Klarinet Archive - Posting 001134.txt from 1999/05

From: "Edi & Rose Malinaric" <emovi@-----.za>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re neckstrap
Date: Tue, 25 May 1999 17:10:57 -0400

-----Original Message-----
From: Pat Hamilton <pcham@-----.com>
Date: 25 May 1999 10:20
Subject: [kl] Re neckstrap

"You can't solder plastic, ....Pat"

Oh yes you can - although one should more correctly use "weld" instead of
solder.
I've been using my soldering iron to repair all sorts of broken plastic odds
& ends for quite a few years.

A few days ago my sister-in-law brought me her Swatch watch with a broken
catch. The material section was about 1.5 mm wide and maybe 1mm thick. The
agents wouldn't even look at it. I first used my hot-air paint stripper to
soften the deformed catch and reset it into its original shape. I then
scratched around in my "useful scrap" box and found a piece of black plastic
which matched the colour and then I carefully welded the break together
using the smaller of my two electric soldering irons (the little one is used
for working on printed circuit boards) . Afterwards I filed, sanded and
buffed the repair to near invisibility.

You first melt your way across the break with a rotary motion - mixing the
semi-plastic goo together from either side of the break. You also end up
with a rather untidy looking trench. Then melt a small piece off the
"filler" plastic and transfer it to the repair and again work it into the
break. This repeated until your repair stands proud of the original
surface. Then it's a matter of reducing it to the original surface.

Try it out on scrap plastic bits at first until you have worked out the dos
and donts of the technique.

good luck - edi

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