Harbor freight plastic welder? - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

yaky yak · 05-05-2011, 05:53 AM

Ive been with out a kayak for over a year sense losing my prowler. I was giving an old F/D. We use to call it the barge.
It has a crack in the bottom. Its been repaired with epoxy and the kids have been using it for paddling round NPB just fine.
I want to go fishing. Has anybody used the plastic welder from harbor freight? Would it securely weld up a crack? How strong are plastic welds anyway?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Wade

bus kid · 05-05-2011, 07:10 AM

Your better off to go see Andy ( iceman) at the Sunset Beach OEX store.

sandsquirt · 06-13-2011, 08:47 PM

The harbor freight plastic welders are kinda hit and miss. I like the idea of the little solder iron sized cheapy that they have but it sounds like the tip has a problem of breaking off. I also see that style of plastic welder from time to time that has a little plastic rod feeder port. This allow you to melt the object material, melt and inject plastic rod directly into the weld and also smooth the weld on one pass. Very cool. HF sells packages of various plastic rods for like $5. I think the rods are for pvc,abs and polypro and come like 50 to a pack.
My thought is to modify an old Weller style soldering gun to do this. I don't know much about these other than the tip heats up. Is it an actual heater element like a stove or can I just cut the tip off and build my own tip? Any help would be appreciated. What should the tip be made out of?
Has this been tried already? I know Weller also has rope cutting tips that could be useful. I just didn't see a plastic welding tip.
Help point me in the right direction. Thanks Eric.

Iceman · 06-13-2011, 09:06 PM

I charge $20 for most cracks.

Hobie sells the KC Welder for $60, it has been working really well for me. The rods work well to fill cracks.

I use a heat gun on scrap to make a patch and finish the edges with this too.

sandsquirt · 06-14-2011, 04:52 PM

That looks just like what I spent the day building. It's fun to build things on your own. I bought a Weller HD solder iron that looks very much like that. It has a tip that is close to 3/8 inch wide. I drilled thru the head of the iron and installed a small brass tube to inject the plastic rod. Right now it has an interference fit that holds the tube in place but I dont like it. I think it might come apart. I'm thinking that I might be able to braze it.
The package said that the iron heats to 900F. I tested it after I had drilled the hole and found it only came up to 685F. I hope it will still do what I need it to do. I need to find a good chart that tells the melting point of different plastics. I know that some times it makes some plastics brittle to over heat them when welding. I will build a box with a dimmer to control the heat level.
Thanks for posting the pic of your set-up.
Eric

05-05-2011, 05:53 AM	#1
yaky yak Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Riverside, calif Posts: 130	Harbor freight plastic welder? Ive been with out a kayak for over a year sense losing my prowler. I was giving an old F/D. We use to call it the barge. It has a crack in the bottom. Its been repaired with epoxy and the kids have been using it for paddling round NPB just fine. I want to go fishing. Has anybody used the plastic welder from harbor freight? Would it securely weld up a crack? How strong are plastic welds anyway? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Wade

05-05-2011, 07:10 AM	#2
bus kid Team Keine Zugehörigkeit Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Way out there Posts: 2,854	Your better off to go see Andy ( iceman) at the Sunset Beach OEX store. __________________ Não alimente os trolls------------Don't feed the trolls---------------インタネット荒らしを無視しろ

06-13-2011, 09:06 PM	#4
Iceman Administrator Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: 1-2 miles off the point Posts: 6,948	I charge $20 for most cracks. Hobie sells the KC Welder for $60, it has been working really well for me. The rods work well to fill cracks. I use a heat gun on scrap to make a patch and finish the edges with this too. __________________

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06-13-2011, 08:47 PM	#3
sandsquirt Junior Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 9	The harbor freight plastic welders are kinda hit and miss. I like the idea of the little solder iron sized cheapy that they have but it sounds like the tip has a problem of breaking off. I also see that style of plastic welder from time to time that has a little plastic rod feeder port. This allow you to melt the object material, melt and inject plastic rod directly into the weld and also smooth the weld on one pass. Very cool. HF sells packages of various plastic rods for like $5. I think the rods are for pvc,abs and polypro and come like 50 to a pack. My thought is to modify an old Weller style soldering gun to do this. I don't know much about these other than the tip heats up. Is it an actual heater element like a stove or can I just cut the tip off and build my own tip? Any help would be appreciated. What should the tip be made out of? Has this been tried already? I know Weller also has rope cutting tips that could be useful. I just didn't see a plastic welding tip. Help point me in the right direction. Thanks Eric.

06-14-2011, 04:52 PM	#5
sandsquirt Junior Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 9	That looks just like what I spent the day building. It's fun to build things on your own. I bought a Weller HD solder iron that looks very much like that. It has a tip that is close to 3/8 inch wide. I drilled thru the head of the iron and installed a small brass tube to inject the plastic rod. Right now it has an interference fit that holds the tube in place but I dont like it. I think it might come apart. I'm thinking that I might be able to braze it. The package said that the iron heats to 900F. I tested it after I had drilled the hole and found it only came up to 685F. I hope it will still do what I need it to do. I need to find a good chart that tells the melting point of different plastics. I know that some times it makes some plastics brittle to over heat them when welding. I will build a box with a dimmer to control the heat level. Thanks for posting the pic of your set-up. Eric