Hot Air Plastic Welder is very nice product. Works very nicely. The tip is small and allows you to concentrate heat into a thin strip so that you don’t deform a bunch of plastic around the joint. I used it on the inside of a cracked washing machine drum (extremely high vibration!) and a month later it has worked phenomenally. Water tight and structurally strong. I had experience with metal welding and p-tex repairs on skis and this was close to a hybrid between the two.
Clean the joint properly with a solvent compatible with your plastic, grind it out to a tight fitting vee if possible, preheat your parts with the straight nozzle and have pliers ready to remove the hot tip and convert to the welding tip. You will need to feed the rod with one hand and basically smear it in with the tip.
Don’t pull the gun, push the rod in, maintain down pressure and it will tractor along on it’s own. It should look wet and shiny when it is ready for welding, but don’t overheat either. If you have a helper they can follow up with a roller to smash it into itself while still pliabe, but this is not a requirement. I welded an outside joint on a tight radius lip by myself by backing it up with steel round rod in a vise.
I’m thinking of all the expensive cracked plastic items i’ve thrown out over the years that could have easily been saved, and custom projects I never would have considered.
