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Plastic rod dispenser?

primuspaul

Feb 7, 2018
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I have a glue gun, but have had much more success using a plastic welder, which results in much greater structural strength, heat resistance, and longevity. I know there are soldering irons, plastic welding irons, and air blowers for plastic welding, but is there a true high heat dispenser for plastic welding rods? I'm talking about something that heats up like a glue gun or soldering iron (meaning it does NOT use forced air) and dispenses melted plastic like PVC or LDPE instead of low temperature plastic glue? Even the so-called "high temp" hot glue is nothing compared to plastic welding.

And where would you get the rods for it? Technically a high temp glue gun (400 deg F) can melt many plastics, but the welding rods they sell a re much smaller in diameter than the half inch glue sticks the guns are made for.
 

kellys_eye

Jun 25, 2010
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Given that different plastics melt at different temperatures there is no reason why a standard glue gun couldn't be adapted using some form of temperature control to allow any type of plastic to be used. Fit a thermistor and use a soldering iron digital controller to set the temperature for example.

Your difficulty, as you suggest, may be to find the rods.... but there are plastic suppliers that can deliver rods of material - lots of different plastics in lots of different diameters - 10mm and 12mm (glue gun stick diameter) are common: acetal, PVC etc (look on eBay, there are loads) and model suppliers may also be able to help.

You will probably need a combination of direct heat and 'blown' heat to get all the surfaces to a temperature where the melting actually 'melts' of you'll just end up having a plastic run lying on top of the surfaces to be joined.
 

primuspaul

Feb 7, 2018
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I'm planning to use a glue gun with temp control that goes to over 400 deg f. They sell 12mm x 250mm pmma rods.
 
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