Plastic welding

[cabreco]

Today I decided to start the ABS plastic Welding on my bike. I figured I would start with something that I wasn't using to test the unit. I also documented everything from the tack weld to the primer in several videos. When I went to edit the pieces into something shorter than Gone with the wind, I found the part one, that actual welding process segment of the video, was corrupt.

SO, I will have to redo the video when I begin welding the ACTUAL bike parts.

 

For now I have a few vid caps of the repair & the finished fender. CLEANLINESS is the key. Prep your work before tacking and clean the work between steps with plastic cleaner. It was actually fairly simple. I have no fears to moving forward.

I used the hot air welder from harbor freight, a dremel with a rasp & a drum sander, I did have to use my Air D/A sander as well for the bondo.

 

Anyway here are the vidCaps AFTER I welded the piece.

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/album.php?albumid=994

[CaptainJoe]

Looking Good Andy,

 

You'll love working with that welder, the fixes are just as strong as the origional part...

 

Finding flat welding sticks is hard but if you clean off the end of a hammer with laquer thinner and clean off some hard oak you can flatten out the round HF welding sticks, which will make welding a lot faster!

 

Good job!

 

even though you cheated by using a DA.. HAHA...I do to!

[cabreco]

...you can flatten out the round HF welding sticks, which will make welding a lot faster!

 

Talk about overlooking the obvious while it stares me in the face! Flattening the sticks!!!

That would avoid having to grind down the weld~~~

 

Good job!

even though you cheated by using a DA.. HAHA...I do to!

 

Actually the DA was just to feather the bondo, BUT with flat weld sticks the imperfection would be much less.

I could probably use only glaze..

I have A LOT of cracks in the ABS to take care of, this will help!

I also bought a Hobby Woodburner (a 30w soldering iron with attachments) to bury metal stiches for the tab repairs.

 

 

 

http://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion/1047459996/?label=319QCJrUpAEQnPG78wM&guid=ON&script=0http://px.owneriq.net/ep?sid%5B%5D=56351349&sid%5B%5D=56351354&sid%5B%5D=56351364&sid%5B%5D=55521059&sid%5B%5D=55521064&rid%5B%5D=1142751&rid%5B%5D=1142752&rid%5B%5D=1356721&rid%5B%5D=1512847&pt=hbft

[CaptainJoe]

I don't know why HF sells Roud sticks... they are almost impossible to melt without distorting what you are trying to fix...

 

Enjoy!

[cabreco]

Here are a few images of the actual welding.

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/album.php?albumid=996

 

I do recommend wearing some sort of respirator or at least a mask. I did this in an open garage and didn't wear one. Last night I felt like I had smoked a pack of cigarettes in an hour...& I am an ex smoker!

 

Anyway working with plastic welding is fairly simple. Anyone thinking about it should not fear it at all.

[CaptainJoe]

Thats great documentation. and, If it is welded properly, it won't come back apart.

 

Think of all that money you saved by not having to get new parts...

[dynodon]

Nice job, but I did want to mention that when my trunk (86 VR) was becoming three large pieces instead of two, I use Plastifix, a product that I heard about on this forum.

 

http://www.urethanesupply.com/PlastiFix-Kits-1/

 

This stuff was easy to use, went a lot faster than I thought and was economical. Now almost a year later the repair is holding when any number of epoxies, and fiberglass etc, did not.