Filling old holes on a steel deck.

[Conachair]

Filling old holes on a steel deck.

Removing some wood from a steel deck I´ve now got various screw holes in the deck to seal, 5mm or 6mm. Would prefer to weld over them but very worried about the risk of setting fire to the sprayed foam inside. Getting to the inside where they are would mean taking apart a large area of the inside of the boat, not really an option at the moment. Any suggestions hole to fill the holes? Only things I can think of so far is fill them with epoxy magic metal and sand flat or tap the holes and put a small piece of studding in the hole. The area will be primed and painted afterwards. Any suggestions (especially from experience!) would be most welcome.

TIA

[Fanie]

Easy, as you've mentioned.

Tap the holes, apply an epoxy like pratley steel to the screw thread , screw the stud or bolt in and once cured grind level. You can also screw allan key screws in and just fill the cavity with pratley steel.

Dunno why you ask if you have the answer already

Your idea was right, just fill them with EP, do´nt insert screws or other "dowels". The different metal properties can cause problems. And grinding them plane can induce enough heat to melt (or burn) the foam mentioned.
Be aware to repeat the procedure after some years.

Regards
Richard

[Fanie]

I doubt there would be much heat generated on such a small surface when you grind a 6mm or 8mm stud level. The surrounding material should conduct the heat away very quickly. Steel and steel should have no side effects, if you bugger around with copper, brass or other materials then you can run into corrosion problems due to bi-metal properties, but steel and stainless variants work well together.

[Conachair]

Just tried a couple using magic metal on it´s own and with a stainless fastener. Smaller hole seened to work ok just with magic metal but larger hole I couldnt get the stull to stick in the hole, it just fell through so looks like I´ve got a lot of holes to tap now.

[wardd]

get a tapping gun

Originally Posted by Fanie

but steel and stainless variants work well together.

Yahh, when proper encapsulated, the stainless rusts away!

Conach
>>>larger hole I couldnt get the stull to stick in the hole,<<<

mix some fibre in, glass, cotton.