Help! My Kerr Injectomatic II wax injector is leaking!
I moved it to a brand new workbench today. It was last lifted and
moved around about a month ago when it was emptied, cleaned, refilled
and a brand new nozzle assembly was installed. At that time the only
part that was leaking was the worn-out nozzle assembly. After the new
nozzle part was installed it seemed to be working fine.
When I lifted it today, I discovered that it’s been leaking wax out
of the bottom from the place where the temp gauge wire goes up into
the body. The wax had piled up on the bench top under the body but
hadn’t spilled out to where I could see it. When I tilted it back to
inspect the glob of hardened wax that’s stuck over the wire opening,
hot wax began to pour out from the lower seam between the black body
casing and the silver base.
There is a large nut in the center underneath the pot, but it
doesn’t seem loose. I haven’t pulled the glob of wax off of the wire
opening because right now the pot is still plugged in and hot, and
it’s not leaking from that spot right now.
I want to find out what might be wrong and if I can fix it myself
before I empty it out. I need it for a big casting job, and right now
it still works despite the evidence of recent leaking.
What’s around the other end of the wire that leads from the
temperature gauge? Is there a gasket there? A nut?
Has anyone ever had their wax injector start to leak like this? Can
it be fixed? (I hope so–I can’t afford a new one just now!)
I don’t have an assembly schematic for this thing. Does anyone have
one they could e-mail to me?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks Orchid, y’all
rock!
Kathy Johnson
Feathered Gems Jewelry
www.featheredgems.com
Kathy
Removing that large nut under the base plate will enable you to
remove the base plate from the outer shell of the injector. You will
likely have to do that to clean up the wax that has leaked. My guess
would be that the wax is leaking from the threads of the new injector
nozzle you just installed. If it is leaking, it would leak inside the
black casing and come down through any hole in the bottom plate. Did
you use something like teflon tape on the threads of the new
injection nozzle when you screwed it in? The threads should be sealed
to help against leaks and teflon tape works the best. If that is the
case, you will likely have to remove the nozzle, warm it up to remove
leaked wax, apply teflon tape to the threads and re-install it.
Good luck
Dave
Removing that large nut under the base plate will enable you to
remove the base plate from the outer shell of the injector. You
will likely have to do that to clean up the wax that has leaked. My
guess would be that the wax is leaking from the threads of the new
injector nozzle you just installed.
Dave, thank you. That appears to be exactly what the problem was.
When I got the base loosened up, the entire bottom of the wax injector
was full of partly-hardened wax–probably about a pound, I’d guess.
I couldn’t tell exactly where it was coming from because I didn’t
dissect it far enough to remove the black outer shell… That would
have required undoing the wiring for the knob and thermometer. I
didn’t want to mess with that.
But when I removed the nozzle, the threads (on which I had not put
Teflon tape) were covered with thick wax all the way up. I cleaned
the threads, got the wax all pulled out of the base, put Teflon tape
on the nozzle threads, put a new gasket around the pump (I think it
was a gasket that broke off when I pulled the base out–just in case I
put a gasket where whatever it was fell off) and reassembled it. I’m
proud of myself. I didn’t have any parts left over. :')
So far so good. It holds pressure when I pump it up. I put back only
the wax that I removed from it, and now I’m waiting for it to melt to
see if it still leaks.
Kathy Johnson
Feathered Gems Jewelry