Product evaluation

[jestal]

Soo.....here I was with the plastic chute on my leaf and limb chipper all cracked and broken and there was Harbor Freight with a plastic welding kit on sale for $30.00.

https://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/disp...temnumber=41592

I had heard second-handly that this kit worked pretty good so I picked one up. I'm happy to report that it does. It actually works amazingly well. I've used a soldering gun a number of times to melt plastic back together with fair to middling success but the hot air torch on the plastic welding kit puts a soldering gun to shame. Now I'm looking for broken plastic to put back together. I did have better success using the original plastic of the part as a filler as opposed to the plastic rod that is sold for such purpose. I suspect what I had for rod was not perfectly compatible with the plastic of the part so I trimmed some slivers of plastic off of out of the way areas to use as substitute welding rod and that was very successful. All cracks were welded up, looks pretty good (certainly passes the 6 foot test) and seems as strong as original. If you need to repair plastic things occasionally this might be for you. At $29.99 on sale it was certainly worth it to me.

I have no affiliation with HarborFreight and generally hate to buy chinese "stuff" but there really isn't a competitor to this particular item that I know of. Your results may vary. Do not try this at home.

 

[dobias]

Jestal,

Does this gun require a separate air compressor? The Harbor Freight ad isn't clear.

dobias :glare:

 

[jestal]

Jestal,Does this gun require a separate air compressor? The Harbor Freight ad isn't clear.

dobias :glare:

Yes. You need a compressed air supply. It doesn't need to be very high capacity, though. The hot air torch operates on a regulated 3.5 to 4 PSI and doesn't flow that much air so even a small compressor should be able to keep up.

 

[650cent]

Hey,

MC News did a product report on this unit in the October issue, also said it was a neat tool. Thanks for confirming this jestal :clapping: Time to make a trip to HF, also need a 36mm socket for the steering stem nut.

Bill

 

[FJRGuy]

Looks like the same tool is still available! The link still works after all these years.

I broke my side case 'hook' and am wondering if anyone knows if this tool would work to repair the case. Would the repair be strong enough to trust since the case is basically hanging from the repaired area?

Any insight would be valuable.

 

[Geezer]

Looks like the same tool is still available! The link still works after all these years.
I broke my side case 'hook' and am wondering if anyone knows if this tool would work to repair the case. Would the repair be strong enough to trust since the case is basically hanging from the repaired area?

Any insight would be valuable.

I have not used the HF welder, but I would guess that it depends on exactly what the break on your case hook looks like. Jestal's example does not appear to be a load bearing part. Any way you can use some metal to strengthen the hook repair?

 

[FJRGuy]

Looks like the same tool is still available! The link still works after all these years.
I broke my side case 'hook' and am wondering if anyone knows if this tool would work to repair the case. Would the repair be strong enough to trust since the case is basically hanging from the repaired area?

Any insight would be valuable.

I have not used the HF welder, but I would guess that it depends on exactly what the break on your case hook looks like. Jestal's example does not appear to be a load bearing part. Any way you can use some metal to strengthen the hook repair?

I haven't really looked closely at the break ( I was too pissed. I just removed the bag, left it in the garage and went for a ride.) as it was late. I'll have a closer look and snap some pics. I look closer to see if a metal reinforcement might help. Thanks!

 

[charismaticmegafauna]

We have a local guy who welds plastic -- mainly for RV tanks -- and his builds/repairs are strong & sure.

Especially for the price of new FJR luggage parts, I'd give repair a try. If you're not too concerned with 'looks', you may be able to reinforce w/alu sheet & pop-rivets?

There's more holding the bag on than just one ear -- two top ears, one lower front mount, and rear tab (but, the bag needs all of them). I once temporarily epoxied an ear on FJR luggage for a week-long trip -- I don't recco that, but, plastic welding is a much better repair.

Good luck.

 

[Fastfar]

I haven't used that kit, but I have welded some types of plastic...the most effective was repairing the side bags on my old ST1100.

I bought an ABS 2" pipe coupling, sawed through one side, used a heat gun to flatten it out and then sawed it into 1/4 wide strips. Then I used the heat gun to melt the strips into the cracked areas, melting and smushing them tightly together. I then sanded, filled and primed, final coat was glossy black bedliner...No new cracks with 10K on the repairs...The look of the bedliner on the hardbags was the best part, and it was easy to touch up. Eyeing the scratches on the FJR's bags now... H'mmm, it might look good there too...

 

[Texan]

I've used plastic welding (with a soldering gun) on lots of load bearing parts. I welded the tabs of my front fairing on the FJR when they snapped off from a low speed frontal collision with a guardrail.

You need to melt the plastic all the way through, not just on the surface. I also agree with adding extra plastic to strengthen the weld.

 

[DaJudge]

I've tried some plastic "welding" with a soldering iron, but wasn't happy with the long-term results.

More recently, I re-attached one of the tabs on a piece of body plastic with the kit (bought at WalMart) that's used to add acrylic nails. It uses a combo of liquid (whch sort of melts ABS plastic) and acrylic powder that you brush into the repair. Seems to me to make a bond stronger than epoxy and better lasting than my "welding" attempts.

 

[canucklehead-biker]

Looks like the same tool is still available! The link still works after all these years.
I broke my side case 'hook' and am wondering if anyone knows if this tool would work to repair the case. Would the repair be strong enough to trust since the case is basically hanging from the repaired area?

Any insight would be valuable.

Geez Jeff, how the Hell did you do manage that? Or don't I want to know?

Griff

-EDIT- Never mind, just found your other post... and it's Friday!