HDPE repair

I don't know if glue will hold but I fixed one of mine (before the city eventually replaced it) by just drilling six holes and bolting a (scrap) sheet metal plate across the broken area.

My cost was zero

Cut up a plastic milk jug for the donor HDPE material.

Fuse it with a hot air gun or soldering iron. Use a light dimmer to make the air/iron run much cooler.

There is no good glue for polyethylene but fusing the plastic, adding more of the same plastic should work.

Unfortunately when PE starts to crack the whole polymer product has probably been degraded by oxidation and sunlight and may no longer be useful and best just be replaced.

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Damn.

I already used a couple of Simpson mending plates and tried some EVA hot glue. When that fails I can afford a new one.

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When the city replaced it, did they charge you? Property taxes pay for "free" disposal here, but the bins are my expense.

There's a whole row of damaged bins in my neighborhood. Probably a maladjusted robot arm.

Repair job opportunity.

The EVA hot glue sticks didn't bond all that well so next I tried burning polystyrene coat hangars similar to applying P-Tex onto a pair of skis. Still not ideal so I got

for my 140 watt Weller soldering iron. Wore my trigger finger out after about 12" of repairs. Burning 1/2" strips of a cut up jug and dripping it onto the joint works pretty well. It goes fairly fast and you can go back over it multiple times to reinforce the repair.

Neighbors are looking at me funny.

try an Ungar-style pencil iron with a BIG tip. use a light dimmer or variac to set the temperature. This site has a temperature chart:

I use a SMT hot air rework station to get accurate temperature control. A butane soldering iron with a hot-air tip works too, but you have to be careful not to overheat.

Thanks for the link. I was looking at melting temp instead of welding temp.

I'm OK with my hillbilly burning technique. Don't really need any more equipment for what should be an occasional problem.

Stumpy posted for all of us...

Rightly so.