Click here for a soldering iron---- amzn.to/2Uinwxg Click here for my website--- www.stevessmallenginesaloon.com/ Click here for my Parts and Tools Store---- www.amazon.com/shop/stevessmallenginesaloon
Steve great video by the way about soldering fuel plastic tanks..would you also recommend using a bit of epoxy resin for fiberglass after a plastic weld been done on it..for some one that doesn't do it very often..
Thank you Steve for your common sense approach after trying many different repair methods and seeing what works and lasts for plastic type gas fuel tanks! Try carb cleaner or acetone to draw the contamination out of the crack/defect to get it cleaner. One tip I read about was to preheat the repair area with hot-air gun. This I think will help in sweating out the defect/crack contaminants and also as in metal welding make the plastic more acceptable to the concentrated heat zone. The cleaner the better your repair! I cut up clean milk jugs into strips to use as raw filler and the red caps for use on gas jugs. There is a symbol and usually a recycle code that will tell you what your plastic source is made from. HDPE is pretty common, look on your different products stored in plastic to understand more of the chemicals and solvents it has a safe use with. Use similar materials, I have the neck of my mower gas tank shear off from being too thin. I will be laying in milk jug material and metal mesh screen layers to build the neck back thicker to support the cap twisting. It is over a hundred bucks to replace the gas tank, which I have done before, so that for now is going to be my path forward in repair. I bought an inexpensive electric plastic welding kit from HF. HDPE Polyethylene Semi-flexible, melts & smears when grinding, usually semi-translucent, waxy or greasy feel. Overflow tanks, inner fender panels, water storage tanks, gas tanks, kayaks, canoes, playground equipment. Method AW-1 or N2-1 with high density polyethylene rod (R12 series). Link to plastics information and how to tips and videos: www.polyvance.com/identify.php
If you check out the videos on you tube of people repairing cracks on plastic kayaks/canoes, you'll find they all use hot air guns. This method stops the plastic burning and producing the black scab that Steve had here but Steve's method shown in this video does work and it does produce a permanent fix. Thumbs up!!!
Good video, but I recommend using soldering station instead of just iron, so you can lower the temperature, so you don't burn that plastic to become black, because burnt plastic becomes more brittle.
Steve, you are bang on about the Seal-All. Used it on my cracked weed eater tank and it lasted for a good while, then started leaking again. It’s a Tanaka and the tank is no longer available. I know what I will be doing this spring... beer in hand of course! 🍺
There's nothing stopping you or anyone from giving Steve a substantial donation, say, $25 - $50 +, for saving you quite a bit of money, which is far less than it would of cost you at a pro-shop. C'mon Kenny and guys, unlock that wallet and make a one-time donation right now, while you're reading this before you forget, OK! And, Steve, thanks for all your hard work creating these informative videos, saving us lots of money!
GREAT REPAIR‼ Its a good day when I start it out by learning something new 🛠..... P.S. I just did the research and found plastic gas tanks are made from high density polyethylene (HDPE) so are detergent bottles, i.r. filler material. Skoal 🍺
Thanks a lot for the info. My 17yr old snapper generator gas tank developed a pin hole at the top. Needless to say I can't get parts for it. Took me 5 minutes from start to finish to fix it. Beats buying one of those chinese universal tanks. Thanks again
This Is a great video. Genius fix! Love this. It is a technique I’ll remember forever. Have you ever tried brake cleaner, or polymer safe firearm blaster on the oily part first. It cleans firearms very well and removes all the old oil. I’d bet it would work very quickly and well here. It might even eliminate the sanding step. This is a video I’m sharing and I’ll recommend your channel to everyone I know!!!
Thanks a million. I live in Central America and have no source for parts for my very old weed eater. It worked like a charm. I didn't have a soldering iron so I used a nail and a Sterno. Us gals can fix stuff too!! with a beer :)
another good trick, watch for the surplus of hand sanitizer being thrown out, i got 2 gals. free and have made alcohol lamps out of the jelly canning jars with a hole in the lid and a small amount of medical gauze as a wick, diy sterno
Nice fix, Steve. I like the old White-plastic Stihl tanks, because you could fix those with JB-Weld. These semi-clear nylon tanks are more difficult to repair. Your method works great.
Good job Steve.. Love that you had a beer with you.. Im an engineer an work a lot with PE-welding, mostly with electrofittings.. After every welding there is a cooling-off period before you can manipulate/stress the place you have welded.. I strongly suggest that you allow yourself, to finish your beer and maybe even have another one, before you move on further with your checks and refilling the tank😀👍🏻
Interesting repair, the comments were interesting. I have successfully used JB weld for steel before on a chainsaw gas tank that worked fine for years then I sold it.
Good fix Steve. That technique also will work on handheld pump sprayers too. Like the ones you use to spray weed killer or insecticides. The plastic on those are pretty thick also, and will take well to this technique.
@@StevesSmallEngineSaloon i have 5 tanks because all my pumps give out due to bleach. I'd like to know how to fix that, Tractor Supply won't just sell me the pump. Anyone want to buy a 1.3 gallon tank for shipping, aka free?
The Harbor Freight/Princess Auto cheezy plastic welder works too. It comes with 3 different types of plastic to match your project to use as filler. Thanks Steve.
A couple of tips. Make sure you sand the repair area fully and make sure the soldering iron tip is clean before melting the plastic as you will transfer the black bits and into the plastic. A large flat head tip is easier to use on the soldering iron. I bought a cheap soldering iron just for doing plastic repairs. I normally take the fuel tank off, empty the fuel out, remove the tank and flush it out with water and leave to dry before starting the plastic welding. The tanks I have repaired have been made with ptfe, white plastic milk cartons are made out of the same material and create a solid repair that does not leak and looks like the original white tank. You can cut them into strips and melt them easily as a filler material to build up the thickness.😀
I was just wondering what whitish clear plastic will I find that will match my paramotor fuel tank and BOOM you answered my question. Gonna try this. Gracias senior
Thanx Steve, another great video! I’ve had to order new tanks before and that would put my machine out of commission till the tank came in and then I got time to remove the cracked one and install new one! Again your video will save me time and money!
