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Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Repairing broken plastic parts - YouTube

Here's an interesting Video on How To Repair Broken Plastic Parts using Steel Wire and a Power Supply or Battery Charger. I think this is a great idea. I think that I would change his procedure a bit. I would use longer pieces of wire and twist the ends together. Like you do with Twist Ties. The Plastic Covered ones, that come on your Bread and Electrical Products. You might even use the Plastic coated ones, instead of bare wire. The Plastic might be useful in filling in the gaps, made by the Hot Wire. They may smoke, burn or stink allot during the process, though. Perhaps you could do this, by using two pair of Needle Nose Pliers, to do the trick. If your fast, you could do this while the Wire is heating up. Or you could do your Twisting, after you turn off the Current. You should be able to go ahead and twist the wires while they are connected to the DC Power Source. Since the Wire is already Shorted, by the Leads. There should be no extra unexpected Sparking, happening. But, if you leave the Wire Shorted too long. Then you may melt it into or melt and Cut your Plastic Part right in two.

Watch the Video and you will see what I mean...

Don

Repairing broken plastic parts

Video Link...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziPutFi1BlI

I noticed in the Video Comments, one miss conception about how he's doing this. Such as... "How much current are you passing through there? cuz it takes very little to kill someone so yuou should be very careful". He's using DC Current, not AC. 12 Volts DC, from a Power Supply (which I would be worried about blowing it's fuse or it up). I have been working on a 3 to 24 Volts DC Power Supply, made from Computer Power Supplies (PSU's) wired in Series. They are very Delicate, when wired in Series. So, I don't think I would use mine to do this. And 12 Volts from a Battery Charger, wont Shock You. It will make a Scarey Spark, if you touch two leads together. But, he's using Steel Heating Element Wire. Which is Designed to be Directly Shorted. This is how Heating Elements work. The wire is absorbing the Direct Short. So, no Scarey Spark. You could use a DC Welder at a very low Amperage, as well, to hear up your wire. But, too much will just melt it in two.

Here's a Suggestion in the Comments, that I don't quite get his idea on how to do this. It seems to me, that you would just be winding the Wire up even more... Here's the Comment...

"Just for info, you can make a perfectly straight wire by taking a length of it, holding one end in a set of pliers and the other end in a drill chuck. Spin for a few seconds and the tension in the wire will straighten it."

(Now, this part of his comment. Is what I was thinking too)...
"Also, in this case, wouldn't it have been better to encircle the whole plastic part with the wire (of course without shorting it ;-) ) ?"

"Anyway, nice video as ever."

Don

Published on Jan 25, 2013

A neat way to repair and reinforce cracked and broken plastic parts. It doesn't look pretty, but it's strong!
http://woodgears.ca/misc/plastic_repair.html