Why metal? Can you get heavy plastic, and put it in with some liquid nails?

Christopher A. Young
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..

"Christopher Tidy" wrote in message
...
Hi folks,

It's been a while since I visited this group. I have a couple of
questions. I have a large steel grassbox from a lawnmower, over 30"
wide, that I want to repair. There are some fatigue cracks in the box
from vibration, but the larger problem is rust holes in the bottom. I
don't have a MIG welder, so I want to repair it using stainless pop
rivets (for which I have the right tool).

Clearly the box has been repaired once before, and rusted through a
second time, but only in the bottom. Is it a dumb idea to think of
trying to repair the bottom with a sheet of 1 mm stainless, for
permanence? I have some cobalt drills that will make the holes, but
will SS sheet be so stiff that it'll be too hard to bend to shape
(right now, I don't have the stainless sheet). Also, is there any
advantage to using a thick backing washer with pop rivets, when it
comes to the vibration resistance of rivets used in sheet of this
thickness, or might it make things worse?

Best wishes,

Chris