Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio Enthusiast
On the other hand, PP lends itself very well to plastic welding. I've repaired several household items with a cheap soldering iron and some doner PP (from plastic jar lids). Using a purpose made plastic welder should work much better.
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Decided to try using plastic welder for one of the repair tasks (rebuilding a completely lost tab). Worked pretty well with an Amazon soldering-iron-style kit. My first time doing a plastic weld. Intimidating at first and a slight learning curve but the end result was satisfactory and strong. Soldering and welding principles are key (as well as good ventilation) - maintaining material wetting/flow to get a proper fuse is a must. It pretty much needs to be formed continuously which can be challenging as you add more and more material. If you just add more material on top gradually - like dolloping play dough - the layers don't bond and just snap when you bend it.
Splurged on 3M DP8010 for other tasks. Amazing stuff: a strong bond even across a thin edge glue line. Used it to glue back the fender liner bolted tab that got snapped-off completely (red damage circle). I went back afterward and reinforced it with a single sheet of fiberglass soaked in the same adhesive to provide some additional strength against flex/peel mode.
Finally it's worth nothing that DP8010 (and other similar adhesive) isn't good for repairs that have very close clearance and where you can't bring the parts together to trap the adhesive in between (e.g. a slip formed by a thin crack, green damage circles). The adhesive is pretty thick and you end up just squishing the adhesive out of the gap, leaving barely any to make a bond. For these cracks, I ended up using Loctite 770 Primer with Prism 401 superglue which wicks extremely well and forms a strong bond. Hoping the tightness of the fit will help the joint hold up to flexing over time, but we'll see. If it doesn't hold, I'll go back and plastic weld them with steel mesh.