Just a little extra for strength. Cut a piece of wire screen or mesh, like from a kitchen strainer or spark arrestor, slightly larger than the crack. Place that on the melted plastic then work it on all around. I do this for repairs on plastic kayaks. Works great and is strong as hell.
You can buy a "plastic" welder at Harbor Freight. Only same type of plastic will stick to each other. More than likely that gas tank is Type 2 HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene). Most milk jugs are HDPE so just cut and use a piece of it.
Good video , also I've used pieces of an old tank to use as filler. We always seem to have a few tanks laying around not in use anymore !!!!! :-) Cheers!
@@schlomoshekelstein908 Not the same type of plastic, I've actually tried to store veggie oil in milk containers, the oil attacks the plastic and they will leak within a few months. I'd imagine petrol with oil in it would be worse.
Most fuel tanks are HPDE plastic the same as milk jugs. So milk jugs are a good source of plastic for plastic welding. Though match the recycling numbers if at all possible.
Aahhhh! Good ol milk jugs are more useful than the nippled kind. When cut to potato chip size wafers and heated in toaster oven, they can be molded to make mallets, bike chain guides, reinforce stuff, dildos etc. Still prefer nippled tho.
HDPE is high density polyethylene, zip ties and line trimmer cord are nylon - no way they will fuse together. The milk jug idea should work, i am going to find an old fuel tank and try it. By the way, hdpe doesn't break down with fuel so hence they make fuel containers out of it.
Fuel tank is probably polyethylene, most likely high density polyethylene (HDPE). Cable ties are nylon. You are correct, the dissimilar plastics don't bond well. Many things are made of polyethylene - milk jugs come to mind. You might be able to find a compatible plastic from common materials. You can also buy plastic welding rods that would probably work.
I know that others on here are having success, but my crack was across the same that was already welded on a push lawn mower tank. They were two cracks running across that joint and then cracks curved out and snaked around an inch or so in each direction beyond there. I had lots of curve surfaces to work with and I am proved the condition of the leak but I don't believe that I've got it fully fixed. I also ran into some trouble because I couldn't find my good soldering iron, and the old one is junk. I tried a wood burning kit that I have which seems to go to 950F and I felt like I was burning more the plastic than I was melting it. So it became hard to soften up and scoop into the trough. Hot glue guns, Even the high temp variety or less than 400F so that's struggling to melt the plastic.. My plan is to put the thing back together and look for a new fuel tank on Amazon so that when this begins to leak too much again I can replace it completely
Always gold Steve!! I did the same thing on a Grillo ride-on tank a few years back but I cut excess plastic from the tank to use as filler material. That was about 6 years ago now. Not a single leak since.
If you had an old tank you could cut small strips of the plastic and use that as filler. It also looked like the temperature of the iron was too high which contributed to the black burned plastic. But it worked and I believe you’re correct that it is permanent. Great video always interesting.
I used to work at a winery/brewery and the owner used to have me "weld" up the cracks in the 300 gallon fermentation tanks in a similar fashion. Worked perfectly on most of the tanks. Thanks for the quality infotainment again my friend.
A good reason to SAVE that junk tank you were going to throw away. Use it for filler on another one. It's amazing , nothing sticks to this shit but its self.
Hi Steve. What I would do is shave a very small sliver from the filler hole and do what you did to the tank using that little strip to fill in the trough. Plastics will weld together if they are the same plastic. I think that is polyethylene so strips from a milk jug should work as well. Try it and let me know if it works. That way you are not thinning the wall but simply filling in the trough.
Good work Steve . I have done auto body work for over 30 yr. and used to repair damaged battery with the same tools but I used a paddle blade on the heat gun to v out the crack then smooth over the top. Works great and keep up the good work.
Ive tryed JB Weld, as others have suggested in the past, but it doesnt last. It will delaminate! Tried zip ties, doesnt stick! The thing i have found that seems to work if you need filler, is the plastic from windshield washer fluid jug. It melts in and really bonds well! It was the only way i fixed my tank last summer...
@Oops Oops I bought the JB Weld quick setting. And within a week or so, it literally peeled off! I cleaned the area really well and sanded the plastic first. I tried again, and it did the same thing...was thinking maybe the 2 stroke oil breaks it down? Cause i used it to repair a bad sending unit on a car years back, and it never had an issue.
It doesn't if you do it right.You didn't do it right that's why it came off. Back in '94 or '95 all there was regular JB Weld... Gotta open up a hole large enough JB can be push through to the other side. Then sand around the area to scuff it up but try to keep it small.Apply the JB and make sure to push it through the hole also,let it set a couple min till a slight skin forms then apply it to the inside and make sure to smear it around again staying small. Done right you'll never have another problem.....been 24-25 yrs now bouncing around in truck beds,on skidders and dropped a lot of times and my 2077's tank hasn't leaked again. The long crack like he had in the vid I would have made a hole at each end of that crack.That also helps from the crack wanting to expand further.
Probably for another video but.....if you have a cracked plastic piece that doesn't hold any fluids, you can fix it with stainless steel mesh and a soldering GUN with a flat tip.
Yep, looks good. That's how I do it but I lower the temperature of that soldering iron a little so that you don't create so much black carbon in the plastic. You just want to melt the plastic, not burn it. Overall thumbs up, way to be.
I use a variac to lower the voltage to 75 - 85 VAC for the iron, i.e., just below the plastic's charring temperature. With a little experimentation you'll find the right settings for your project. For 1/16" or thicker plastics during the welding process you can also add short lengths of bare fine wire (#26 to #30, etc.), imbedded across the crack at the surface. This is a highly effective technique especially for repairing acrylics. For example a ¼" thick, 6-inch broken off corner was reattached, in addition to solvent welding, using fine wires on both sides of the cracks, staggered so they weren't opposite each other. The project has been in service for several years without breaking again. If you don't like the aesthetics then there's always the scrap bin and buying a replacement.
