Plastic welding
#1
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medium fast guy
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Joined: May 2008
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From: western MI, rust & pot hole capital of the world
Plastic welding
Has anyone had success with welding fairing plastic? I just bought a welder and am going to play around with it. It uses heated air to melt, and includes welding sticks for the various types of plastic. (poly, abs, etc) I am also looking for about 6 inches of the left fairing ear where the mirror attaches, if anyone has a piece they can provide, it would be appreciated. I'll let the group know how it goes, I may have stumbled onto a new career!
#2
I have a plastic welder, a little different then the one you have. It works O.K.. Make sure you clean everything and get everything hot enough to get a good bond. With your style that uses the hot air it is not a bad idea to pre-heat the area you are working on with a heat gun. I have gone away from plastic welding in favor of autobody adhesives for plastic that are easier to use and seem to hold up a lot better. But if a have a piece with a hole in it I do use the plastic welder because I can fill and then shape the hole afterwards.
#3
I had a neighbor who would get wrecked bikes and fix the plastics. He would press some wire mesh into the back with a soldering iron or similar before welding the plastic to make the joint stronger. If it's somewhere visible though, this may not be preferable. That's all I've got.
#5
The mesh idea works best for strenth. I had someone ride my bike & crash it with a new givi e45 on it. Several large pieces of the polyproplyne(sp) were punched right out. With the mesh(screen) method I rebuilt the missing areas & it was structuraly sound to use. I used the iron type welder that heats up & melts the rod as it passes through. You can use a soldering iron to heat & melt the mesh into the plastic. You can also get huge rolls of ABS or PPL welding rods cheap at McMasterCarr. It is good to practice on a test piece before you have at the real thing.
#6
I did some plastic welding on my fairings and found it to be a total pain in the ***. It worked and the fix came out strong. But I found it very hard not to burn through, warp the plastic, get bubbles, melt surround areas, adjust the air flow to make it any better, etc. But it turned out much stronger than superglue! And after some sanding/grinding/bondo/sanding/painting, it looks ok on the front side. Still looks nasty on the backside, but nobody's looking there.
I see why fiberglass stuff is better track use where crashing and repairing could be more common. I would much rather work with glass and resin than plastic welding.
I see why fiberglass stuff is better track use where crashing and repairing could be more common. I would much rather work with glass and resin than plastic welding.
#7
Best weld comes from using strips of the same plastic as you are welding (Honda Superhawk scraps to fix Superhawk).
Keep one hand touching the backside of your weld area and remove heat when it gets uncomfortably hot to avoid burn thru.
Keep one hand touching the backside of your weld area and remove heat when it gets uncomfortably hot to avoid burn thru.
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