I am trying to repair a crack in a kitchen colander. I tried using Extra Strong Super Glue (cyanoacrylate) which I bought from the pound shop. It did not hold the crack together.
The plastic seems to be a heat-resistant type and the Super Glue doesn't adhere so well?
Do I need to use some other glue for this type of plasic?
Thanks.
It is probably a plastic compound containing PE. Glue wont stick to it. Heat weld it together or buy a new one for $2.
I have never found SuperGlue to be worth much for anything. I'd suggest an epoxy, but for plastic, it's debatable if it will hold, unless it's made for plastic. By the time you buy the glues, why not just buy a new collander. I recall the old ones were made of aluminum, and lasted 50 years. But these days, everything is plastic shit, made to be replaced every year or two.
How does someone heat weld something like that? I'm assuming some special equipment is needed. I agree for the OP to buy a new one.
Get a big fresnel lens....
Greg
heat welding of plastics
There is special equipment, but small jobs can be done with a soldering iron, a hit knife, hot pan, etc.
Not really, you just need to pay in today's dollars what you paid in the past for a good version as here:
You get what you pay for applies in most of these instances.
M.Joshi wrote the following on 3/13/2013 7:35 PM (ET):
About 15 years ago, I had one of those plastic things that are screwed into a car engine, and have several nipples on them, which vacuum hoses attach to them. One of the nipples broke off, and I could not find a replacement part since the car was quite old. I did find an identical car at a junkyard, but that one had one or more nipples beoke off that same part. An auto parts store had some special epoxy which was made to be used on plastic. He said that stuff really works, and the only thing I have to avoid, is filling the hole inside that nipple, or the vacuum wont work. I bought some, and went to the local hardware store and bought some thin brass tubing which they sold in one foot lengths. I cut an inch of that tubing, shoved it in the two pieces and applied that epoxy. I had that car for many years, and that patch held well. Later, I used the same stuff to fix a piece of the car's plastic grill that broke off when I slid on ice and bumped into an icy snowpile. Once again, that patch held well.
Now, I wish I could remember the name of that stuff. I'd recommend it to anyone. Best plastic repair adhesive I have ever found. But I have no idea what it was called. All I can remember, is that it dried with a yellow color.
The only way to patch some types of plastic is to do like you did in the first case is to basically glue on a reinforcement.
In a decorative structure like your car grill, I suspect most glues would work.
In the case of the colander, I just looked at one in our kitchen and it is cracked but wife is still using it. Appears to be polyethylene which no glue will work. I started to mess it up by heating with a cigarette lighter but it would not melt properly to seal. This is an item to just be tossed when functionality is lost. You also have to remember that most plastics degrade with time from heat and light and lose strength and are not worth patching.
There are hundreds maybe thousand of plastic compounds. While it may work great with some, it won't work with others.
Polyethylene is notorious for adhesives not holding. Polystyrene can be easily held with many adhesives.
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