How to Fix Cracks in Plastic Using a Hot Stapler
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- Опубликовано: 13 авг 2022
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Today we'll be using a #HotStapler to fix a cracked John Deere hood, on a #GX335 riding lawn mower.
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This technique doesn't fuse the plastic together like #PlasticWelding would, instead, it uses metal staples to link the 2 pieces of plastic together.
To achieve penetration into the plastic, the tool uses electrical current to heat the Stainless Steel elements (this is why they're referred to as Hot Staples) which allows them to be pressed into the plastic.
By linking both pieces of plastic together, movement is eliminated. This increases the plastic's structural integrity, and prevents the crack from spreading further.
Combined with plastic welding, you could hypothetically achieve a fix that's stronger than the original plastic itself.
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Hello I recently wanted to get a plastic welder and was wondering if you still have that welder and is it still working?
@@VampiressEsmerelda yes still works, best $30 ever for fixing cracked plastic objects
Definitely beats the old drill'n'stitch zip tie mechanic method I've been doing for years.
Yea it really does, these work great. Like I said in some other comments, for the price, you really can't beat it!
My uncle used to do the same thing! He started with bailing twine, moved up to fencing wire. But when zip ties came out he finally won.
He even tried JBWELD. The vibration from the mower made everything come loose.. not the zip ties 🇺🇸
I wonder if super glue tape (kind of) works on those type of stuff.
I don't know about it name but it's very sticky and very strong 😄
Agreed 👍🏼
But those old zip ties looks like a war scars for me
Repairing will come back in fashion when money will get tight. I was looking for a video to fix my fridge box. Thank you!
Very good demo, clear visuals, great instructions, comprehensive, and NO MUSIC, WHAT JOY!
Excellent. I needed this. Thank you!!!
Dremel is useless for anything other than jewelry! No power. My trusty angle grinder is best. I have a 5" Bosch which is too heavy and too powerful for small jobs. I would suggest a small angle grinder, light duty with 4.5" blades or smaller. If anyone knows a good brand, please let me know.
I would have done one more step - put painters tape on good side. Fill in the cracks with super glue on bad side, and sprinkle baking soda to harden. Now sand down, This will be harder.
I fix my daughter’s 335 hood this week. I ended up ordering the same kit and after installing the staples I put a coat of clear JB Weld over the staples. It served two purposes by working into the joints left by the staples and also covered the sharp points.The hood had one side completely broken out and after reconnecting everything I laid a layer of fiberglass over the entire area. The bottom area of plastic where the mounting brackets attach was completely gone. I found some plastic inserts to fit into the holes of the brackets and drilled new holes through the bottom of the front grill. With the fiberglass repair kit and plastic welding kit I had fifty dollars invested.
I use paper clips to make specific shapes (circles, triangles, squares) and they're cheap. They are chrome coated and will not rust. Also, I melt the bubbled surface to both smooth the repair and to seal the element from the weather if I don't get around to paintint the seam. Great video though.
Great idea!!!
The staple tails have some indentations in them to allow you to just bend them a little and they'll snap off, but I've only had marginal success with that. I typically use a Dremel with a cutting wheel on them.
Only other thing I'd mention is once you get the staple to depth, give it a very slight twist to help the staple become completely embedded under plastic. Otherwise, they could sometimes pull out.
Thank you for a great video and for sharing 😊
Just for your info. I have this item plus the regular soldering iron looking plastic welding kit and have had and used them both for a couple of years (occasional use) with no issues. I tend to use the soldering iron looking one along with stainless steel screen more often than this one, but there are use cases for both.
Hey Mark, yea I was using it the other day to fix a broken plastic snowblower chute and tried what others had mentioned about snapping the ends off, they didn't snap at all lol I still had to cut them. Like you said with the soldering iron, I then used it to melt the plastic over the staples and it seemed to hold really well. The twist definitely helps keep them in there.
The twist idea is very useful. Thx.
Very informative . I've got a job for this . Thanks buddy.
Very fine stainless mesh and a soldering iron with a large surface area tip does a great job too. Just cut out the right size of mesh and push it in with the soldering iron, leaves a better surface finish and is very strong, you can also use it to add filler material on the top surface before sanding it to same surface finish as the rest of the piece, maybe vapor smooth it with acetone if it’s abs or asa
Beat me by a week. Yes the screen has saved me so much time, money buying new pieces. Some u can't buy so fixing is only option.
