Spin friction plastic welding???

[tz89]

Saw this YouTube video referenced in Maker magazine.

 

In it a cheapo dremmel-like tool is used to spin a plastic rod, and the friction heats it and the two work pieces to weld them together.

 

Think this would work on motorcycle body parts? ABS?

 

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[CaptainJoe]

Pretty slick..

 

She welded styrene which is a lot harder than ABS

 

The welding sticks you can get at HF are round and although softer... should work.

 

I'm gonna have to try this out.

 

Thanks!

[etcswjoe]

I got one of these for Christmas when I was a kid you used them to put model cars together instead of glue but I guess they were not really "safe" so they were discontinued.

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiACyulRE78]1975 Mattel Spinwelder Chopper Factory TV commercial - YouTube[/ame]

[DragonRider]

If it works that good, how come someone hasnt come up with it sooner..........it would be a great tool for us 1st gen owners...........I could have fixed a lot of broken plastic a lot quicker with better results.

[Marcarl]

Has possibilities.

[wideopenrod]

WOW! OK, I have done the plastic welding with my soldering iron, and that worked really well; however, this looks a heck of a lot easier! Heading to Hobby Lobby to pick up some styrene rods to try this out sometime soon.

 

Will styrene meld with ABS? I have a cracked rear arm rest to try it out on.....

[Trader]

Would be really tough to weld a butt joint. (side to side). With the T weld the corner helps hold the rod in place....with a butt joint it would wander all over the place.

[Condor]

The heck with the welding.... Fran's a hoot.... :rotf:

[Freebird]

As already stated, welding ABS should be much easier. The melting point of Styrene is about 460F where ABS is around is around 221F. Big difference.

[tz89]

In the magazine article they said ABS will work. You can buy ABS rods or use scrap.

 

They had a butt joint recommendation. Cut, sand or grind a V. Use shorter rods. Fill any gaps between the pieces. Weld a bottom layer, a middle layer, and a top layer. Sand and paint as desired. The example used heat to soften the bottom for gap filling as a first step.

 

Here's a link to the article, but it is a preview. I subscribed when I was building my digital carb sync that I posted earlier. http://www.make-digital.com/make/vol34?pg=92#pg92

[wrnchjox]

harbor freight sells a plastic welder that is pretty simple to use and does work well.

[dacheedah]

never could get my plactic welder from HF to work very well

[charlie h.]

I know welding plastic is a hard thing and not very elegant at the best, being a welder for 37 years... so I found the Plastic Welder cement sold at alot of places, and under different brand names to work the best of anything. With a PSI of 3500, it is the strongest thing out there, and you can cut and splice a fairing with minimal fuss. I have a few fairing pieces (literally) from a wrecked Venture that I cut and spliced into another fairing piece, and it is holding up well. I have used this two-part cement to weld back together ABS on a Honda V65 Sabre Fairing, and several Ventures. It is, in my opinion,the best way to repair a crack, or break in ABS. I also use a rotary file to groove the BACK of the repair, and then 80 grit sand the area around the BACK of the repair, and smooth the cement into the groove with a light build in the sanded area, it will never break there again! At $5.99 a tube, it is reasonable and easy to use. Hope this helps!

[mbrood]

Devco sells a couple sizes of plastic welder... Walmart and quite a few others carry it.

[Guest Swifty]

The heck with the welding.... Fran's a hoot.... :rotf:

[mbrood]

I would think your common variable Dremel would work fine for this, they even have various size chuck inserts to handle the job.

[tz89]

The heck with the welding.... Fran's a hoot.... :rotf:

 

 

Do some web searching. On the Make magazine forum someone said she "engineers" fancy corsets and other adult paraphernalia. There was a picture.

[Yamamike]

Dammit...where was this info in the spring of 2012 when I was putting my ol' gal back together?? This would have saved me a lot of time a cursing:bang head:

 

Does look cool...and Fran is a hoot!!

[mechanic1]

Believe it or not guys....I use to do a lot of Friction stir welding....but it was on aluminum rocket skins.....ECK knows....we worked at the same place....but we had a lot of clamp pressure and computer controlled parameters like tool speed and travel speed....never tried plastic....be fun to give it a whirl. We didn't actually use a filler material...rather a non consuming weld tool that circulated the metal in our case (mixed it)...nice thing about it was....the aluminum didn't have the common fracture problems with conventional welding processes....IDK how plastic would be to be honest