I discovered that preheating the area with a heat gun on low makes it repair so much easier. I tried it on an old Tecumseh tank today and found that a couple of the smaller cracks pretty much repaired themselves when the heat gun got everything nice and mushy.
Good ideas, but the plastic the tank is made of plastic that melts very easy with a HEAT GUN. So SIMPLY HEAT MELT AND SPREAD, takes about 2 minutes and no preparing. Done. 🤔💭
Yah das is de vay vey do it too. Lots of snapps and little vork means more drink and less virk! Ve hose de kustomer plenty anyvey! Up in de Canadian nord! Right Steve?
Great video! But I'm not clear on how to crack the tank so I have a believable excuse to drink beer in the garage next time my wife wants me to hang pictures. Would you recommend stepping on the tank or using a hammer?
I would suggest a lower temp on your soldering iron. You are burning plastic as you go. If you don't have an adjustable soldering iron you might consider using a DIY light dimmer switch setup to get lower temps on the iron.
Watch out for fuel vapor. Fuel in a fluid state is relatively incombustible. It needs to be mixed with oxygen, as a vapor, exactly like what you will find in a totally EMPTY tank. The soldering iron is probably just below ignition temperature, but who knows how close. Short story. One mechanic I worked with tried to bronze braze a VW metal fuel tank with a pinhole leak. The tank came from the junkyard and had been open and lying in the sun for at least 5 years or so. BOOM! It opened up like a flower and threw him backward 30 feet. He was lucky and only had minor injuries. Moral: be extremely paranoid of ALL fuel tanks, especially EMPTY ones...
Piece of plastic bucket in toaster oven on tin foil at °450, heat gun on gas tank till about 450 (shiny). Lay the patch on gas tank, will never leak. Love your videos!
So bear with me. I’m an engineer but not a welding expert. But the reason a foreign plastic won’t bond properly is probably wrong application and wrong type of plastic. What you have done successfully here is “welded” the crack back by using same material and melding both the “filler material” and the base material. That makes continuous polymer chains across the crack the same way welding makes continuous metal grain across a weld. Just melting new plastic onto the crack would be more like brazing, where a melted material is applied to a hardened material and they “stick”, but like brazing it’s more of a glue than a weld- no continuous chain is formed. Using a like material will build better chains too, that’s why using the local material will probably always work the best. Next best and possibly equally well for newer tanks (less altered by years of petroleum working its way into the polymer chains) would be new material of the same kind- as a guy mentioned below HDPE. This is “black pipe” used for natural gas and water lines pretty often. They make “welding rods” of it too, for joining it by hand, similar to TIG method. If you’re near an oil and gas supply store, check in and see if they have any for high quality virgin material. A small piece of HDPE pipe might be available at one of the big home improvement stores as well. Lastly as the same guy said below you may try plastics found at home marked HDPE, but be sure that they’re very clean, and I would recommend trying to stick to containers that were not originally used for petroleum products. Good work, and I love that you measure project time in beers! Though I feel like if the project needs more than two beer hours you may have to break it up or risk doing it over? At least in my experience lol
Great fix Steve. The tank for my mower is discontinued, I will be doing these shortly. My dad “fixed” it last year with rocker panel spray, and well.... we all know how that turned out!! Thank you, reminds me of a stir welding technique.
Well ... your instructions were so good that I forgot to open my beer and it was still cold when I finished fixing the tank. Guess I'll just sip on that beer and admire my handy work, Right?
Wow Steve... My gas trimmer might have new life afterall... The tank started leaking and I just put it away for 10 years now. Think the tank is dry enough now?? HaHa. Now my battery trimmer has dead NiCad batteries so I found YOU. I'm hopeful!! But can I find my soldering iron... BTW is it pronounced "SOD-err" or "SOLE der?"
I did exactly what Steve said on a Toro petrol tank costing £220 to replace new. The repair was so easy to do with stunning results. Milk carton worked like dream. Thanks Steve .
I just put a new chain on my power saw. and... several times the chain will catch on the log or board I'm cutting. it's like the chain is bitting in too much. before I touch wood, I rev the engine so the chain is moving first. when I touch the log or board first, and pull the trigger.; it wants to yank the saw out of my hands or the piece of wood rides up the chain. could depth gauges be too shallow.
If you knew the plastic composition of the Sthil gas tank you can find plastic welding rod kits that come with an assortment of different kinds of plastic. They are usually color coded and with some experimentation you can find the right one for the type of plastic Sthil uses for their tank. But I agree that just melting what is already there is an easier fix.
What you're doing is called plastic welding. It's become a commonly used way of repairing plastic. Harbor Freight makes a kit that recently cost me about $16. It's not a high quality tool but works. I used it to repair a hole in an RV water tank the I created to get at something inside the tank. The opening was at least a half inch wide. The kit comes with the welding plastic "rods" and stainless steel matting (screen) to reinforce repair areas. Worked fine. After trying silicone, goop, etc. - all of which peeled off. Like J Morrow (below) says it's best to use identical plastic for the repair if you need to add material. Most plastics are labeled. Perhaps as important is to melt enough material to thoroughly mix the melted material together. It's not really simply laying one material on another it's combining the two materials.
I've got a 35 year old windshield washer tank form a classic Mini Cooper wit ha crack. To replace this tank will be $100 CAD plus shipping, taxes, duty and brokerage. So I've tried to do some plastic welding, using HDPE plastic from old oil bottles. So far not successful as I think my soldering gun (old Weller pistol style) ain't getting hot enough. It doesn't melt like Steve's did here, with the plastic almost instantly going black. So will try again with something better....
