M. Secrest writes:
> All:
>
> I was at a local welder today, inquiring if he could repair a piece of
> moulding for my square tail GT6. (It's cracked and missing some
> metal.) He said he could not repair it, because "it's pot metal."
>
> What's pot metal, and can you not even braze it?
The problem with brazing is that the melting temperature of ordinary
brazing rod is far higher than the melting temperature of pot metal
(1600-1800 deg. F compared to about 900 deg. F for zinc alloys).
Pot metal is often used as a generic term for white metal (older carburetor
bodies are a good example of white metal, before aluminum alloys were
commonly used). True pot metal was originally a mixture of copper and
lead, used for making pots and plumbing fixtures, and as one might suspect,
because of the lead, this alloy is no longer used for those purposes.
Pot metal, today, is predominantly zinc, as Randall suggests. All that
said, it is possible to weld white metal, but not without difficulty. I
have known experienced welders who can repair white metal and die-cast zinc
using TIG, but haven't tried it myself.
Cheers.
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