I feel a real numpty having got my angles slightly wrong when sticking together several pieces of PVC 68mm pipe and connectors. These pieces connect from the gutter and feed the rainwater in to a bespoke 5x4 inch GRP downpipe which cost quite a lot.
Question .... is it impossible to undo such connections ie does the solvent totally fuse the two contact areas together. Does applying heat make it easier?
VT
if done right - you made a solid piece of plastic, no second chances.
(Whilst your GRP bits might cost a bit - extra solvent weld fittings and bits of pipe shouldn't?)
JimK
Yup - yur stuffed. I've dissected a joint to check the quality of the bond, and no chance.
If you've done it correctly, it becomes like one bit of plastic. So no chance at all of disassembling it.
You shouldn't stick connectors, makes them impossible to take apart if they become blocked.
No chance I'm afraid.
I once did that and no, they will not came apart again, however...
You might be able to cut off the cheaper part and using a grinder or Dremel grind away they surplus plastic from the expensive part.
Good point: The wall brackets hold the pipe tight and you just remove one screw to slide the pipe up and down when cleaning the leaves out of the diverter hopper (In which you also want a strainer to keep them from going any further down.)
Plastic gutters quite often need minor adjustments as they move with the summer heat and winter cold too, and having some adjustability at the downpipes can come in handy.
S
Yes, I had feared that this would be the case.
Plan '"B"' is to cut out a section and put a bit of something flexible in. I have obtained a bit of 70mm rubber hose but that kinks however I have seen 70mm silicone hose inducting pipe (as used in the automotive field) which will let me get the offset I need without kinking. Looks like this.....
VT
The plastic gutter at the local Uni accommodation blocks - very long lengths - used to make really loud noises on hot days as it expanded, much to the annoyance of hung over students in the top floor flats :-)
If you spot your mistake quickly, then you can separate the bits - but usually if you are prepared to sacrifice one of them. So for example cutting a pipe off close to a socket and then hacking the remaining bits out of the socket a bit at a time. Left to fully set however and it becomes very difficult or impossible!
I have several times cut the pipe above the expensive bit and used a keyhole saw to cut a slot in the bit of pipe that's left. Lever up one side of the slot and use vice grips to peel the rest of the pipe out.
If the pipe is ABS (as it often is, because ABS is cheaper), then you stand a chance of doing this because ABS doesn't solvent weld quite so well to PVC.
I can't immediately find a reference to the handy little booklet on plastics analysis/ID I used to use in a quality control lab, but I have found a little about the handy 'Burn & Sniff test' in another group (of bike enthusists). Note that some plastics give off corrosive fumes, so the technique is not to sniff a la mode of a line of coke, but to gently waft some fumes from a burning piece - the size of a grain of rice is plenty - on the end of a knife or spatula, toward your nose, and cautiously note the nature of the fumes. Plastics exhibit quite a wide range of behaviours in a flame so this is actually a very useful test, and was the first step to separate out major families of plastic, before an in depth chemical analysis followed. Below is only a small part of the range, but it should still be handy to diy-ers. Here we are interested to know that PVC starts to burn then goes out as soon as you take it out of the flame; (polypropylene has a 'clear orange flame with an acid odour' - according to the table below: not sure about that acid odor bit in this case); polyethylene burns clear like a smokeless candle; and ABS gives off floating sooty particles (Typical styrene behaviour), with a sweet smell. PVC is nearly always full of oily plasticisers, and in my experience is very difficult to glue successfully as a result.
Possibly some older diy-ers may know where to find the original little booklet this all comes from. When you come across plastic items that are clearly labled, why not keep a reference collection to compare burn and sniffs of unlabled stuff. You soon acquire an educated nose and eye.
SRe: 87 VFR 700...plastic welding. What's it made of?
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Burn some & see if it fits:
No smoke, orange flame, acid smell................P.P.........black rod fan shroudsfender skirts, interior panels
No smoke, blue flame, candle wax smell..........P E .............brown rod valance panels, overflow tanks
Black sooty smoke hangs in air sweet smell.....A B S........blue rod Grilles, dashes, headlight housings
Self extinguishing.......PVC........gray rod filler panels, valance panels
Sputtering effect black smoke......T P U R........nat/clear rod bumper covers
Dark smoke..........XENOY........shiny black rod taurus, sable bumpers
Burning wool smell orange flame.......Glass filled nylon........Triang. Lt beige plastic rad. reservoirs
Smells musty.......NORYL...........Gray triang small percentage of rad. reservoirs __________________
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IANA arsonist ....... PVC is self-extinguishing?
JimK
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Yes: unless you hold it in a flame it soon goes out.
For incendiary effect you want nitro-cellulose, as in old rulers and exploding billiard balls.
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