In Case Any Of You Ever Thought Of Getting A Plastic Welder -

I talked my boss into buying this unit from Urethane Supply Company, model # 5600HT. We bought it from Arizona Tools(.com) - linky here: http://www.arizonato...tail/URE5600HT/ . It's on sale for $170. That seems like a lot, but lemme tell ya, it's well worth it.

I took it home as soon as it was delivered, "to practice", and in just a few hours I fixed 6 fairings and a headlight I had laying around!

The kit linked above comes with an assortment of plastic rods - ABS included - and also comes with a pack of their 'FiberFlex' sticks. I used the sticks, and I'm really happy with the outcome. The kit also comes with an instructional DVD that makes it really easy to get started.

Here's some pics of the kit and some of the work I got done:
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The Fiberflex sticks are really cool, they're made of a mix of plastic, adhesive, and carbon + fiberglass strands. They can be used on most any plastic, and make for a really strong repair when combined with a little metal mesh.
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Prep work on all these parts was the same. I used my 90 degree air grinder and an 80 grit 3M sanding pad to strip the paint and rough up the plastic, then switched from the sanding pad to a round carbide burr to groove both sides of the cracks. (All but the VF750F fairing were crack fixes) Followed up by dousing with rubbing alcohol that I keep in a spray bottle, then dried with compressed air. This makes for a good clean surface for the new plastic to bond to.

This was the first practice part; almost worthless VTEC upper:
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Cracked VTEC side panel(lower oil pan mount area):
Back
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Front
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The Kawi 636 upper for my 86 VFR project had a crack, not anymore!
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Inside, reinforced with stainless steel mesh:
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VF750F crack:
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Also, the bottom of this fairing was mangled by some numbskull with a grinder(no, not me!). Apparently the bottom screws that hold the fairing on were stripped, and it looked like they used a big 4 1/2" electric grinder with an aggressive pad to get the screws out/fairing off. Of course they took a lot of the plastic with it... Fiberflex to the rescue!

I covered the mangled holes from the inside with a piece of cardboard, and put down multiple layers to fill the area. Also fixed the thin bridge area and reinforced it from the back with SS mesh.
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I think the worst one was the tail of my F4i. It had multiple cracks that you can kinda make out in the next pic, and the spot they were in didn't make it easier.
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I had to take my time and do small spots at a time. Melt new plastic in, cool it with water/alcohol/air, then do another spot, etc. Adding the mesh backing was interesting, because it all had to be heated up uniformly to get the mesh to sit flat. I ended up backing it with some tape, and holding cardboard to the tape with my hand. Came out good though!

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And the headlight patch:
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Cracked VTEC side panel(lower oil pan mount area):
Back
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Front
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Gee, I wonder if the 'oil pan area' matches up to a 'threaded tab' that breaks off of oil pans, when the bracket in between both surfaces snaps it off in a 'laydown'??? :dry: :huh:
Say, like ummmm...... the one 'somebody' sent you perhaps..... :biggrin:
You know Seb, upside down, I bet that thing would make either a HUGE ashtray or an EXCELLENT nuts and bolts holder. :goofy:

Seb came over to my garage and started plastic welding up some craked plastics I had. That thing works great, and even better when someone else is doing the work!!! LOL Gotta get me one of those things.

Seb came over to my garage and started plastic welding up some craked plastics I had. That thing works great, and even better when someone else is doing the work!!! LOL Gotta get me one of those things.

Have tools, will travel! :biggrin:

Sweet. Thanks for the heads-up. I'll have to get one of those.

Dirk

Looks like a great kit for plastic welding. I have only be able to trace some welding kits that use very expensive computer controlled heat guns, €450 minimum :goofy:

I had to take my time and do small spots at a time. Melt new plastic in, cool it with water/alcohol/air, then do another spot, etc.

I have a welding tip that I can put on a heatgun and support the fairing that needs to be welded by laying it on top of a pile of mud to keep the fairing from getting too hot an deform :biggrin:

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I can set the temperature on my soldering iron, I wonder if there are plastic welding tips available that I can use with it.
:laugh:

I can set the temperature on my soldering iron, I wonder if there are plastic welding tips available that I can use with it.
:fing02:

I don't know about "plastic welding tips" but, I've used an elcheapo iron for fixing my RC truck more than once. The wood burning kits come with all kinds of tips though, and are almost identical to the "high precision" soldering irons on the next rack at The Source by CC (now defunct?).

