Hi,
I was wondering if anyone out there has used and/or had luck using a plastic welder to repair their kayaks or canoes? Thanks in advance for any responses!
plastic welder
I bought one to repair a SOT that had a small split in the seam. It takes parctice but I got thte repair done. My attempt sure isn’t pretty but it was just a cheap boat for the kids to play with. The biggest thing was matching the right type of plastic to get a bond. The welder is almost like a soddering gun. It heats the plastic up and when you have it melting you feed in the stick/rod to fill in the grove.
RR
Regular heat gun (paint stripper)
I repaired a hole in my kayak with a heat gun and some plastic “welding rods” provided by the manufacturer. The repaired area has been water tight (although a bit ugly) for a few years now. Just be very carefull not to over heat the area or it could melt away more of the boat!
Here is a very usefull link:
http://www.oceankayak.com/product_support/repair.html#welding
what type of material
Most plastic kayaks these days are made of high-density linear polyethylene which can be welded. In prior years, some kayaks (especially whitewater boats) were made of cross-lined polyethylene, which can’t be successfully welded (or recycled) but was felt to be stronger.
Most non-composite canoes are made of Royalex or R-Lite, basically ABS with or without a vinyl skin. These can’t be plastic welded. Old Town Discovery canoes and Coleman canoes (now Pelican canoes) are made of polyethylene and I have heard reports of successful repairs of these with a plastic welder.
Kayak repair
Thanks for the replies…very helpful!