Repairing Hard plastic
 

Flaps on TVs, monitors and VCRs often suffer damage to fixing clips, I have never had any success in gluing the small lugs back. Have a look here only need to watch from 4.45 for 2 minute or so to get the idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1meoZaHYZo

John.

Re: Repairing Hard plastic
 

That looks brilliant John, this afternoon I’m out to get the baking soda and superglue. Got two of the grandkids toys to repair!

Peter

Re: Repairing Hard plastic
 

Hi Peter, I've known about that mixture for a while but never thought about making parts and building up lost plastic parts.

John.

Re: Repairing Hard plastic
 

I have not used it for small parts but it has saved a good few pounds by repairing cracks in the handle area of a freezer drawer.
Two points - the reaction is exothermal ( burns finger ) and the result very hard to file to a neat shape on a flat surface like the drawer - so remains ugly - but functional.

Re: Repairing Hard plastic
 

New to me but looks marvelous, I shall use this sometime soon- thank you;D:beer:

Re: Repairing Hard plastic
 

Been used in aircraft modelling for many years. An additional trick is to stuff bits of baby/household wipe into any large gaps and apply the superglue or use same as a sheet materialmuch like those Isopon 38 car body repair kits you used to get with the fibre glass matting. Idea being you can layer several sheets of baby wipes, apply the superglue into a very dense and strong material you can saw/cut/sand to suit.

Andrew

Re: Repairing Hard plastic
 

That's interesting and may well be useful. However, I never ceased to be amazed at what you can do with a cheap glue-gun in terms of replacing broken or missing plastic. The very poor man's 3D printer!

B

Re: Repairing Hard plastic
 

The superglue and soda method certainly looks interesting.

Methylene chloride (dichloromethane) will dissolve most plastics (but not Bakelite or polypropylene), and despite supposedly having been banned, is still readily available in small (57 ml) bottles under the name "Plastic Weld" from shops that sell plastic model kits. Fine for welding together items that have broken cleanly, but not for filling voids, although this can be done by inserting slivers of plastic cut roughly to size into gaps and flooding with solvent to soften it, using an artists' paint brush. Reinforcement on the non-visible side (where applicable) can be done by applying layers of styrene sheet (Plastikard). The solvent evaporates very quickly and fuses the layers into a solid mass.

Plastic Padding is good, but has become difficult/impossible to find locally these days. I use Ronseal High Performance Wood Filler instead, which looks like, smells like, and behaves like, Plastic Padding Type Soft.

For broken hinges on larger items I have used steel wire reinforcement, drilling holes or cutting grooves in both parts to accommodate the wire, encasing the area with Plastic Padding or Araldite, and finishing off by filing to size as required

Re: Repairing Hard plastic
 

Another method I use is to use the discarded sprues from a model kit, cut them into 1 cm sections, put them in a glass jar and cover them with cellulose thinner. After a day or so they will dissolve into a plastic goop you can fill gaps or mould stuff with (impression moulds). It takes a few days to cure but when ready can be cut and sanded as per styrene. The only thing to watch is slight shrinkage.

Andrew