I still just heat the tip of a flat screw driver with a propane torch and get great results. :fing02:

Thats looks awesome. Does a nicer job then my soldering iron I bought for 10 buck son a closeout sale. May have to invest some of that tax refund!

Wow, at that price I will stay with PLASTEX, the chemical plastic weld. It works great, is easy, cheap and the repair is super strong.

Seb came over to my garage and started plastic welding up some craked plastics I had. That thing works great, and even better when someone else is doing the work!!! LOL Gotta get me one of those things.

Have tools, will travel! :fing02:

Seb, I see a new business opportunity for you here...the service is listed on ebay.UK but not here in the states. You are not the only one that likes crashing motorcycles...I say is a better deal than the Rizona mirrors...we need one in the group, it will pay for itself. I have a TDM fairing cracked by PO knocking bike over on top of a riding mower...ouch!

If anyone has any panels they want fixed, lemme know!

I have this set up. I have been using it for almost 8 years. Love it for the convenience of being in my own shop.
definately a tool to have if you ride. Great post http://www.vfrdiscus...tyle_emoticons/default/smile.gif

If anyone has any panels they want fixed, lemme know!

Be careful there. I'm pretty sure my 4th gen has two cracks per plastic. I think I saw a crack on the tail of the 5th gen. The ST's might have a crack here or there. Then the RWB probably has some defects....

Be careful there. I'm pretty sure my 4th gen has two cracks per plastic. I think I saw a crack on the tail of the 5th gen. The ST's might have a crack here or there. Then the RWB probably has some defects....

Bring it on!

Bring at least one [image: Posted Image] per panel! :goofy:

hmm, I'm tempted to buy one of the kits for a future project but none of the on-line stores will ship downunder. One place there has them for $159 + postage.

Have tools, will travel! :goofy:

I'll have to get one of those.

Yeah, I could use a friend like that ("one of those"), too!!

hmm, I'm tempted to buy one of the kits for a future project but none of the on-line stores will ship downunder. One place there has them for $159 + postage.

I haven't got mine yet AB but the purchase/shipping is being facilitated by one of the post whores top blokes here http://www.vfrdiscus...tyle_emoticons/default/smile.gif

You need to take into account the 110V-240V side of things, I already have a transformer but if I didn't I'd have had to think hard about it as a good tranformer costs $80-100... a US seller of them on ebay has comments on his site saying a 240V model is available, but more expensive. Pretty sure his listing also was ok for shipping to Oz via USPS at $70AUD or so. Will PM you Thursday regarding what I'm doing.

I still just heat the tip of a flat screw driver with a propane torch and get great results. :beer:

Interesting. Please elaborate. Do you simply melt the plastic at the crack and it seals up? Would this be preferable to Plastex or Loctite's plastic glueing product?

I still just heat the tip of a flat screw driver with a propane torch and get great results. :beer:

Interesting. Please elaborate. Do you simply melt the plastic at the crack and it seals up? Would this be preferable to Plastex or Loctite's plastic glueing product?

I find this method results in brittle welds, maybe too much heat? I suck at plastic welding, although I have tried using the tip that came with my soldering iron to some success.

several shops i worked in had this kit..
i bought soildering iron from the $1 store and it got hotter and worked faster than the kit.. i bought a bunch of plastic welding rods from harbor freight.. worked great ..i save busted panels for extra plastic. :wheel:

Interesting. Please elaborate. Do you simply melt the plastic at the crack and it seals up? Would this be preferable to Plastex or Loctite's plastic glueing product?
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The melt weld (fusion) is not as strong as new plastic with a higher tensile strength. It is good for low to medium stress areas and does better with the SS mesh Seb mentions. It is great for tricky plastics like polypropylene, TPO, and the "greasy" fender materials.

The same mesh embedded in a two part resin designed for ABS adhesion (Plastex, Loctite, Duramix 4040, WeldOn 58, The Electrical Connection ABS kit) will be even stronger, as strong as the native material. Even a high stress bolt tab can be fashioned from 2 part material.

Check out the Urethane Supply site and the book that is in the kit Seb has. It is the "bible".

I found something even better(and more expensive...) for fixing cracks & re-creating broken tabs. It's also made by Urethane Supply Company, it's called PlastiFix. It's a 2-part product, a very fine powder and a thin liquid, when mixed it creates fresh plastic and bonds to existing plastic very, very well.

I just finished using it to turn a 96 tail into one piece(from 5!):
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Great tips Seb, amazing what you get up too! :wheel: