Can you weld plastic with a soldering iron that doesn’t have a welding tip?

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NurturantQuasar

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My friends old trashed hpi rs4 MT has a cracked bit in the steering preventing it from steering very well. Gorilla glue and tape don’t work well. so I want to plastic weld it so me and him can go to the park nearby and have fun and so I can get his car and box of batteries and chargers out of my garage. I have seen plastic welding tips for soldering irons on amazon. Do I absolutely need one to plastic weld a small short crack? Or can I get by using the standard round tip that’s on it?
 
You can weld plastic, but it will not be very strong. In fact, as soon as you go to use it, it will break.

There are ways to make a mold of the part and melt down the old part to make the new part, but that would take more time and money than what it's worth to buy a new one. If price is an issue, check out Ebay. That's about the cheapest place you will find the part.
 
You can weld plastic, but it will not be very strong. In fact, as soon as you go to use it, it will break.

There are ways to make a mold of the part and melt down the old part to make the new part, but that would take more time and money than what it's worth to buy a new one. If price is an issue, check out Ebay. That's about the cheapest place you will find the part.
Alright then I’ll leave that up to my friend to fix if he wants to cause I'm not going to spend my money fixing it since it isn’t mine.
 
They actually make plastic welders( I have a professional Laramy plastic welder) that use super heated low pressure compressed air and a fine tip to focus it on small areas. It works well for many things but I am not sure a weld would hold up to the stress of steering. The problem is the original plastic parts strength comes from the fact that they are molded under high pressure to condense the plastic. The welder does does not have that ability and the other mold method mentioned has the same issue where a really strong part is needed.
 
They have an old saying in automotive, that anything can be fixed, with enough money. Speaking as someone who still has his 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th cars, that is good news, since I want to keep 1, 3, and 4 forever.
 
I use fiberglass or carbon fiber to make my parts or to reinforce the plastic parts.
 
no matter what 1 does to try and get plastic that is broken can never achieve anything better than of it stuck..try to melt weld and bond many plastics together with a huge amount of fixes .best to buy new or make the part if you have the skill.aluminum carbon fiber.nylon.uhm whatever...
 
no matter what 1 does to try and get plastic that is broken can never achieve anything better than of it stuck..try to melt weld and bond many plastics together with a huge amount of fixes .best to buy new or make the part if you have the skill.aluminum carbon fiber.nylon.uhm whatever...
I always buy new parts if something breaks it just an idea back then I wasn’t sure if my friend actually cared to fix his rc or cared about it at all. Cause it just sat in a box he brought in my garage for ages. so I was just trying to get it sort of working for him Without spending cash. But in the end My friend actually took his rs4 home and fixed it up himself a bit. he bought himself a battery, painted his own body and fixed the cracked steering Horn and a couple of other suspension parts and it worked great.

But sadly his first time driving it on the street in front of my house he smacked a curb and snapped the old brittle chassis in half and it’s impossible to find a replacement at a reasonable price so it’s dead.

Now thinking about it I’ve seen rs4 mt electric roller chassis sell upwards of 300 bucks on eBay. If I had known about that at the time I would of told him to sell his. Since his was completely original electronics, body and all and worked really well and was in great condition I’m sure he could of sold it for a decent price and then bought himself something better and newer.
 
When I was in my teens, I didn't have the money to replace parts on my cars. I had to get creative. You can repair a suspension arm by wrapping a layer of fiberglass around it. Made it heavy, but it ran. I would also make a mold of a suspension arm and fill the mold with fiberglass and resin, or carbon fiber and resin. It worked quite well. I never broke one of those. I ended up breaking a lot of bulkheads tough. I also made my shock towers this way.
 
If it is ABS plastic, try Acetone. Buy some styrene sheets and layer over the broken area like a cast.
 
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