I've used this but with an electronics rework station
The ~400°c air does beautiful things
He definitely mentioned that he was not that concerned about the overall appearance but was more focused on showing how the soldering tool works and getting the cracks repaired.
Thanks a lot, that's a great idea! I was just about to buy yet another single-purpose tool that I use twice a year. I still have an old soldering iron that I don't use anymore and some stainless steel mesh is easy to get, so I'll definitely try your method first.
I do this, and melt plastic over to hide it where possible, on black plastic, melting cable ties as filler/strenthener works well.
Learn something everyday if you get up, dress up, and show up! Enjoyed your technique doing the video.
Love how the light shines about 3-4 inches away from the work area.
Yea it's not really needed lol
John Deere and Toro should include one of these in every sale. Nice tool addition to the shop supply boss it will come in handy and pay for itself in a short period of time. Money well spent and a fine repair that our customer will be happy to see although this was the minor part of his repair. Very well presented tool review looking forward to seeing other tools you use in the shop and any that you may have made to make repairs easier.
Yes it works awesome, and like I said in other comments, this can now be a service that I offer at a cost and the tool will quickly pay for itself. Thanks for watching!
Or they should just use a better plastic that doesn't break so easily, but they are cheap so use cheap plastic.
John Deere will redesign the shell so that the entire mower stops working if you attempt to repair it.
@@Puddingskin01 Now that is a good one!
I had a few riding lawnmowers which the plastic broke in the same spot. One thing I did was when I bought a new mower I took off the hood and fiberglassed a few strips around the inside edge, mostly on the weak points. It's been about 6 years and no cracks anywhere. This has been a great review, I was always curious about these plastic welders.
Great idea thanks for sharing this one!
Fixed the hood on my x300 with one ,never new it existed but it sure does the trick and it’s great on car bumpers 👍🏻🍻🇨🇦
I have been putting off fixing my Kubota's plastic with hardware cloth and a big soldering iron, Some thing I saw a while ago on YT. I'm glad I saw this first.
If I am not mistakened, the tool is actually a low voltage high current transformer, more or less the same idea as a soldering gun. Other than the on-off switch and the plastic case, there is nothing to breakdown. You should expect the it to last for a very long time. Just make sure you do not over heat it by not using it continuously for a long time. My soldering gun lasted me over 30 years and keeps on working.
You beat me to it. It's like a Weller soldering gun that lasts 50 years except for maybe the switch.
Take the panels off, ruff them up under neath and clean with acetone, apply fiberglass mat 2-3 sheets thickness setting on aluminum foils then pore on resin, pick up aluminum foil, flip over to epoxy side, put on stress areas and cracks, wait a about 10 min or more depending on curing, peal off aluminum foils, leaves nice smooth surface. Easy, clean no mess, fantastic strong repair, prevents future cracks. Flip panels, bondo the small cracks or not, finish how you want. The beauty of the foil is you can put on vertical and upside surfaces cleanly with no mess. Could do this with wheel off underneath.
Thank you for a fine presentation. Press on !!
I just bought one today online, and I can't wait to repair some broken plastic trimmings on my Land Rover ❤ thank you for your kind review, I do appreciate it dearly!
I bought one of these and a soldering iron style kit for setting in metal mesh and plastic rod. I've used them for quite a few repairs now and something handy to have around.
The staples are really surprisingly hard to cut. I found a pair of guitar fret, end nippers that are very sharp and flush cutting.
Good tip, I've heard that a few times I'll have to get a set!
Excellent video! I learned a new trick! Tx.!
For cutting the ends of the staples its best to use an electrician's side cutters. You can get exactly at the staple where it comes out of the plastic.
Just picked one up for a cracked truck mirror. Can't wait to get it all fixed up. Nice vid.
Enjoyed, now subscribed, many thanks 👍👍👍
I use my soldering gun with paper clips as the staples. Thanks for the upload
After sanding them down smooth you could also go over it with a coat of body filler to further help hold the staples in and make it a seamless looking repair
As long as it's compatible with the plastic. Personally I wouldn't go for Bondo or the like bc the substrate is soft, and sanding down even a tight Bondo patch is gonna scuff/dull the surrounding areas and become its own issue to refinish.
Used to do that with a soldering iron and just cut little pieces of stainless wire , hada small hole on the tip of the tool for it, it worked great
We actually did the same thing with our soldering iron before, this tool and the preformed pieces way easier to use.
Yes the dentfix one has a tool like that, plastic welding combined with the hot staples would be super strong!