Welding works. It is best to use the original plastic. Tanks are HDPE, 4 in the recycling symbol. The alcohol container you used is HDPE, with a 4 in the symbol. It melts at 460F degrees so if you can control the heat that would be good.
As usual, great video and legit fix. I'm surprised you didn't clean the soldering iron tip though. Also, that's at least a 2 beer fix at normal consumption rates. Cheers!
Gonna try this myself my gas tank on my 2010 John Deere LA175 is over 400$ cause it has a 54 inch deck! It's absolutely ridiculous and I'm doing everything I can not to buy one 😂
Steve. I sealed my outboard plastic gas tank by melting more plastic from a weed wacker tank. (not saying anyone else do this but after filling and emptying gas tank when spotting leaks my pump broke so I left tank full. Using plastic welder from Harbor Freight I "cauterized the leaks" with gas in tank cap on. no flames or explosions.) question: now that it doesn't leak I'd like to coat whole tank outside to prevent further cracks. any ideas?
Bondic® - The Liquid Plastic Welder I have had success with this but mechanically gouged the crack instead of melting. benefit it was it was all cold temp.
Great video. I have a FS86 that I have seal a few cracks using your method, but I have also found two good tanks for it for that day the crack is to large. Tanks are rare, so are the grommets. So hopefully the grommets are still good, my question is: is there a specific size of a fuel line to be used. Thanks.
Steve in my case I have a relatively new Maruyama B27 Turbo that leaks where the plastic tank manufacturer has melded this 2 piece tank together. I suspect that there's a manufacturer defect as this is my 2nd tank failure in 2 years. Fortunately, it's still under Warranty. The seam has multiple leaks. I don't abuse my weed trimmer at all. Never had an issue with my Shindaiwas.
Steve, You have save me so much money. I have all Stihl equipment I just would like to thank you. I thought it's about time for me to subscriber You helped me I am help you. Thanks
I think the main reason of foriegn plastic not bonding prpoerly is because of the 2cycle oil mix gas. the oil has penetratated the plasic . even if you clean th plastic with alchol 90 percent you would be better off cleaning with acetone . . Im fixing to just do that here in the next hour and will let everyone know the results. but yes using the same plastic that is on the tank would be a very common sense solution to that problem also .but will see jhow my fix goesll be using a soldering gun run on map gas.. oh I wont forget to clean the tankl out first.. lo
Click here for a soldering iron---- amzn.to/2Uinwxg
Click here for my website--- www.stevessmallenginesaloon.com/
Click here for my Parts and Tools Store---- www.amazon.com/shop/stevessmallenginesaloon
Steve great video by the way about soldering fuel plastic tanks..would you also recommend using a bit of epoxy resin for fiberglass after a plastic weld been done on it..for some one that doesn't do it very often..
Thank you Steve for your common sense approach after trying many different repair methods and seeing what works and lasts for plastic type gas fuel tanks!
Try carb cleaner or acetone to draw the contamination out of the crack/defect to get it cleaner.
One tip I read about was to preheat the repair area with hot-air gun. This I think will help in sweating out the defect/crack contaminants and also as in metal welding make the plastic more acceptable to the concentrated heat zone. The cleaner the better your repair!
I cut up clean milk jugs into strips to use as raw filler and the red caps for use on gas jugs. There is a symbol and usually a recycle code that will tell you what your plastic source is made from. HDPE is pretty common, look on your different products stored in plastic to understand more of the chemicals and solvents it has a safe use with.
Use similar materials, I have the neck of my mower gas tank shear off from being too thin. I will be laying in milk jug material and metal mesh screen layers to build the neck back thicker to support the cap twisting. It is over a hundred bucks to replace the gas tank, which I have done before, so that for now is going to be my path forward in repair. I bought an inexpensive electric plastic welding kit from HF.
HDPE Polyethylene
Semi-flexible, melts & smears when grinding, usually semi-translucent, waxy or greasy feel. Overflow tanks, inner fender panels, water storage tanks, gas tanks, kayaks, canoes, playground equipment.
Method AW-1 or N2-1 with high density polyethylene rod (R12 series).
Link to plastics information and how to tips and videos:
www.polyvance.com/identify.php
Just get a new tank . Forget about this. Its a fire hazard waiting to happen 💣⏰️💥
If you check out the videos on you tube of people repairing cracks on plastic kayaks/canoes, you'll find they all use hot air guns. This method stops the plastic burning and producing the black scab that Steve had here but Steve's method shown in this video does work and it does produce a permanent fix. Thumbs up!!!
Thank You...
Thank you for this info: it worked for me and kept me from throwing away a perfectly good gas can!
Good video, but I recommend using soldering station instead of just iron, so you can lower the temperature, so you don't burn that plastic to become black, because burnt plastic becomes more brittle.
what's that?
@@davidedwards8282 basically soldering iron with temperature setting
@@Gyrxiur Harbor Freight sells a good one
Steve, you are bang on about the Seal-All. Used it on my cracked weed eater tank and it lasted for a good while, then started leaking again. It’s a Tanaka and the tank is no longer available. I know what I will be doing this spring... beer in hand of course! 🍺
Right on
U know Steve, you should be receiving a lot more money from u-tube! U have saved me quite a bit of money! Thanks sir! I'm going to try it now!!
Right on Kenny....
There's nothing stopping you or anyone from giving Steve a substantial donation, say, $25 - $50 +, for saving you quite a bit of money, which is far less than it would of cost you at a pro-shop. C'mon Kenny and guys, unlock that wallet and make a one-time donation right now, while you're reading this before you forget, OK! And, Steve, thanks for all your hard work creating these informative videos, saving us lots of money!
@@jimbeaver3426 Well said!! I didn't need any repair. I just heard he was fun to drink beer with🤣🤣🤣
Thank You sir, steve tomorrow i gonna try this process to fix my Motorcycle Plastic tank.
All kinds of these videos on youtube from years ago, make sure you donate to the right guy.
