Plastic repair

504-1

Member
I decided to mount my 15 gal sprayer tank on an old yard trailer and add a boom instead of the hand wand. Everything went as it should till I found the hole in the lower corner of the tank. What has worked the best for you in repairing a poly tank :?:
 
While they do make dedicated plastic welders, I simply use a pen style soldering iron to repair all my plastics. Some Irons may get too hot but the one I have is temp controlled for the perfect temp. You want the iron to melt the plastic so it flows but not so hot that it turns to black carbon.

Tip 1: Once you use an iron tip for plastic repair; Do NOT ever try to solder with it again. I do not care how much you clean it you can never get the residual plastic oils off of it to solder with it again. That tip is now a dedicated plastic melter.

Tip 2: I use slivers of plastic cut from either black poly drain tile or even from clear plastic milk jugs as my improvised filler rods. I mostly use the drain tile though for filler.

Tip 3: Do NOT breath the fumes. Melting plastic is a known carcenigen.
 
Thank goodness that fumes from poly tank and tile are not as you say or I would never reached the age of 75. I have been breathing those fumes since 1956. Some plastics are but actually only a few when burning. The smoke you do not want to breath when (flaming). Big difference between fumes that is given off when melting than when flaming. I stand over the fumes every time I purge a press to start running parts or change colors. I probly average at least twice a day year in and year out as most of my products are polypropylene.
 
Grandpa was notorious for using a bolt, two nice flat washers, and a couple of pieces from an inner tube. I myself haven't resorted to it, but I think of it often. One of his is still holding after 40 years.
 
If there's a bumper exchange or maybe a body shop near you, they can hot air weld PE in minutes. They sell hot air welders at Harbor Freight but you'll need an hour of practice before distroying your tank.
 
I use a wood burning iron to weld broken plastic. About the same as using a soldering iron.
SDE
 
A company that I worked for about 30 years ago made a product called Plasty Pare. I don't remember the correct spelling and I do not know if it is still available, but it was a white powder with a liquid. There must be an epoxy product that should work also.
SDE
 
The fact that you have gotten away with it is great, but it doesn't mean that the products aren't harmful. There are lots of people that don't react to asbestos and live to be 100, but many more than that died early because of it. Plastic fumes, like the fumes given off by most other chemicals, can hurt you given enough time and exposure.
 

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