plastic welding

[Southerly]

here's pics of worn keel that was repaired by welding new plastic on .

the welding is not too hard to do but really needs to be practiced on a 5 gal bucket or something before trying on your yak.

[Salty Dog]

Nice repair, I need to fill a few deep cuts on my Cuda 14. Order the rods from Jackson. Now all I got to do is figure out what I need for the welder.

[Southerly]

take a look at the hobie welder online.

[Salty Dog]

I'll check it out. Harbor Freight offers a couple different types of plastic welders as well.

[zimm]

Avoid the $15 H F welder
It'll bend/break as soon as it heats-see the reviews
I've used a soldering iron with fair results and am considering modifying some tips specifically to weld with

[Salty Dog]

Just picked up a plastic welder from harbor freight, Now I need to practice on something besides a 5 gallon bucket before I work on the yak. Note to self, don't do this in the house, smoke alarms go off.

[Southerly]

good luck! keep the tip moving

[buzz]

Have you tried the friction welding method?
Put a stick of polyethelene in a high speed drill. Gently touch the spinning plastic stick to the hull and it creates friction heating and melting the plastic.

I plan to try this method come winter time just to fill in any deep scratches I developed this season.

[Frogsauce]

buzz, I did that with a dremel and some polyethelene. Works great, but gets messy fast. A bit of shaving and cleanup afterwords makes it like new again.

[buzz]

buzz, I did that with a dremel and some polyethelene. Works great, but gets messy fast. A bit of shaving and cleanup afterwords makes it like new again.

Good to know. I think I can handle messy.

here's pics of worn keel that was repaired by welding new plastic on .

the welding is not too hard to do but really needs to be practiced on a 5 gal bucket or something before trying on your yak.

BTW, great job there Southerly.
Can't even tell there was a repair there.

[Shawn L]

I used the waste pieces left over from some holes I drilled when mounting rod holders and melted them with my son's wood burning tool to fix a small crack. I suggest anyone that is planning to mount any hardware to their yak to save scrap pieces of the yak left over from the drilling/mounting process in a plastic bag for any needed future repairs. Material and color will be a perfect match if and when needed.

[Salty Dog]

good idea.

[Salty Dog]

the friction weld method is pretty cool. Not sure how the square rods will work that I got from Jackson.