I am borrowing a 660 from a buddy. It has a cracked tank, somewhat common I guess, going yo fix it for him.
Thanks Steve.
Good luck!
GREAT REPAIR‼ Its a good day when I start it out by learning something new 🛠..... P.S. I just did the research and found plastic gas tanks are made from high density polyethylene (HDPE) so are detergent bottles, i.r. filler material. Skoal 🍺
Right on Rich...
Thanks a lot for the info. My 17yr old snapper generator gas tank developed a pin hole at the top. Needless to say I can't get parts for it. Took me 5 minutes from start to finish to fix it. Beats buying one of those chinese universal tanks. Thanks again
Glad it helped
This Is a great video. Genius fix! Love this. It is a technique I’ll remember forever.
Have you ever tried brake cleaner, or polymer safe firearm blaster on the oily part first. It cleans firearms very well and removes all the old oil. I’d bet it would work very quickly and well here. It might even eliminate the sanding step.
This is a video I’m sharing and I’ll recommend your channel to everyone I know!!!
Great tip! Thank You...and You're Welcome...
Steve you’ve changed my opinion on taking on small engine repairs I’ve saved several products most have been two beer repairs. Thank you!
Good to hear
" if it takes two beers I ain't judging" LOL.
But i drank 2 beers in the same time. Steve, lift your game matey !!. lol.
I used this fix today and it 100% worked. Thanks, Steve!
You're Welcome...
Thanks a million. I live in Central America and have no source for parts for my very old weed eater. It worked like a charm. I didn't have a soldering iron so I used a nail and a Sterno. Us gals can fix stuff too!! with a beer :)
Propane torch and an old screwdriver will work too, nice flat tool to even it out with.
another good trick, watch for the surplus of hand sanitizer being thrown out, i got 2 gals. free and have made alcohol lamps out of the jelly canning jars with a hole in the lid and a small amount of medical gauze as a wick, diy sterno
And if you run out of beer, you can filter the Sterno through a rag and drink it! Desperate times demand desperate measures! Ha!
Nice fix, Steve. I like the old White-plastic Stihl tanks, because you could fix those with JB-Weld. These semi-clear nylon tanks are more difficult to repair. Your method works great.
Right on Brother...
Good job Steve.. Love that you had a beer with you.. Im an engineer an work a lot with PE-welding, mostly with electrofittings.. After every welding there is a cooling-off period before you can manipulate/stress the place you have welded.. I strongly suggest that you allow yourself, to finish your beer and maybe even have another one, before you move on further with your checks and refilling the tank😀👍🏻
Agreed. And type of beer can make all the difference, but as long as it's cold, might not make as much difference. If one is good, two even better. 🍺🍻
Interesting repair, the comments were interesting. I have successfully used JB weld for steel before on a chainsaw gas tank that worked fine for years then I sold it.
Good fix Steve. That technique also will work on handheld pump sprayers too. Like the ones you use to spray weed killer or insecticides. The plastic on those are pretty thick also, and will take well to this technique.
Great tip Ralph! Thank You...
@@StevesSmallEngineSaloon i have 5 tanks because all my pumps give out due to bleach. I'd like to know how to fix that, Tractor Supply won't just sell me the pump. Anyone want to buy a 1.3 gallon tank for shipping, aka free?
@@StevesSmallEngineSaloon what is the main problem that's causing a lawnmower engine not to start easily when it becomes hot ? Thanks
The Harbor Freight/Princess Auto cheezy plastic welder works too. It comes with 3 different types of plastic to match your project to use as filler. Thanks Steve.
A couple of tips. Make sure you sand the repair area fully and make sure the soldering iron tip is clean before melting the plastic as you will transfer the black bits and into the plastic. A large flat head tip is easier to use on the soldering iron. I bought a cheap soldering iron just for doing plastic repairs.
I normally take the fuel tank off, empty the fuel out, remove the tank and flush it out with water and leave to dry before starting the plastic welding. The tanks I have repaired have been made with ptfe, white plastic milk cartons are made out of the same material and create a solid repair that does not leak and looks like the original white tank. You can cut them into strips and melt them easily as a filler material to build up the thickness.😀
I was just wondering what whitish clear plastic will I find that will match my paramotor fuel tank and BOOM you answered my question. Gonna try this. Gracias senior
PTFE is Teflon and milk jugs are made of HDPE (High-Density PolyEthylene) and most plastic fuel tanks are made from HDPE.
Good suggestion on the flat-tipped soldering iron!
Thanks!
@@JOESOLDROCK No problem mate, glad to help.😀
Thanx Steve, another great video! I’ve had to order new tanks before and that would put my machine out of commission till the tank came in and then I got time to remove the cracked one and install new one! Again your video will save me time and money!
Right on Tim....
: "Really polish that crack up the best as you can."
Best line ever!
Salad dressing?
Uh huh...
woof woof
I guess we all need to go to Poland for this fix!
He has great lines, he should use them on t-shirts no cap
Great tip Steve! With your method, I was able to fix the $75 tank on my trimmer. Thanks!
You're Welcome...
Just a little extra for strength. Cut a piece of wire screen or mesh, like from a kitchen strainer or spark arrestor, slightly larger than the crack. Place that on the melted plastic then work it on all around. I do this for repairs on plastic kayaks. Works great and is strong as hell.
that’s bang tidy Steve - awesome tip 👍🏻 no one would ever know you’d filled that crack with your soldering tool 😳
Aaaargh!
Melted plastic smells like Toronto
Thanks Steve .....
You can buy a "plastic" welder at Harbor Freight. Only same type of plastic will stick to each other. More than likely that gas tank is Type 2 HDPE (High-Density Polyethylene). Most milk jugs are HDPE so just cut and use a piece of it.
Awesome. I would have used foreign plastic. Great idea
Thank you! Cheers!
Good video , also I've used pieces of an old tank to use as filler. We always seem to have a few tanks laying around not in use anymore !!!!! :-) Cheers!
