Plastic Welding
 

Hello...been thinking about all the aero mods I can do, and comparing them with buying a body kit for my car...and I think I am going to make my own parts. Sounds more fun...maybe not any cheaper, but I can hope! :D

That said, I don't want it to look *too* frankensteinish...so I am thinking it is time to learn to weld plastic (mostly just ABS). Does anyone have any suggestions, especially on a good (inexpensive) welder and any good online tutorials to help. I have found a couple ones that seem pretty good:

https://www.plasticsmag.com/welding.a...ec-00&aid=3052

https://www.plasticweldingschool.org/...le-welding.php

here is a cheap plastic welder that I've often thought about getting;) . https://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=41592

it probably works better than a soldering iron or a magnifying glass on a sunny day:D.

Looks about like what I was also seeing on Ebay...ranging from about $40 to $80 including rods. I suppose the best way to start is just get one and start...what's the worst that can happen? :):thumbup:

I had the one from Harbor Freight. It worked fine, but I wrecked it 2x by setting it down to hard while it was still hot. It uses a heating element, sort of like a hair dryer and it gets red-white hot. I think when it's that hot the element must be extremely sensitive to any bumps. I didn't think I was being harsh in handling it, but I broke the element twice.

I don't know how well it works, I broke it before I really got a good test. It does melt the plastic, sort of similar to using an Aceylene torch.

Soldering iron works great for cutting plastic, with the sharp point it'll cut the plastic like butter, and with a little care you can do fine, detailed work with it. Used one to modify a grill to install 88-89 Chevy truck sealed beam headlights into my 96 Tahoe. Light output was far better with the individually aimed sealed beams than with the half-assed composite headlights with their cloudy lenses and preaimed brights that allowed you to either set the lows or the highs to be effective, but not both.

I've done a lot of plastic welding of polyethylene and PVC with just a heat gun with a narrowing tip on it.

I'm going to try to post an article on plastic welding in the article section. I haven't tried it yet but I have the components he recommends in the article.
John David

Couldn't figure it out. Anyone know how to post files in adobe acrobat format?
John David