plastic welder

[woodbutcher]

I"m thinking about buying a plastic welder to repair the clean water tank on my travel trailer. It looks like ABS. Is it likely I can make a water-tight bead on that thin material?
Butch

 

[trucker 40]

Gorilla glue might fix it.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Plastic welders work very well if you know the material you are welding. Have used one several times with good success. They are pretty cheap and quite versatile.

 

[GordoSD]

What's the pressure in that tank?

 

[Rich_WI]

If its ABS, you can repair the crack with acetone. Just take a small paint brush with acetone on it and run it over the crack. Move the plastic crack to open and close the crack (it really works the acetone in there). The acetone will melt the ABS plactic but it evaporates away and when it does that, the plastic solidifies again.

If you need to build up the area or the crack just wont go back together perfectly (leaving a crack), you can grate up some ABS plastic with a cheese grater and put it in a baby food jar with acetone. It will make a goo-ey paste. Spread that over the repair area. You can buy ABS plastic at hobby stores, get it from some car bumpers at junk yards or most motorcycles and ATV have fenders and such made from ABS. I think they also sell mixable ABS plastic epoxy at auto places like PepBoys.

This repair is a very common repair done by motorcyclists and ATVers to repair plastic fairings and fenders. If you want to read more about it, just google "ABS plastic acetone" and you will find tons of reading to keep you busy for a while.

Good luck.

 

[woodbutcher]

I think it holds 30 gallons. No pressure other than head pressure.
Butch

 

[woodbutcher]

Thanks, Rich. I'll give acetone a try.
Butch

 

[woodbutcher]

I ordered a bottle of Gorilla glue about a year ago. Recently I decided I'd open the bottle and use it, but it had set up solid.
Butch

 

[eastexan]

Interesting. Thanks Rich.

I wonder if acetone would work with PVC?
I would hesitate to use it for anything pressurized or that could cause a safety issue, but I've seen sign brackets and a lot of other things made with PVC.

 

[Dusty MI]

I was told, many years ago, that ABS was not to be used for potable water. If this is true I doubt that the tank is ABS.

Dusty

 

[Brian G. NY]

Butch,
That makes me laugh.
When they first started advertising the he!! out of it on TV, I bought a bottle of it "just-in-case".
Like you, the occasion to use it didn"t come along for about a year and it all set up and I had to go out and buy some more. It is good stuff, tho!

 

[Lloyd In South Carolina]

I've had really good sucess using the following process.

#1Heat the area with a torch, can use a small plumbing torch, those micro torches work real easy.

#2 When the area starts to melt,puddles, add hot glue from a hot glue gun to fill the crack/hole.

#3 Keep moving along the crack, always making sure the object your repairing material is metling, so the hot glue can be added and fuses together with it.

It is pretty easy, no special tools. Like brazing,,, easier.

Done quite a few tanks, never had a failure.

L.

 

[Rich_WI]

(quoted from post at 07:16:37 08/22/11)
Interesting. Thanks Rich.

I wonder if acetone would work with PVC?
I would hesitate to use it for anything pressurized or that could cause a safety issue, but I've seen sign brackets and a lot of other things made with PVC.

I dont think it works with PVC. I have tried acetone on unknown plastics and if it aint ABS, it just dont do anything. Easy to try though. Its also easy to grab the PVC cement if you have known PVC plastic.

 

[MO8N4ME]

(quoted from post at 04:06:23 08/22/11) I"m thinking about buying a plastic welder to repair the clean water tank on my travel trailer. It looks like ABS. Is it likely I can make a water-tight bead on that thin material?
Butch

Butch, you can make a good repair on that tank, but you have to use compatible materials.

I used a plastic welder in the body shop a lot and made many good repairs. If you use the wrong kind of material to repair, it won't hold.

A good kit will run you about $60 and that will come with a variety of rods to repair differant types of plastic. Urethane supply company is one of the most knowledgeable and well supplied companies in the country.

I am adding a link to them that tells you how to identify your plastic.

I only used a heating type welder. I never used an air type but heard some negatives from some bodymen.
click here
http://www.urethanesupply.com/identify.php

 

[mmidlam]

This place has the lowest price for a model 6 that i have found.
plastic welder model 6