Kayak Plastic Welding (2022)
Plastic weld. Clearly the sharpie I used when I found the crack got welded into the plastic.
Motivation:
I bought a whitewater kayak that had a crack in it
Description:
I borrowed a plastic welder from a friend and spent an afternoon learning how to plastic weld. I drilled holes in the end of the crack so it wouldn’t continue to grow and embedded a wire mesh to strengthen the weld.
Lessons Learned:
It is not pretty, but the plastic weld seems to be working. Every time I get water in my boat, I am convinced that the boat leaks, but after taking it down to a couple different rivers, I am pretty convinced that the weld is holding up. The boat does have some bolts that were nearly impossible to remove, so a good reminder to avoid that in my own designs.
Reasons why to use stainless steal instead of other screws on a boat