Diy Plastic Welding Rods

To use the test try to pick a rod that most closely resembles the plastic.

Diy plastic welding rods.

My grandparents have some ocean kayaks they use on a river and the bottoms. A rod testing kit comes with all sorts of different plastic welding rods. In this case it is a polypropilene mix called epdm it has nothing common with abs. The best hdpe welding rod i ve found so far is the tear away ring that comes on 5 gallon paint and drywall mud buckets.

I still haven t tried the technique myself with my dremel tool but it couldn t be easier. Use a welding rod testing kit if you re not sure what kind of plastic you have. He had learned about it in a video from the awesome fran blanche she of frantone guitar pedals fame. You have to cut a v groove from the front having some support from the backside to hold the loose sides level and you have to heat up the filler rod not the material you are welding.

However all the diy welders i ve seen assume that you have access to welding rod. Several years ago make. Contributor matt griffin and i were hanging out and he started enthusiastically telling me about a technique for friction welding plastic that he d just discovered. For the less weld informed a good solid weld involves more than melting and fusing metals the weld zone needs to be free of oxygen otherwise the normal oxidation of metals that leads to rust patinas and discoloration happens at a dizzyingly rapid rate.

Heat the end of the rod like you normally would in welding to attach it to a clean spot on the plastic.