plastic weld how to

[derf]

I finished, late, so mounting will have to wait until tommorrow, but this is the end result of about 4 hours worth of work total fixing the lower.

Bottom is matte black, the upper half is the closest red I could find to match the bike. *I have a new helmet, I think when I have more free time I will try and copy my helmets design onto the lower, I dont expect to be able to but for the current paint being a $7 rattle can job I can easily afford to try a few times.

This one eventually did fail, but it took 2 tip overs, a lowside, and a few thousand miles.

[Kerry_129]

Looks good - better than the results I got w/ the soldering-iron type plastic-welder I used once long ago. Am I remembering right that the HarborFreight welder just blows hot air from the tip & is non-contact?

[derf]

Yup, it uses air blowing out, I think the regulator is set in the 3-15psi range, with a very fine line between too low psi and the plastic just melts away (air gets too hot) and too high and the plastic gets a blast of warm air.

The key is to have the hot air soften the part to where it is flexible but not yet melting, and the filler rod to be just warmer than melting. That way when you push the filler rod into the piece it just melts its way in.

Literally it took me 5 minutes of practice to get confident enough to work on a bike. The learning curve is almost non existant