I Love Kluging!

[stickmaker]

 

I pride myself on being able to make repairs. Often very unconventional repairs. 

 

I was checking one of my Aladdin mantle lamps (strongly recommended, BTW) and noticed that the ring which holds the chimney in place wasn't staying attached to the base. Looking closer I noticed a partial split in that ring. 

 

I don't have replacement parts for that except to replace the entire burner assembly. I don't think anyone sells just that part; it's not supposed to come off. The split wasn't complete, so if I could get the ring to stay on the burner the chimney would lock in place normally. How to do that, though? I don't have any welding equipment, and soldiering wouldn't work because the parts get hot. 

 

Then I remembered something. I had some epoxy for high temperature repairs on cars, such as patching exhaust pipes. (I also had some high temperature vulcanizing stuff but decided on the epoxy as it had more body.)

 

The epoxy comes as a concentric roll, with epoxy and catalyst one inside the other. You cut off what you need and knead it together. It's pretty thick, but I mixed it good and rolled it as thin as I could. I then pressed this around the outside of the burner assembly. Then I pressed the loose ring on. This actually shaved off most of the epoxy, leaving just a thin layer between the burner and the ring. Which is exactly what I wanted. I made sure the ring was fully seated, rubbed the outside clean and now will wait a while before trying the chimney. I believe the epoxy/catalyst mix needs heat to fully activate, so I'll probably burn the lamp for a while. Or maybe not. It has enough tack to hold firm even uncured. 

 

There's lots of stuff at auto shops which can be used for non-auto repairs. I like aluminum and stainless steel repair tapes. I also like a fiberglass tape which is impregnated with heat-activated epoxy. This is normally for muffler repair, but if you have something hot which is leaking... These are also good places to find high-temp Loctite and generics.