Crushing Plastic - ideas?

4864 Views 17 Replies 11 Participants Last post by RoryH, Jun 7, 2010

clevermetal

Discussion Starter · Jun 6, 2010

Hai thar
just signed up to the new forum, pretty swanky. Anyway to the point:

I've just started repairing my fairings. I'm shaving up ABS plastic and then using acetone to chemically weld pieces together. Started today and so far have completely repaired one crack (and intentionally broken it again to see how strong it was --- strong =D)

However one of the fall backs of my system is that I'm using my newly purchased dremel to make shavings of ABS. It works, to an extent, but I think a fine powder would be much more desirable/effective.

Ideas?
at the moment I'm using an old rear cowl as my raw plastic =P

Maybe a coffee grinder could handle it?

EDIT: oh and if anyone could direct me to a link/thread where I could find out how to get my old (although still pretty noobish) postcount back etc that would be greatly appreciated =)

Cheers for any help =)[/i]

1 - 18 of 18 Posts

Scotty

· #2 · Jun 6, 2010

maybe put it in the coffee grinder after the dremel tool.

you should also post a thread on how to do it, could be helpful thread to have.

here's the link to migrate your stuff;

http://cbr250.com/forum/announcement-1.html

Blazzer

· #3 · Jun 6, 2010

plastic fairings.. will it blend...

G

· #4 · Jun 6, 2010

File?

smiley_666

· #5 · Jun 6, 2010

Blazzer said:
plastic fairings.. will it blend...

+1. im pretty sure a blender will handle it if you cut it into smaller pieces first with the dremmel

Two50RR

· #6 · Jun 6, 2010

your using a dremel to cut off little bits?!?!
i think a big drill would work better......

ive seen industrial machines that work like a wood chipper and you end up with rice bubble sized grains....

Hessian

· #7 · Jun 6, 2010

Isnt there that plastex stuff that welds platic together?

Eclipze

· #8 · Jun 6, 2010

Coarse sandpaper should give you fine powder.

clevermetal

Discussion Starter · #9 · Jun 6, 2010

+1 Blazzer =P

Yeah, ebay-ed a coffee grinder =D we'll see what it can do when it arrives.

To be honest, I wanted a dremel =P and this was an excuse to get one. It does work, it's just time consuming and not as efficient as I'm now hoping the coffee grinder will be.

@ Hessian
The plastex stuff is ridiculously expensive ($30-50) for hardly any actual solvent/plastic material. Better yet, I'm 99.9999% sure the "black plastic" option that plastex gives you is just ABS powder (which is natively a black plastic) and an acetone solvent (which will dissolve/melt ABS and still be legal, I say this because, for example, Chloroform is a great solvent, but slightly illegal for general public use :dodgy

.

So for ABS and Acetone, you can buy a shitload of it for 30 bucks =D

+1 Coarse sandpaper, but I don't have a belt sander (which I'd guess would be the way to go) + collecting the dust could get interesting.

EDIT: oh and cheers for the link scotty!

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G

· #10 · Jun 6, 2010

I used "knead-it" plastic repair kit a couple of times now. its messy, should use gloves, and it dries really quick so work fast. but yeah, goes on like play dough, and looks good once its sanded off nicely. It can even be wedged into cracks.

Drew

· #11 · Jun 6, 2010

If you want to do plastic work with a dremel, or even a real die grinder type device (dremel are actually pretty crappy) you're looking for a carbide burr, it should cost you around $30 for the tool, but you can attack any material in much the same way as you can with a grinding tip for steel.

Stavros

· #12 · Jun 6, 2010

clevermetal said:
Chloroform is a great solvent, but slightly illegal for general public use :dodgy.

But it has so many uses!

My favourite pickup line: "Hey, does this smell like chloroform to you?"

It never fails.

Yogi

· #13 · Jun 6, 2010

Make sure to get rid of all the paint and shit from the plastic.
Also pics and a step by step report would be cool.

I used a soldering iron and welded bits back together.
It's not pretty but I didn't have the patience to get it perfect. And it's still holding up well.
Best of luck

clevermetal

Discussion Starter · #14 · Jun 7, 2010

@ Drew
Yeah I was using the Burr head, definitely worked, it just takes a while to get a tiny amount of shavings. Hopefully the coffee grinder will be the solution to this *crosses fingers* =D

@Yogi
I tried the soldering method earlier this year as well, worked fine though as you said, it's a bit messy, but I found the plastic was quiet brittle and ended up breaking. I've been told this was because my soldering iron was too hot. Might also have been because my raw plastic came from bits I broke off a discarded bumper on the side of the road <_<
Did you use a variable temp one?
At the moment I'm still in the testing stages, when I've got it down-pat I'll definitely write it up =)

Hessian

· #15 · Jun 7, 2010

Blender. Set to puree.

Yogi

· #16 · Jun 7, 2010

I used a small hand-held butane iron with a knife attachment.
The brittleness comes from the plastic burning or any FM in the weld I think

Drew

· #17 · Jun 7, 2010

clevermetal said:
@ Drew
Yeah I was using the Burr head, definitely worked, it just takes a while to get a tiny amount of shavings. Hopefully the coffee grinder will be the solution to this *crosses fingers* =D

@Yogi
I tried the soldering method earlier this year as well, worked fine though as you said, it's a bit messy, but I found the plastic was quiet brittle and ended up breaking. I've been told this was because my soldering iron was too hot. Might also have been because my raw plastic came from bits I broke off a discarded bumper on the side of the road <_<
Did you use a variable temp one?
At the moment I'm still in the testing stages, when I've got it down-pat I'll definitely write it up =)

Just get a 6mm die grinder then

RoryH

· #18 · Jun 7, 2010

you need one of these... http://www.willitblend.com

1 - 18 of 18 Posts

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