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I've been searching the forum, reading about plastic welding. I have the Harbor Freight hot air plastic welder. I can't find what the argo body is made of. Is it Polyethelene? Has anyone had success with the hot air type plastic welders on Argo bodies? Thanks
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My green 83 argo is Low Density Poly Ethylene, and I sealed a hole with a cut up gas can and a propane burner and an iron. If your gun is hot enough and you have LDPE powder, you can throw that on when it gets to a malleable state. You can apply the iron right to the plastic, you can rivet it into an aluminum plate sandwich with no heat andwith plenty of RTV or shoe goo, you can use too much heat and mess things up that were warping that you were not watching. Heat up a plastic barrel or a gas can (super clean and dry one that you have cut open already so you don't blow up) and you can practice welding that. In the end, if you are not an experienced pro, or you have not watched one work, you will probably do a so-so job, and it will hold water. I wonder if youtube has any videos. Good luck, I did OK, not great, not http://www.youtube.com/user/PlasticWelders -
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Don sent in a manual for a plastic welder that shows details on how to weld different plastics. It is in our manual section here: How to Weld Plastic Also Cole did a how-to in the how-to section here: Polyethylene Body Repair
Finally, if you will search this site there are a few posts on the topic that could help too. Here's one to get you started: http://www.6x6world.com/forums/gener...c-welding.htmlComment
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If you have a body repair to do and you have not looked at the LDPE glue link above from TAP Plastics, you should. I think it's something new and it looks like a better solution than a lot of repair options! Might be the standard, AND NO, I DO NOT WORK THEREComment
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I totally agree, the TAP glue looks the best, but it's pretty expensive stuff. For the standard two part epoxy size tubes its like $28. My argo tub is real bad, its going to need alot of repairs, i don't think using that glue would be practical. I'm not expecting it come out perfect, but I want it to kind of hold out water. I tried my plastic welder today with no luck. It doesn't quite make the plastic gooey enough to stick two parts together, it kinda seems like it burns it too much. Next I tried using a soldering iron, which seemed like it was really working, I was able to blend two pieces together. I did this to both sides of the crack, but when I was done I gave it a little flex test and it just snapped right on the crack, like there was no penetration. I tried using a small pencil torch to melt it, but it burns as soon as the flame touches it.Comment
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i too have some extreme damage on my Max-IV. recently i found a link on E-Bay for a two part marine epoxy that has been around for some 50 years. check out the video link on this page.G/flex Epoxy Adhesive Kit - 655-KComment
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