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OT: Plastic welder

I said OT because I'm not really getting it for modeling, but you never know, :-) besides, we deal with plastic a lot. I ordered a plastic welder from Harbor Freight. I bought it for mending plastic stuff that breaks on household things where appearance is not all that necessary. The thing that is currently broken is a cheap outdoor spotlight. It works otherwise, but one of the spot adjusters cracked and that spot just dangles from the wires. I tried AC, plastic glue, and epoxy to no avail. I used to try to fix plastic things with glue, but if they needed hard handling, the glue wouldn't hold. I used to use a soldering iron to try to weld the pieces, but there wasn't enough plastic around the break to gather for the weld. This tool uses plastic rods and runs on AC and compressed air (?). Rods are not included but bought separately. I'll let you know if it is worth the money, and maybe find some modeling use for it.

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Reply to
willshak
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Wow. I've heard of scale color, but never scale pressure. :)

Reply to
the Legend of LAX

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Maybe it will work with scale models then. :-P

Reply to
willshak

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Plastic surgery?

Maybe only on fairly large models.... like, say, figures of Hermann Goering?

Reply to
Gernot Hassenpflug

I've had one in my airplane (real, full-size) repair shop for years. Depending upon the type of plastic & if it's gotten brittle from age (ABS is bad about that & is used in lots of small a/c fairings & tips) it works pretty well & under the right conditions & circumstances the repair can be made invisible. It works great on Polypropylene(?) ("milk jug plastic") I call it, where I don't think there's a glue that will work. The last time I used it was a year or so ago 'welding' a crack in a plastic 3 wheeler fender. Previously, all anyone could do was back it with sheet metal & repair with screws or rivets. It barely shows as it's under the seat mostly, but structurally is good as new.

On Jul 8, 10:33=A0am, willshak wrote:

Reply to
frank

"frank" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@2g2000prl.googlegroups.com...

I've had one in my airplane (real, full-size) repair shop for years. Depending upon the type of plastic & if it's gotten brittle from age (ABS is bad about that & is used in lots of small a/c fairings & tips) it works pretty well & under the right conditions & circumstances the repair can be made invisible. It works great on Polypropylene(?) ("milk jug plastic") I call it, where I don't think there's a glue that will work. The last time I used it was a year or so ago 'welding' a crack in a plastic 3 wheeler fender. Previously, all anyone could do was back it with sheet metal & repair with screws or rivets. It barely shows as it's under the seat mostly, but structurally is good as new.

On Jul 8, 10:33 am, willshak wrote:

I've needed one of these many, many times, but didn't know they existed. Thanks for bringing it to our attention Bill, I just ordered one for myself.

Doug

Reply to
Doug Wagner

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