Thank You...
what's the pplastic used? maybe old milk jugs are the same plastic i'm thinking?
@@schlomoshekelstein908 Not the same type of plastic, I've actually tried to store veggie oil in milk containers, the oil attacks the plastic and they will leak within a few months. I'd imagine petrol with oil in it would be worse.
Steve you’re the man. Thanks for are your videos.
My pleasure
Most fuel tanks are HPDE plastic the same as milk jugs. So milk jugs are a good source of plastic for plastic welding. Though match the recycling numbers if at all possible.
*hdpe= high density polyethylene. That Google full auto semi word correction struck again ¬.^
Aahhhh! Good ol milk jugs are more useful than the nippled kind. When cut to potato chip size wafers and heated in toaster oven, they can be molded to make mallets, bike chain guides, reinforce stuff, dildos etc. Still prefer nippled tho.
HDPE is high density polyethylene, zip ties and line trimmer cord are nylon - no way they will fuse together. The milk jug idea should work, i am going to find an old fuel tank and try it. By the way, hdpe doesn't break down with fuel so hence they make fuel containers out of it.
Zooknz let me know how that goes. I may be doing that later today.
DANimalicious Dude this comment is A+. Much appreciated.
Gotta love those banquets man!!! Good video
Thank You...
At 4:55 “the next thing we want to do is prepare that crack” 😜😜
You are the man. Thanks!!
Glad to help
Fuel tank is probably polyethylene, most likely high density polyethylene (HDPE). Cable ties are nylon. You are correct, the dissimilar plastics don't bond well. Many things are made of polyethylene - milk jugs come to mind. You might be able to find a compatible plastic from common materials. You can also buy plastic welding rods that would probably work.
I know that others on here are having success, but my crack was across the same that was already welded on a push lawn mower tank. They were two cracks running across that joint and then cracks curved out and snaked around an inch or so in each direction beyond there. I had lots of curve surfaces to work with and I am proved the condition of the leak but I don't believe that I've got it fully fixed. I also ran into some trouble because I couldn't find my good soldering iron, and the old one is junk. I tried a wood burning kit that I have which seems to go to 950F and I felt like I was burning more the plastic than I was melting it. So it became hard to soften up and scoop into the trough. Hot glue guns, Even the high temp variety or less than 400F so that's struggling to melt the plastic.. My plan is to put the thing back together and look for a new fuel tank on Amazon so that when this begins to leak too much again I can replace it completely
Always gold Steve!! I did the same thing on a Grillo ride-on tank a few years back but I cut excess plastic from the tank to use as filler material. That was about 6 years ago now. Not a single leak since.
Right on Buddy....
Nice fix. Have you ever tried Universal cement that is used to glue dissimilar plastic pipe?
I have also done this with a 10” 3/8 “ Nail Spike. Heat up the spike with a Torch while holding on to the spike with Vise Grips.
After sanding I use e6000 glue with a very small piece of screen mesh and done no more leaks.
If you had an old tank you could cut small strips of the plastic and use that as filler. It also looked like the temperature of the iron was too high which contributed to the black burned plastic.
But it worked and I believe you’re correct that it is permanent.
Great video always interesting.
Right on Andy...
How do you fix fuel leaking from the holes of the tank for the fuel lines?
I used to work at a winery/brewery and the owner used to have me "weld" up the cracks in the 300 gallon fermentation tanks in a similar fashion. Worked perfectly on most of the tanks. Thanks for the quality infotainment again my friend.
You're Welcome...
Stubby Coors cheers!
Thank You...
A good reason to SAVE that junk tank you were going to throw away. Use it for filler on another one. It's amazing , nothing sticks to this shit but its self.
didn't have a soldering iron, so i used my Lincoln 230amp arc welder. With luck, will be out of the hospital in a week or 2.
Geez, hope your friends can still recognize you.
Hi Steve. What I would do is shave a very small sliver from the filler hole and do what you did to the tank using that little strip to fill in the trough. Plastics will weld together if they are the same plastic. I think that is polyethylene so strips from a milk jug should work as well. Try it and let me know if it works. That way you are not thinning the wall but simply filling in the trough.
Good work Steve . I have done auto body work for over 30 yr. and used to repair damaged battery with the same tools but I used a paddle blade on the heat gun to v out the crack then smooth over the top. Works great and keep up the good work.
Thank You...
Will do this on my RM250 dirtbike tank. Thanks !!
Good luck!
Nice!! jUST gety it hot and melt it haahaa rad I will do that!@
appreciate it
Thank you for the straight forward easy guidance on this type of repair. Very helpful
You're Welcome...
Do you have a tried and true method for repairing steel fuel tanks and more importantly which beer should I use when repairing steel tanks?
Ive tryed JB Weld, as others have suggested in the past, but it doesnt last. It will delaminate!
Tried zip ties, doesnt stick!
The thing i have found that seems to work if you need filler, is the plastic from windshield washer fluid jug. It melts in and really bonds well! It was the only way i fixed my tank last summer...
I have also used JBweld to repair a gas tank, the steel epoxy one not the plastic one. And it worked great and never leaked.
@Oops Oops
I bought the JB Weld quick setting. And within a week or so, it literally peeled off! I cleaned the area really well and sanded the plastic first. I tried again, and it did the same thing...was thinking maybe the 2 stroke oil breaks it down? Cause i used it to repair a bad sending unit on a car years back, and it never had an issue.
It doesn't if you do it right.You didn't do it right that's why it came off.
Back in '94 or '95 all there was regular JB Weld...
Gotta open up a hole large enough JB can be push through to the other side.
Then sand around the area to scuff it up but try to keep it small.Apply the JB and make sure to push it through the hole also,let it set a couple min till a slight skin forms then apply it to the inside and make sure to smear it around again staying small.
