"Plastic Weldin'" ABS

-- Last Updated: Dec-08-08 1:38 PM EST --

Wha Ho, Pilgrims;

Jus' oud'da cureeositee, any o' yer folks ever "plastic weld" ABS (Royalex)? Ah' picked up a forced air plastic welder at Harbor Freight a while ago an' it woyks well on polyethylene, but ah' reads (actually Miss Crabtree read'ed it ta me, since ah' jus' lookie at de pictures) dat ABS kin' also be welded. Gonna give it a try sometime waan ah' have some ABS to mess wit.

Fat Elmo

My hypothesis
is that it will not work well. The thick nature of a ABS/vinyl sheet would force you to weld the interior as well as the exterior skins, but that would not bond the interior foam layer.



Never tried it or saw it done - like I said, just a hypothesis.



Jim

I bought
a couple pounds of abs weld rod,1/8" dia. at USplastics.com… I haven’t welded with it but make the abs/acetone slurry to patch my abused fleet, and that holds up pretty well.the rod is much easier to make pellets with than the abs pipe often used. Around 17 bucks a pound w/shipping.

Acetone
What’s a good local source of acetone, typically? E.g. is it sold in hardware or hobby stores in small quantities? And would a nail polish cleaner do for very small ABS fixes or do I need something stronger?

Matt
Does your “slurry” work on the foam layer, the ABS sheet AND the vinyl layer too?



Jim

ya’ gotta put a

– Last Updated: Dec-08-08 3:11 PM EST –

layer of gorilla glue to seal the foam layer from the acetone, but yes, i've very successfully repaired the Whitesell right down to the inner layer,cutting out the existing rotted (blistered the vinyl it was so soaked) foam.seems to have a thicker foam core than the daggers which have had good repairs done as well.got some threads on other boards, if you're interested i'll send ya' the links.

You can get . . .
. . . acetone by the quart a Walmart (paint department) or Lowes.

Nahhh.
Just an idle question. I hope to never hole my MR Freedom Solo. Make that PLAN not to .



Jim

Great!
Thanks!

plastic welding royalex with ABS rod
I wrapped my MR Explorer around a sharp rock in the 70’s-broke the rails and tore both sides down to the bottom. I thought it was toast, but some folks from CT AMC told me to call Ed Booker ( I’m sure he is long gone by now) at U Mass Maintenance Dept. He welded all the club canoes that the students trashed. Ed welded my damaged canoe and told me where to get long ash to repair the rails. His technique was to grind off the vinyl outer and inner layers near the tear and weld it back together with ABS rod using an industrial heat gun. Not hard to do- I used his method on some cold cracks years later. Makes a functional but ugly repair. When fiished you spray paint the repair to match the hull.



Dave

Yes
there’s a whole industry built around ABS welding. Just google it.