welding plastic drums

T

Tony F

Member
First I would like to say hello to everyone. I am new to this forum but I do recognize many names from other forums.This is a great forum, wish I had found it a long time before.

I have a question about welding plastic drums together. I have a few 55 gallon drums that I would like to weld together but I am not sure what type of plastic welder to purchase. I am not sure of the type or grade of plastic these drums are made of. If anyone has any suggestions or could point me in the right direction I would appreciate it very much.
 
A lot of information here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_welding#Hot_gas_welding I am familiar with three of the many kinds of plastic welding. Never have been around welding barrels together but it could be done. Solvent welding, Plumbers use this a lot. Hot gas welding where a hot gas is put on the plastic to bring it up to melting temperature and a filler rod being heated is placed in the joint. A special gun is used to do that. It works well with a little practice but it is slow. The third way for joining pipe is a heating element like a pan cake is put in between two lengths of pipe. This pan cake is heated to what ever the melting temperature of the plastic. When the plastic comes up to temperature. The pan cake is withdrawn and hydraulic pressure pushes the ends of the pipe together. This weld is as strong as the pipe.

I don't why or how many barrels you want put together or how strong the joint but I would look at mechanically putting them together. Might be cheaper in the long run.
 
I've heard about guys using "special" plastic welders from places like Harbour Freight to weld cracks and breaks in plastic boats & kayaks - might work on plastic drums.

It is like a gas welder from what I understand. You heat the area and add new plastic, creating the seal.
 
Here is the gun type i use for plastic welding. Mine is an older model. You also need a 9mm reducer and plastic welding tips.

The technique is similar to tig or gas welding as you heat and add rod. Some rod comes in precut lengths, some continuous.

www.engineeringlab.com/heatguns3.html

The method for determining the type of plastic is covered here.

www.steinel.net/resources/PDFs/Plastic_Welding_Brochure.pdf

I think Pete states it well,"It may be cheaper to connect them mechanically."

I use my heat gun allot for everything from plastic welding, burning out pin worm damage, accelerating cures in epoxy and polyester resins to soldering copper pipe where an open flame my not be suitable. The plastic welding aspect is what I bought it for, the rest is just utilizing it.


Eric
 
Thank to all of you for your help. My biggest problem was finding out what type of plastic these drums are made of. Eric the information you provided hit the nail on the head.Not only does it tell you how to know what type of plastic you have but also the correct temperature to weld the plastic.Great info.
 
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