Done right you'll never have another problem.....been 24-25 yrs now bouncing around in truck beds,on skidders and dropped a lot of times and my 2077's tank hasn't leaked again.
The long crack like he had in the vid I would have made a hole at each end of that crack.That also helps from the crack wanting to expand further.
You need to visit Lou's saloon in corpus christi ,Texas...
I used this idea on my coleman canoe and its been 20 years and no leaks yet
Right on Buddy....
Probably for another video but.....if you have a cracked plastic piece that doesn't hold any fluids, you can fix it with stainless steel mesh and a soldering GUN with a flat tip.
Great work Steve, a fix that works and will last. Just be careful as the fumes off the plastic are bad to breathe.
Yep, looks good. That's how I do it but I lower the temperature of that soldering iron a little so that you don't create so much black carbon in the plastic. You just want to melt the plastic, not burn it. Overall thumbs up, way to be.
Thank You...
I use a variac to lower the voltage to 75 - 85 VAC for the iron, i.e., just below the plastic's charring temperature. With a little experimentation you'll find the right settings for your project. For 1/16" or thicker plastics during the welding process you can also add short lengths of bare fine wire (#26 to #30, etc.), imbedded across the crack at the surface. This is a highly effective technique especially for repairing acrylics. For example a ¼" thick, 6-inch broken off corner was reattached, in addition to solvent welding, using fine wires on both sides of the cracks, staggered so they weren't opposite each other. The project has been in service for several years without breaking again. If you don't like the aesthetics then there's always the scrap bin and buying a replacement.
I discovered that preheating the area with a heat gun on low makes it repair so much easier. I tried it on an old Tecumseh tank today and found that a couple of the smaller cracks pretty much repaired themselves when the heat gun got everything nice and mushy.
Great idea
Good ideas, but the plastic the tank is made of plastic that melts very easy with a HEAT GUN. So SIMPLY HEAT MELT AND SPREAD, takes about 2 minutes and no preparing. Done. 🤔💭
In Finland we are doing most of the fixes with a bottle of vodka. Dont get anything fixed, only end up to do more damages 🙄.
Must be Finlandia !
Yah das is de vay vey do it too. Lots of snapps and little vork means more drink and less virk! Ve hose de kustomer plenty anyvey! Up in de Canadian nord! Right Steve?
Don’t forget in Canada de tax you collect all goes to paying off the debt. Ha. Ha. Right Steve?
Great video! But I'm not clear on how to crack the tank so I have a believable excuse to drink beer in the garage next time my wife wants me to hang pictures. Would you recommend stepping on the tank or using a hammer?
I really like this tip Steve thanks! I wonder if a shot of brake cleaner would be useful to clean out the oil from the crack before melting?
Good idea Steve, will try a Coors Lite or 2 hope it will work for me.
Your right, I finished 1 beer while you did that repair Steve. I would most likely started to look for replacement tank, good video.
Thank You...
I would suggest a lower temp on your soldering iron. You are burning plastic as you go. If you don't have an adjustable soldering iron you might consider using a DIY light dimmer switch setup to get lower temps on the iron.
Watch out for fuel vapor. Fuel in a fluid state is relatively incombustible. It needs to be mixed with oxygen, as a vapor, exactly like what you will find in a totally EMPTY tank. The soldering iron is probably just below ignition temperature, but who knows how close. Short story. One mechanic I worked with tried to bronze braze a VW metal fuel tank with a pinhole leak. The tank came from the junkyard and had been open and lying in the sun for at least 5 years or so. BOOM! It opened up like a flower and threw him backward 30 feet. He was lucky and only had minor injuries. Moral: be extremely paranoid of ALL fuel tanks, especially EMPTY ones...
Rember its not a DUI till you drive the lawnmower on the road. And get caught .🍻🍺🍻🍺🍻🍺🍻🍺🍻🍺🍻🍺🍟🍺🍻🍺🍻🍺🍻🍺🍸🍺🍷🍷🍔🍟🍕
Piece of plastic bucket in toaster oven on tin foil at °450, heat gun on gas tank till about 450 (shiny). Lay the patch on gas tank, will never leak. Love your videos!
Right on Buddy...
So bear with me. I’m an engineer but not a welding expert. But the reason a foreign plastic won’t bond properly is probably wrong application and wrong type of plastic. What you have done successfully here is “welded” the crack back by using same material and melding both the “filler material” and the base material. That makes continuous polymer chains across the crack the same way welding makes continuous metal grain across a weld.
Just melting new plastic onto the crack would be more like brazing, where a melted material is applied to a hardened material and they “stick”, but like brazing it’s more of a glue than a weld- no continuous chain is formed.
Using a like material will build better chains too, that’s why using the local material will probably always work the best. Next best and possibly equally well for newer tanks (less altered by years of petroleum working its way into the polymer chains) would be new material of the same kind- as a guy mentioned below HDPE. This is “black pipe” used for natural gas and water lines pretty often. They make “welding rods” of it too, for joining it by hand, similar to TIG method. If you’re near an oil and gas supply store, check in and see if they have any for high quality virgin material. A small piece of HDPE pipe might be available at one of the big home improvement stores as well.
Lastly as the same guy said below you may try plastics found at home marked HDPE, but be sure that they’re very clean, and I would recommend trying to stick to containers that were not originally used for petroleum products.
Good work, and I love that you measure project time in beers! Though I feel like if the project needs more than two beer hours you may have to break it up or risk doing it over? At least in my experience lol
Great fix Steve. The tank for my mower is discontinued, I will be doing these shortly. My dad “fixed” it last year with rocker panel spray, and well.... we all know how that turned out!! Thank you, reminds me of a stir welding technique.
Well ... your instructions were so good that I forgot to open my beer and it was still cold when I finished fixing the tank.
Guess I'll just sip on that beer and admire my handy work, Right?
Yet another great video tutorial, Steve. Long may they continue. From a dedicated Irish fan.
Thank You...
Wow Steve...
