Patching Plastic?

[Todd M]

This is definitely off topic but does deal with molten liquid My wife has this brand new Popsicle kit for making homemade popsicles. So she stuck all the pieces in the dishwasher and low and behold one of the cups fell down and melted on the heating element. Do y'all have ideas how to patch it so that a popsicle will still slide out once it's frozen? Just like building ingot molds, only with plastic.

 

[Pistolero]

Those are usually polyethylene, and AFAIK nothing will bond to it like a glue. You can heat it again to soften,
and reform. Perhaps casting something like bondo in one of the other ones to get the desired shape in a hard-ish
and relatively temp insensitive material, then slip the form into the damaged one while you heat the damaged one CAREFULLY
with a heat gun. Once hot enough, you should be able to form the softened polyethylene with a leather glove
over the form. Put a substantial handle into the form before it sets and clamp that in a vise.

Good luck. Actually, if you make a reasonably good wooden form it would work, but I think that forming it to
a proper shape might take a LOT more work than filling a mold with bondo and putting a heavy duty handle
into the bondo before it hardens.

 

[Todd M]

Thanks. It's not worth my time in monetary terms, but I know how I would feel with a brand new set and one missing. I will try that. So then, how heat insensitive is bondo? Can it be used with molten lead?

 

[troj]

I'm not sure I'd put Bondo on or in anything that I planned to use for food. The chemicals in the stuff are pretty nasty.

I also wouldn't use it with molten lead, as it'll likely off-gas fumes like heck when you do so.

 

[Rick]

I think that if I wanted to do something to make the wife feel better about her little oopsie I would just buy a whole new set. How expensive can a Popsicle mold be?

 

[Ian]

$2.99. Sometimes it's the principle, though.

There go my plans for non-toxic Bondo bullets.

 

[Todd M]

I'm still at the point in life (young) where I would rather try to fix it (and spend countless hours doing so) than spend the money. I guess if ya figure in the cost of bondo, it is cheaper to buy a new set. And save me a lot of fiddling and faddling around.

 

[yodogsandman]

They sell a polyethylene welder for about $250. Kind of like a hot glue gun on a larger scale. Would still have a tough time repairing it, though. Even poly won't stick to poly real good.

I guess you could heat the damaged area and reshape it the best you can then, each time you use the mold, re-wrap with Saran wrap to help prevent leakage.

Or maybe, cast a wax mold from the back side of a good cavity and use it over the bad cavity when making popsicles.

 

[Pistolero]

I have tried to get hot glue poly to stick to heated poly items to weld it, no luck. Looked like it
was working, peeled off later, no strength.

Bondo is probably slightly higher temp resistance than polyethylene, but not a lot. Nowhere near lead melting
point. If there is just distortion, then this may work, if perforated, the only fix IMO is reshape as much as
you can, but then to seal it with duct tape, assuming just a small hole. Even that is relatively temporary.

In the end, how much does it cost to replace it? Polyethylene is not easily repaired.

Bill

 

[RBHarter]

I saw this thread and thought paper patched gluettes, the as I clicked moulded poly-tungsten shot........

Unless it was Mom's vintage I had them as a kid Tupperware I think I would just replace the set . I've tried several different means for duck deks over the years and the only thing that has really been a sure permanent fix was 3-4 deks full of great stuff polyurathane foam even hot welds on BB holes only lasted a few days in the cold .