Plastic Welding with Soldering Iron

low-tech plastic welding using a soldering iron with a sharp pointed spoon-shaped tip. Saigon, Vietnam. (pardon jumpy edits, camera low on memory)

[@JerryWick]

He did an excellent job for what he had!!

[@1984Stanman]

AS long as the plastic is a thermoplastic (99% of plastics are, except things like garbage bags) you can heat to melting point, reshape and when it cools it will have the exact same material properties as before (strength, toughness, etc). I'm a mech eng

[@joekuta]

simple, humble the work is very good

[@Emexrulsier]

I've fused plastic things together loads of times. If I have no soldering iron available I just use a knife that I heat up on an open flame.

[@tubesteak0u812]

funny I also use the black plastic spoons, forks, knives as extra welding plastic when fixing broken plastics the flow is much better than the white tho I have never fixed a wheel with them but it works well in the automotive field when plastic panels break or crack, it takes some practice but after awhile you get real good at it, plus after asking the Snap On guy for years for a good plastic welder he has only recently finally got a good one will be getting it soon then no more spoons for me

[@jcer93705]

@mmccambridge Point is it's showing you how to do that, so you can do it on body parts and such for scooter or other things. Great video by the way.

[@johntech75]

Great technique! This helped me out

[@BassnFlash]

Having lived in Vietnam, they could build a B52 out of C-ration cans!

[@fdc313]

Really good video, thanks for posting

[@tbirdpimp07]

ive done this alot on car bumpers its ok if its a part thats not gonna be moved or under any stress but it makes the plastic brittle and hard really all you need is a 10 dollar soldering iron nust make some stitches and smooth em over

[@brianwesley28]

@MacsCanfly That's the first thing that I was going to say, as well. They should be careful not to breathe those fumes. Interesting that one can weld plastic with such low wattage. I was just thinking that I need a plastic welder. The one I want is several hundred dollars. I may be able to make due with a soldering iron for a while. Good video.

[@dixoncider7256]

wow! really nice work

[@rpruneau68]

The repair itself appears to be sufficient, but since it's a rotating object (i.e. wheel) it will need to balance & a similar amount of material (weight) will need to be added to the opposite side of the axle, otherwise, you will feel like you had a flat spot every rotation, thud, thud, thud....

[@AlkoHol62]

I am very interested to know what type of plastic was added to the weld? thanks

[@Stella0Stella]

@mikkars250 only if mass refers strictly to weight. Mass can refer to several other properties other than weight.

[@coaxialgyro]

take note of the metal pin reinforcement, otherwise this is just a rediculas fix turning perfectly good plastic ,brittle. Next time, use a bolt on metal braket ,there is no melting solution to fix problem.

[@rpruneau68]

@clawdfrawg Since when doesn't ice float??

[@mikkars250]

@Stella0Stella Nice try. Mass (symbolized m ) is a dimensionless quantity representing the amount of matter in a particle or object. The standard unit of mass in the International System ( SI ) is the kilogram ( kg ).

[@morron6666]

I have tried this once and I used a packet of cable ties as plastic solder

[@mikkars250]

@Stella0Stella ummmmmmmmm? wouldn't the mass of the finished product = the combined mass of the raw materials?

[@BenThePyroGuy]

Vietnam ???

[@Stella0Stella]

@mikkars250 Mass is defined as the amount of matter an object has. One of the qualities of mass is that it has inertia. Mass is a measure of how much inertia an object shows. Weight depends on the force of gravity. Think of water... frozen, liquid, steam-by the time you convert it to gas (steam) the Mass has changed. We take a tree, burn it, changes the weight... the mass/weight of everything is constantly changing. BTW it was tongue-in-cheek... I love to think about the way things work. you?

[@kokopelli314]

Looks like he put in a piece of metal to reinforce the weld.

[@VernonKalugdan]

wow

[@MacsCanfly]

@brianwesley28 i sent you a link to a decent welder thats 155 dollars it would work much better than a soldering iron, and it has very good reviews

[@elbeaver0]

Wonderful toxic smell on burning plastic in the morning! Hummmmm....!

[@Stella0Stella]

@bobyouknowitsright _ duh... ;-) but try this one... two new continents are currently being formed, one in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific... giant masses of plastic particles trapped by the ocean currents right below the surface of the water... the one in the Pacific is twice the size of Texas... give it a couple of million years... a voila!

[@journeyquest1]

In the US the crooks would charge you 200 bucks for such a job. This guy will do it for 5 bucks.

[@tonyinfinity]

@wangkangluo1 "this's"? lol

[@mageac]

well from what i heard the effects of plastic welding is very small compared to metal welding... im not a fan of Parkinsons myself

[@whoogie]

you shouldn't get a smoky effect the plastic has been heated to much and it wont last!!!

[@mageac]

i cant see plastic welding to have any worse fumes then steel welding...

[@MADHOUSEINC2]

because most merrrcans really just want to hear themselves talk.

[@Stella0Stella]

technique is pretty good :-) ya gotta do, whatcha gotta do... some of us just can't go out a buy a new wheel... fix it, and keep it out of the landfill, I say... a'course that's no good help to an economy based on the "throw it away" principle... I always wondered... does all the crap we generate and toss, add to the overall mass of the planet? hummmmmmmm

[@nuccastolemahhyoshi]

Man every other video has people talkin and explainin what they r doin and blahh blahh but this one doesnt and u know what?? This video tops those other vids a million times over! I love help guides and example vids that choose to show the process and talk less and that cut to the chase and jump right into what im warchin the video to get more info on! Y can people in other countries see that this is how vids need to be but us merrrcans (americans) suck and spend all this time sayin things like

[@Criptografo]

This is not resistant

[@Soveperser]

That can't be healthy.

[@havox612]

haha theyre vietnamese