Just picked one up today at Harbor Freight. Got home and repaired a bunch of broken plastic joints on the rear hatch panel on my old Range Rover Sport. Love this tool 👍👍
It was a winner for me! I had JB Welded parts before, but they did re-break. With the metal mesh melted between both parts of the break, it is rock solid. Good luck with yours and thank you very much.....
Jster Car-dashian. If the plastic is ABS, acetone works 1000 times better. You can cut pieces of ABS plastic and throw it into jar and add some acetone and cover it loosely to allow the gas to escape. After a day or so, it will turn into a plastic syrup which you can thicken by letting the acetone vape out without the cover for a few minutes to an hour, or you can thin it by adding more acetone. Once the plastic is fully dissolved, you can cover it air tight and use it whenever you need it. Using it is easy, just use a popsicle stick and apply it like glue on both mating face and hold it together. You can use an exacto knife to slice the excess while it is still soft. You can actually can pour it into a mold or dam it in place with some tape. It fills beautifully. It takes about 24 hours or more for the acetone to fully vape out, giving you joint stronger than the original plastic. It doesn't glue plastics together, it welds them!
Car-dashian? Now that's FUNNY!!! LOL! I had no idea that ABS could be bonded like that. Excellent info. I have no idea what that plastic is in my dash, but I will surely keep that in my bag of trick. Thank you very much for the information and the chuckle.......;-)
@@drewchambers9132 I would dan a tiny bit of acetone in an inconspicuous area. It it melts then it's ABS. There's a likelihood, however, that's it's not ABS since ABS doesn't weather well in the son.
Thank you so much! And no I haven't tried the hot air welder. I was going for "cheap!" I have seen the pros use them on TH-cam, but I haven't. Sorry and thanks again....
I had to repair the catch on the glove box of my S Type Jag where the latch fixing screws went into plastic and all the original holes were completely broken away so I made some dam's up out of sheet plastic held in place with electricians tape then re cast the whole missing areas with JB weld for plastic then drilled the fixing holes and put Helicoils in and it was as strong as ever. Different ways to skin a cat. I like the look of that plastic welding iron
Jester, does the tip on the plastic welder have a 1/4"-28 thread? It seems that many similar plastic welders use tips that are threaded. If HF one also has a threaded tip, it would make replacement easier.
It doesn't seem to thread in. It's appears to be like my Craftsman 40W soldering iron. It seems to slip in and has a set screw. I hope this helps and thank you very much.....
Too bad that evolution took place... we lost our "third hand", ie, our prehensile tail. Of course we don't believe in evolution, do we? Nice job. BTW, I have used old wire ties as welding rods too when fixing things with my old soldering iron.
I was really needing the 3rd hand and the tail, LOL! And no we don't believe evolution brought us here. We know better. I used an old soldering iron and zip ties too, but this works so much better. Take care and thank you very much.....
Just picked one up today at Harbor Freight. Got home and repaired a bunch of broken plastic joints on the rear hatch panel on my old Range Rover Sport. Love this tool 👍👍
Awesome! I still love mine too. And thank you very much.....
Great demo, right to the point and useful techniques shown.
Thank you so much for the kind words.....
I've always wondered about plastic welding. Even the strongest of super glues never seem to cut it. This looks like a winner.
It was a winner for me! I had JB Welded parts before, but they did re-break. With the metal mesh melted between both parts of the break, it is rock solid. Good luck with yours and thank you very much.....
Nice demo. I need to repair a plastic tank and this looks like the best option for making the repair.
It worked great for me. Good luck with your repair and thank you very much.....
Jster Car-dashian. If the plastic is ABS, acetone works 1000 times better. You can cut pieces of ABS plastic and throw it into jar and add some acetone and cover it loosely to allow the gas to escape. After a day or so, it will turn into a plastic syrup which you can thicken by letting the acetone vape out without the cover for a few minutes to an hour, or you can thin it by adding more acetone. Once the plastic is fully dissolved, you can cover it air tight and use it whenever you need it. Using it is easy, just use a popsicle stick and apply it like glue on both mating face and hold it together. You can use an exacto knife to slice the excess while it is still soft. You can actually can pour it into a mold or dam it in place with some tape. It fills beautifully. It takes about 24 hours or more for the acetone to fully vape out, giving you joint stronger than the original plastic. It doesn't glue plastics together, it welds them!
Car-dashian? Now that's FUNNY!!! LOL! I had no idea that ABS could be bonded like that. Excellent info. I have no idea what that plastic is in my dash, but I will surely keep that in my bag of trick. Thank you very much for the information and the chuckle.......;-)
would a 2005 f150 plastic panel above the metal bumper be abs ?
@@drewchambers9132 I would dan a tiny bit of acetone in an inconspicuous area. It it melts then it's ABS. There's a likelihood, however, that's it's not ABS since ABS doesn't weather well in the son.
Nice fix Jester, I don’t do well with plastic, ooooooohhhhhhh that smell 😁 thanks for sharing.
Yes, that’s a horrible smell! And thank you very much.....
They need to contact you about using this as a tutorial video. Damn fine job.
LOL, I wish! And thank you so much......
Have you tried the one that uses hot air? I have been wanting to try one for years and no go lol. Good Video! Wishing you well bud.
Thank you so much! And no I haven't tried the hot air welder. I was going for "cheap!" I have seen the pros use them on TH-cam, but I haven't. Sorry and thanks again....
I had to repair the catch on the glove box of my S Type Jag where the latch fixing screws went into plastic and all the original holes were completely broken away so I made some dam's up out of sheet plastic held in place with electricians tape then re cast the whole missing areas with JB weld for plastic then drilled the fixing holes and put Helicoils in and it was as strong as ever. Different ways to skin a cat. I like the look of that plastic welding iron
I never thought of doing it like that! Great fix! The plastic welder really does work well though. And thank you very much......
Just picked one of these up and will be repairing some cracked plastic fairings on my rig.. Thanks for the video seems to work very well..
It worked for me and I hope it works for you! And thank you very much….
Jester, does the tip on the plastic welder have a 1/4"-28 thread? It seems that many similar plastic welders use tips that are threaded. If HF one also has a threaded tip, it would make replacement easier.
It doesn't seem to thread in. It's appears to be like my Craftsman 40W soldering iron. It seems to slip in and has a set screw. I hope this helps and thank you very much.....
Thanks going today get one.
Thank you! And good luck......
I don't think this will work for all plastics but looks promising for the ones it will work on.
I think you're right. And thank you very much.....
How’s it holding up nowadays? I’m thinking about getting one to fix a bumper
I just fixed my snowblower this summer. So far, so good. I still love mine and thank you very much.....
Too bad that evolution took place... we lost our "third hand", ie, our prehensile tail. Of course we don't believe in evolution, do we? Nice job. BTW, I have used old wire ties as welding rods too when fixing things with my old soldering iron.
I was really needing the 3rd hand and the tail, LOL! And no we don't believe evolution brought us here. We know better. I used an old soldering iron and zip ties too, but this works so much better. Take care and thank you very much.....