First plastic welding

[azr]

Did my first plastic welding last night. Used a typical leather burning iron, likely any soldering iron would work though. Tacked the part together with the iron to hold it in place then welded the tab on good with more heat and plastic from a zap strap, then cut a couple of short pieces of brass wire and melted them into the plastic and covered it all over with more plastic from a simple zap strap.


2019-01-18_08-22-20 by Rob Ert, on Flickr


I don't take credit for this method, simply followed this Youtube video and it worked like a hot damn. Very happy with the results and it feels pretty sturdy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7GRNvPSf7k

[Dogma]

I don't know how hot your leather iron got, but when I used a soldering iron back in the day (30 years ago), the plastic got hot enough to release some nasty smelling fumes and was brittle after. That's what your repair looks like to me, but I never added any zip tie. I'm not sure how the Nylon from a zip tie would respond to that. If it works, it works. A hot air gun makes it easier to not overheat the plastic until it decomposes, but it's really easy to heat too much of the part by mistake and warp it.

What kind of tests do you have in mind to make sure it's strong enough? Losing the cover would suck.

[Deuce]

I bought a plastic welding kit on eBay, but haven't gotten around to trying it yet. I have retrieved it from where I put it, I just need to do it!

[Gorminrider]

I looked at your video link but I'm kind of curious: I think pull-ties are pvc versus the abs of sideovers? Or are they nylon?

Anyways, you've got me interested and I'll have to get out in the shed in this rain and revisit some of these ideas...maybe a gluegun might do as well as a heater ?? but- I have all kinds of tools to play with. Even as an application to just tack things in place for a glue it could be quite useful. The wire or mesh stiffeners are a clever idea...

[azr]

It doesn't look to be brittle from heating, just rough from not sanding out the plastic. As for testing I'm just going to throw it on the bike and ride it. I can surely grab the tab by hand and give it a good tug in all directions and it sure feels solid. I wanted a solution that would allow me to save the side cover as the paint is original and in great condition. I'll post up on durability later in the year.

[dorkburger]

A useful tutorial .

https://oldskoolsuzuki.info/archives/2045

[Tom R]

I’ve used plastic epoxy and fiberglass with success. It’s pretty thick and takes a bit to wet the cloth out properly, but works. When I dropped my 175 earlier this year, it cracked the side cover, but the repaired section held. I’ll fix it again with epoxy and glass.

[jsandidge]

A useful tutorial .
https://oldskoolsuzuki.info/archives/2045

Very useful. I'm going to try this.

I have a couple of cracks on my 850 sidecovers. I 'V'd out the cracks and used Devcon plastic epoxy to fill them. It didn't hold.

[azr]

A useful tutorial .
https://oldskoolsuzuki.info/archives/2045

great tutorial, thanks for posting. Very nice tool but I doubt I could ever justify the cost for how little I would ever use it.

[Gorminrider]

...went out and tried some and it does stick hard even with a mere 40 watt soldering tool ...no smoke at that wattage...but I'd want to hammer the (replaceable) tip flat and then a more powerful iron might be wanted.

... the Bosch glue gun was interesting. It wouldn't melt the (yes) nylon pull ties but it did melt the abs sidecover. At that melting point, gluegun's glue stuck pretty well too but maybe sanding up some abs pipe would be a thought ... It all sure seemed less eyewatering than abs glue ....less ambient-temperature-dependent, so it's solid faster too.