Harbor Freight plastic welder 96712

[december45]

Has any one used one of these, and did anyone have good luck with it.
The grey water tank on my cabover is leaking, the drain pipe is cracked. The tank drain pipe looks to be poly not ABS. Any ideas about plastic welding would be welcome.

 

[outlawz2004]

I have owned this kit for about 8 years now, still haven't used it LOL. Seems simple enough, its basically like metal welding, your just trying to melt the two sides together and use the plastic rod as a filler.

 

[december45]

When you bought the kit, did it come with a variety of types of rods? Was polyethelene one of the rods?
I have been researching how to fix this leak and come across a you tube vid on
3M 5200 for marine use, Thinking this might be a way to go too.

 

[dodge610]

I hate to say this I had that unit and the heating element burnt up in it after the second time I used it. So I had bought it a while back and could not return it. Tossed it looked on amazon got a medium priced one from them. First HF tool i have had fail very disappointed.

 

[dodge610]

Update that is a new design from the one i bought. Looks like they have improved it immensly. Looks sort of like the one i bought off amazon. That one has been a bulletproof welder for plastic.

 

[dodge610]

Looks like they sell the welding rod seperate for $6.00 for 50 pieces. If I am not wrong that is a mixture of rod. Like 5 different plastics 10 pcs. of each. I would try that new design if I did not have the other one i bought.

 

[trackwelder]

I'm not familiar with the HF welder but the urethane supply unit I have has saved the day hundreds of times. Here's a link to it
http://www.urethanesupply.com/Airless-Welders-1/5600HT/

 

[Ed ke6bnl]

I have a commercial one like that, uses air compressor for air and 120 volt. had poor luck with its control, BUT I took one of my old dads soldering guns about 150 watts and silver soldered a Stainless Steel thin plate to the bottom. and was able to weld up my 120 gallon water tank for my trailer. I purchased Medium Density Polyethylene and welded a seam on the bottom that was about 18 in. has never leaked in over 5000 miles of camping yet. I now imbed metal mesh for strength, Paid to have it fix and lasted 1 year. I have filled holes as big as 1 in. now with just scrap similar material from around the property.

 

[dogdog]

I Have their older units the one that used with compressor for air. Couldn't 't weld anything other than burning holes or burning plastics... couldn't weld my bumper or any plastic parts I have tried. so don't get it, waste of $$$.

 

[G_P]

It would probably be easier to clean the pipe, wrap it tightly with window screen, and then smear JB weld or a similar product over the crack.

 

[Warrenator]

I have one, used it extensively to repair some hdpe barrel feeders for horses. I use Argon (nitrogen would be cheaper but I have argon already on the tig welder as well as a regulator) as the blowing gas with hdpe. Other plastic types are OK with just air as blowing gas, HDPE chars a bit. Anyway, the welder works great, just keep air or gas flowing through it at all times when it is hot or you'll burn up the heating element. I made a valve so I can switch on the fly and not waste argon. It actually works really well, i take the bandsaw and cut my own welding rods from the exact same plastic I am repairing, just heat everything up and it slowly smoosh in the welding rod, I kinda let it heat up and bend into the gooey melty area.