Another great video. Here is a tip. To speed up the cooling process of the plastic you can use compressed air set a low psi.
I use any scrap wire, or the best thing to use is screen. Stainless screen about .25 of a inch wide. Also get a roll of the duct tape that is made of metal on 1 side. The name escapes me but used on heating and cooling pipes and cracks. That works as a heat sink so the heat don't screw up the part. U can bend wire of any size to fit urr purpose. I like the screen and a weller soldering iron that has a tip with a small foot with a point like a trowel. That puts a big amount of heat and will get the screen started into plastic then I go over with a regular flat screwdriver type tip if I need to get that screen or wire deeper. I've used on quad fenders, bumpers for automotive, kids toys etc.
A old plastic bucket makes some great filler for most plastics. Get to know what kind of plastic your working with. Not all are same. And u can do who's without a mask IF u have a fan blowing over the work. A spray bottle with water is good to cool down the welding quickly especially with thin pieces. Don't waste time and money on glue for plastic. Plastic will flex, bend etc. This method is hands down the best way to fix plastic. I've never used a kit like this but it seems nice to have those clips instead of bending wire or cutting screen. Always go slow and u can make great looking repairs in no time. It's especially gr8 for those dam clips or ears on door panels that always seem to break, after all others come out fine. And we know how much plastic is in our autos these days. I have also found the steel screens that come in faucets work so well for small cracks. That's the type of screen u need. U can twist and rip and it won't budge. I have repaired a bumper on a work truck and have tried to break repair. It will break in a new spot before repair fails. For hard to fix projects also resin and fiberglass can be a life saver too. Especially for posts that get broken. Like door panels. Dam old plastic door panels.
I really thank you for a great demo on how to fix plastic cracks. You covered all the little details, including safety, as well as cost and reliability. Good Show!
Nice tip to drill a hole at the end of the crack to stop its expansion👍
We make our own staples. You talked about a spiral and we made one. I use diff size paper clips and bend how I want. So FYI you can use paper clips. Sometimes you may have to sand the contact ends because some paper clips we found have a layer of something that will keep from making good contact. But for the most part you can use them as is. Hope this helps....
Sweet, i just bought the same thing, cracked my bumper on my Z hitting a curb, this is the cheapest fix
Fantastic! I had no idea that this existed. Nice to know that there is another way. Many replacement parts are no longer available or crazy expensive. I repaired a crack in cars rear bumper years ago with pop rivets and the repair still is perfect today.
These work great. Used it on cracked refrigerator shelf brackets. Bought some flush cut dykes from harbor freight to get rid od the sharps. Really good vid!
I bought one of the welders, it fixed my broken JD hood, did a good job,
Much better than having a busted hood,
I have been using one of these recently to repair plastic boxes. It works very well
Useful video as I've been thinking about buying one of these cheap Chinese hot staplers. From what I've seen, I think once you sink the staple into the plastic, you're meant to give it a little twist. This would mean the staple is buried into the plastic better and wouldn't pop out.
Cool thanks! This is exactly what I need for my cracked mower hood!
Excellent. Clean up a breeze. Results are Top Notch. The precision of an even melt sink, is an improvement from many older home remedies. The tool is cool. I have mini end cutters that will work. Great demo video. I need to fix cracked splash cowling under my Jeep.
Oh that thing looks handy. I recently needed to repair the handle on a large plastic basket. My solution was to drill a bunch of small holes, then stitch it together using 20 AWG stainless steel solid wire. The repair was extremely solid but was time consuming and is rather non-subtle.
Bought one awhile back. Told my wife I might need it. Well today used it on the ayp snowblower plastic bottom cover.
Nice, they commonly crack and yes if you find the pieces you can repair them. Sadly the ones brought in are too smashed up
Bit off body filler and sanding would make that look brand new! Great video bud!
i have been using one of these for about 7 years now, they are very good. rabbit cutters cut flush andd are round like that. i actually just repaird a plastic dipper today with mine, mine also came with a smoothing tool to hook to it to cover the staples with melted plastic by rubbing it over the inserted staples so they wont come back out in the future.
Thanks for all your tips and information. You're very helpful and knowledgeable.
Another great tool demo. Very cool. Thanks again for sharing with us guy.
Excellent videos! Love your detailed explanations and directions. You have a new fan!!! Thanks to Bruce Pender for giving, you a shout out.
Thanks for the kind words Donna! When did Bruce give me the shout-out? I'll have to head over and leave him a comment. Thanks for watching!