My gas trimmer might have new life afterall... The tank started leaking and I just put it away for 10 years now. Think the tank is dry enough now?? HaHa.
Now my battery trimmer has dead NiCad batteries so I found YOU. I'm hopeful!! But can I find my soldering iron... BTW is it pronounced "SOD-err" or "SOLE der?"
I did exactly what Steve said on a Toro petrol tank costing £220 to replace new. The repair was so easy to do with stunning results. Milk carton worked like dream. Thanks Steve .
Nice one!
I just put a new chain on my power saw. and... several times the chain will catch on the log or board I'm cutting. it's like the chain is bitting in too much. before I touch wood, I rev the engine so the chain is moving first. when I touch the log or board first, and pull the trigger.; it wants to yank the saw out of my hands or the piece of wood rides up the chain. could depth gauges be too shallow.
Probably. I have an in depth video on my channel called how to sharpen a chain. Might help...
If you knew the plastic composition of the Sthil gas tank you can find plastic welding rod kits that come with an assortment of different kinds of plastic. They are usually color coded and with some experimentation you can find the right one for the type of plastic Sthil uses for their tank. But I agree that just melting what is already there is an easier fix.
What you're doing is called plastic welding. It's become a commonly used way of repairing plastic. Harbor Freight makes a kit that recently cost me about $16. It's not a high quality tool but works. I used it to repair a hole in an RV water tank the I created to get at something inside the tank. The opening was at least a half inch wide. The kit comes with the welding plastic "rods" and stainless steel matting (screen) to reinforce repair areas. Worked fine. After trying silicone, goop, etc. - all of which peeled off. Like J Morrow (below) says it's best to use identical plastic for the repair if you need to add material. Most plastics are labeled. Perhaps as important is to melt enough material to thoroughly mix the melted material together. It's not really simply laying one material on another it's combining the two materials.
Brilliant idea! And they make different tips for soldering irons that may even make that task a little simpler. Thanks Steve!
Right on Buddy...
Great clip. Thank you. One question I have. Will this work if I drink rum instead of beer? 😜🤪🐕
This is one of my favorite corners of the internet, I swear...
Thanks, Steve and company!
You're Welcome...
I've got a 35 year old windshield washer tank form a classic Mini Cooper wit ha crack. To replace this tank will be $100 CAD plus shipping, taxes, duty and brokerage. So I've tried to do some plastic welding, using HDPE plastic from old oil bottles. So far not successful as I think my soldering gun (old Weller pistol style) ain't getting hot enough. It doesn't melt like Steve's did here, with the plastic almost instantly going black. So will try again with something better....
Exactly what I do when repairing plastic. I purchased a plastic welding kit.
Good vid!!!! as an option, How about JB weld for plastic? Also can't you use some plastic from an old junk gas tank. Plenty of those free these days
Love everything except the coors . YUCK . Thats one beer i never could get used to . Had a couple horrible hang overs from coors . lol
ron cash MAYBE it was the number of beers and not that it was Coors. Lol.
@@mystuff1405 lol
Welding works. It is best to use the original plastic. Tanks are HDPE, 4 in the recycling symbol. The alcohol container you used is HDPE, with a 4 in the symbol. It melts at 460F degrees so if you can control the heat that would be good.
As usual, great video and legit fix. I'm surprised you didn't clean the soldering iron tip though. Also, that's at least a 2 beer fix at normal consumption rates. Cheers!
Gonna try this myself my gas tank on my 2010 John Deere LA175 is over 400$ cause it has a 54 inch deck! It's absolutely ridiculous and I'm doing everything I can not to buy one 😂
Steve you put it in words that even the most untrained persons can understand and you are my most used information channel thank you keith
Thank You...and You're Welcome...
Steve. I sealed my outboard plastic gas tank by melting more plastic from a weed wacker tank. (not saying anyone else do this but after filling and emptying gas tank when spotting leaks my pump broke so I left tank full. Using plastic welder from Harbor Freight I "cauterized the leaks" with gas in tank cap on. no flames or explosions.) question: now that it doesn't leak I'd like to coat whole tank outside to prevent further cracks. any ideas?
Bondic® - The Liquid Plastic Welder I have had success with this but mechanically gouged the crack instead of melting. benefit it was it was all cold temp.
Saved me 65 bucks on a job can’t thank you enough
You're Welcome...
Great video. I have a FS86 that I have seal a few cracks using your method, but I have also found two good tanks for it for that day the crack is to large. Tanks are rare, so are the grommets. So hopefully the grommets are still good, my question is: is there a specific size of a fuel line to be used. Thanks.
Steve, you are right on, composition of the plastic must be identical or the repair will fail.
Nice job, very nice.
Thank You...
Steve in my case I have a relatively new Maruyama B27 Turbo that leaks where the plastic tank manufacturer has melded this 2 piece tank together. I suspect that there's a manufacturer defect as this is my 2nd tank failure in 2 years. Fortunately, it's still under Warranty. The seam has multiple leaks. I don't abuse my weed trimmer at all. Never had an issue with my Shindaiwas.
Steve, You have save me so much money. I have all Stihl equipment I just would like to thank you. I thought it's about time for me to subscriber You helped me I am help you. Thanks
Thank You...and You're Welcome...
I think the main reason of foriegn plastic not bonding prpoerly is because of the 2cycle oil mix gas. the oil has penetratated the plasic . even if you clean th plastic with alchol 90 percent you would be better off cleaning with acetone . . Im fixing to just do that here in the next hour and will let everyone know the results. but yes using the same plastic that is on the tank would be a very common sense solution to that problem also .but will see jhow my fix goesll be using a soldering gun run on map gas.. oh I wont forget to clean the tankl out first.. lo
have you tried baking soda and super glue? works pretty good.
OHHHH Hell it took me 3 beers Sorry to all followers of Steve but what the heck it worked Will try 2 beers next time honest !!!!!!!!!!!!!!