Anybody tried plastic welding?

Just wondering how many people on here have tried their hand at plastic welding any broken pieces of bodywork... I decided to give it a go today to see if I could repair the original fairing from my 750, I had a £15 complete spare nosecone/clocks/headlamp from an ebay mislisting that I was going to replace it with but I thought "how hard can it be?"

The answer as it turns out is "not hard at all" 8) I've posted pics of the results I got in my rebuild thread if anyone wants to have a nosey at them, I have to say I'm impressed for my first shot at the job. I found my small 15w soldering iron was able to cope although a larger one would've made it a bit quicker, and I used zip-ties as filler rods. I found that for the thickness of the fairing material they were better if I sliced them in half lengthways, giving a much more appropriate amount of material.

I'd say, if you have any broken plastics (make sure they are thermoplastics of course, won't work on thermosetting plastic lol) then give it a shot. Remember to wear an appropriate respirator & work in a well ventilated space since the process does give off some nasty fumes.

EDIT-: what the hey, I'll post one of the before/after pairs of pics here too...

Cracked & with a chunk missing...


All better now!

 

Yes, I welded my sidepanel lugs back on plus a few cracks that had been glued by POs, it was fairly easy and is holding up very nicely, I used wire to reinforce the joints

My XJ had a giulliari seat when i got it, the base was badly cracked and generally messed up so I had a go at welding that back together, it worked but so much of it had to be heated up that it turned brittle, it's probably just about usable but I couldn't find a cover for it so I gave up and got a complete original seat from a breakers

 

Huh, maybe it's only us UK guys who weld their plastics lol Mind you, everybody in America's off to thanksgiving I think & not online...

 

I don't use an electric unit at the moment, since I don't have one, but I have repaired a lot of plastic through chemical welding. My two favorite items are :

Oatey ABS-Specific cement

plastic cement by AMBROID. I find this at the model railroad store. It's not cheap, but it works really well.

Dave FOx

 

Yeah I thought about gluing to start with but wasn't sure how strong it'd be, and there'd still be a chunk out of the headlamp bucket. That's probably the best solution for if something's just cracked though & not gouged or bits missing since it'd be less messy I guess.

Happy Thanksgiving by the way Dave

 

I used to do it every day for my job assembling display cases for sunglasses

 

I've been welding broken plastics for about 15 years, and have had great success with the method. If there are missing chunks I'll either weld in a new pice cut from the same type of plastic (just as is done with metal repairs), or use plastic mesh and fill the missing bit in with a suitable epoxy (just like using body filler).

 

Another plastic repair thread: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=43816.html

 

Yeah, a bit of a messy thread that one Gaz lol maybe the chemicals had got to everyone's heads

I'd still personally prefer the "proper" welding method using heat & filler material, if only for the fact that you don't have to go shop for expensive & nasty chemicals, just find your cheap old soldering iron & a black ABS zip-tie then get stuck in (side note, I've since dremel'd off the plastic deposits from the iron and used it for soldering again and it's still fine for that too)