Home Distiller

is there a more permanent solution to sealing the rivets that come on a ss pot? you know, the rivets that hold the handles on the pot.

can you use one coating of flour paste as a permanent seal and never replace it? or can you drop some solder around the rivets?

Did you try hammering them for a tighter seal...??? Sometime simply resetting them will do the trick...

They seem sealed. not tested tho. just a little neurotic about safey so just looking for a permanent seal bc rivets need to be flour pasted anyway. Just looking for a permanent seal that wont require flour paste every single time. Thanks rad the hammer thing sounds like a good addition to creating a permanent seal.

worst case, it will have to be flour paste on the rivets. it just sounds like a mess, a pain in the ass and wont look good either.

Thanks in advance i appreciate the knowledge you guys give.

PS welding is a no go

I had the same problem with mine. I used a hammer to tighten them up then completely covered them on the inside with solder. It is now a permanent seal.

sweet werat thats just what i was wondering thanks guys!

I've never sealed mine. never noticed any vapor escape with mirror test

whats this specialist solder im reading about? it fuses to copper and ss. Can someone show me a link to what they're talking about like on walmart.com or amazon or some shit it sounds like a good solution. thanks!

TIG em ................

sunshine4me wrote:whats this specialist solder im reading about? it fuses to copper and ss. Can someone show me a link to what they're talking about like on walmart.com or amazon or some shit it sounds like a good solution. thanks!

Lead free silver solder. Can be purchased at Home Depot or Lowes. Wally World sells it, Oatey solder. Make sure it is lead free. Nothing special about it, just no lead.

thanks also upon research relating to the topic of "sealing ss stockpot rivets" i found a solution.

you drill out the rivets for safety (just in case they are aluminum) put a copper nail in the hole and use solder to get the seal on the rivet holes.

That will also work or replacing them with SS pop rivets. You may still need to solder them depending on how good they seal up.

The type of brazing solder recommended by Harris for sanitary applications is either of:

1) Harris (Lincoln Electric) Safety-Silv 56 for SS to SS Brazing (color matches SS very well)
or
2) Harris (Lincoln Electric) Safety-Silv 45 for SS to Copper Brazing (slightly warmer color better matches copper)

These mean 45% and 56% Silver content respectively.
These are brazing (higher temp) solders.

thats exactly what i was talking about varocketry thanks a ton. i really appreciate it. pretty expensive tho ~$30 at home depot. ill prob just take off the handles they're not worth $30 to me thanks again.

Let me just add in a word of caution - based on personal experience.

If you need to remove the rivets at all, it probably means your stock pot is quite thin. In the past I soldered in (well brazed actually) a copper plug, either a rivet, or nut and bolt. In the process, using a 55% silver solder, the stock pot itself glowed cherry red.

The solder in question had a melting range of 630 to 660 deg C, so it should have been OK, but it is really easy to overheat thin stainless steel. The seal was fine. However, some months later the stock pot cracked along the edge of the join, where the solder meets the stainless steel.

You can get a lower melting point soft solder specially formulated for stainless steel. This has a melting point of just 220 to 225 deg C. If I were to repeat this exercise now I would use a stainless nut, bolt and washers to fill the hole, and solder with the special solder. You can't use it on copper because the associated flux (phosphoric acid based I think) is very aggressive and etches the copper during the soldering process.

It is possible to seal without soldering, just put a soft copper washer each side of the hole, and use a lot of compression with a nut and bolt.

While researching still designs I was very lucky to come across a thread concerning leaky rivets on SS stockpots which then made me buy a pot with handles that are welded on.

Most people in the thread were drilling out the rivets and fitting bolts with washers. Just like Myles has said.

Hi, my solution to this was to drill out the holes and put in 6mm stainless socket head bolts wrapped in ptfe tape with stainless washers and plain stainless nuts. I also used that method to attach a stainless mixing bowl to the lid of the pot. The mixing bowl was impossible to drill into coz it was work hardened on the pressed/rolled edge, so I put the bolts on the lid and used large stainless washers to clamp it down, 12 bolts around the edge. First few runs were ok but then 2 of them had to be re-done.
Hth
Stainless
Edited to add
I used Samohan's cardboard and ptfe 'everlasting gasket on the lid/mixing bowl with no problems ever.

What do the veterans think of a copper rivet like they would use on your 501s or a saddle. Leather workers have a wide range of sizes.