering.  This time I experimented on scrap.  I found that if I apply solder it doesn't spread on its own even with flux.  It adheres but pools and ends up looking like the pictures above.  If I take a brush, get solder on it then sweep some of the melted solder along the metal, it spreads and adheres great.  It's lead-free silver bearing solder and regular paste flux.  Does this mean I'm doing something wrong or is that just what I have to do if I want to coat a patch with solder? 

[HondaMan]

Found more holes so needs more soldering.  This time I experimented on scrap.  I found that if I apply solder it doesn't spread on its own even with flux.  It adheres but pools and ends up looking like the pictures above.  If I take a brush, get solder on it then sweep some of the melted solder along the metal, it spreads and adheres great.  It's lead-free silver bearing solder and regular paste flux.  Does this mean I'm doing something wrong or is that just what I have to do if I want to coat a patch with solder? 

Is the flux acid flux? The rosin flux doesn't work well with steel, I've found.

[gmonkey]

It's rosin flux.  Off to home depot I go for acid flux then...

Seems to work ok with the brush.  Is it getting burned off with the torch flame?  Should the solder flow freely?

[gmonkey]

Experimented with another type of flux and solder.  Tried some acid flux from the hardware store but it seemed useless.  Ended up using the same nokorode paste flux and a 60/40 leaded solder.  The silver bearing lead free solder was the problem.  A bit more of a solid job this time as you can see in the picture. 

Wanted to cover a large patch but it turned into a real pain because of the curved surface of the tank and soldering on the side would make the patch on the underside melt and run.  I ended up doing smaller patches on the other side.

[gmonkey]

As a way to make sure the tank doesn't explode, I went out and bought some dry ice to throw inside while I take the torch to it.  Overall, I'd say it's not worth it.  My alternative to the dry ice is filling the tank with water which I don't like doing because then I have to dry the tank.  I still ended up rinsing the tank and the water condensed in there anyway so having to dry the tank wasn't avoided.  Plus the hassle of having to drive somewhere to pick it up, etc.

But it was fun playing with the dry ice.  Put some water in the tank with some ice left inside and the fog rolled out the filler hole like a fountain.  Unfortunately, it mostly died down by the time I got the camera.