@@EliminatorPerformance I’m not sure. I watch him a lot too so I don’t recall exactly when. If I find it I will reply.
Bruce does great videos and is an all around great person. I have actually called him and we talked for about an hour.
Great video thanks for breaking down the process of plastic welding. I just ordered my hot stapler and ready to get down to business.
I'm going to be honest. After watching a bunch of these videos, I decided to take my paper stapler and staple the plastic tab that broke off a truck's kick panel and then melt a zip tie along the crack and over the staples. Then I took my wood engraver and flattened the plastic out smooth. It worked great, but I would like one of these tools.
Well organized, your preparation well done and sthe script was well written. Very nice job. Thanks for sharing.
For the scrap pins after cutting. If you tape a small peace of the green Floral foam to the side of the end cutter it should hold/catch the wire bit so it dose not fly away. Would take some trial and error to get the size right for Visibility/Catchability.
Thanks for sharing the plastic welding process.
I came up with my own line of staples using up my scraps of .030 mig wire. They work great and are magnetic.
Learn something everyday. Thanks.
Great review and a cool tool to have for the casual repairer. 😎 One tip I would suggest is to use stapler sleeves as a depth guide so you don't melt through to the good side.
Great video sir, very well put together and informative. Thank you
Great tool ^^ Thanks for the demo
2:04 it would not have to be polarized even if it was DC current flowing through. The staples themselves are basically resistors which are not polarized.
You can “capture” those cut-off ends by putting a built-up bead if Silicone Rubber RTV (room temp vulcanization) from common hardware store tubes applied to the BACK side of the nippers blades. That way the two sides of the rubber “pinch” the wire being cut, and stops it from a free-range exit to the floor, or, you know, your eyeball.
Something I may look into, how weird I just see this comment now and watched a video on this the other night
Or just lay a rag over the cutter end as you snip them so they don't fly off.
Impeccably explained! 👏👏👏
Thanks for the review. 2 things I would add: 1) when you sink the staples, at the end, twist them a bit. 2) After using the flap-disk, apply G-FLEX EPOXY (from West Marine) to cover the crack and strengthen the joints.
I've seen the staples where the ends of those pins break off with just your fingers because its scored to do so. Saves time.
These weren't so we had to snip
a good and thorough demonstration. thx
Thanks for the info, been curious about these staplers you confirmed what I thought about them 👍
gotta have to get me one of this, thanks for the review! happy holiday!
very good video. excellent explanation for all aspects of the use of the tool and the finishing off of the staples
What a great solution! That looks like thermoset plastic, which is much harder to melt and reform successfully. As others have mentioned, I would float a layer of epoxy over the top of that repair. It will cover the burrs and reinforce an obviously weak area of the hood. I've found a thin layer of epoxy to work very well to strengthen weak plastic pieces. I even pieced back together my truck's front grill after I drove over it (don't ask how).
A spiral one would be epic. Good idea! Great idea!!
Thank you for this Very Well Done instructional video!
Buddy is teaching us while he learns lol, I love this stuff. The cutters the hand underneath lol.
1st time use, reviewing and showing it off. It's a great tool, and I learned some tips from the comments. Thanks for watching!
Well done! Great review. I wish there was something like this years ago.
The Binford 5000
Very informative. Thank you for uploading!
Bravo.............the true test.......55 gallon plastic barrel ..............cut with blade 1 feet on bootom.side .........now see how good u are.........plastic welder.......mine leak little .......Water is logic ......proof in the leak ......cheers
Love the way you explained everything... I have to fix the air plates under my '95 Lexus. The dealer took no care when removing them and reinstalling.. This looks like the answer to the broken plastic I have to work with.. Shop around.. I see this on Amazon today for $18 US. Yes I subscribed...
Thanks for watching, and thanks for the kind words!
Great video. I understand every word. Thank you so much.
Awesome tool. Thank you!
Very interesting! This is the first time I have seen one of these.
That seems to work nicely when you know how to do it as you did. Thanks for the video!
Thanks for watching!
I have the dent fix hot stapler, its a great tool and I've used in the body shop I work at for years! You cant go wrong if you use it alot
Yea that's what I figured, just like an induction heating tool, not everyone will have one and if you need one for every day get a good one. I think I'll email them and see if they'll send one for review, their deluxe kit has a bunch of cool accessories by the looks of it.
@@EliminatorPerformance if you cant get them to send you one ill send you mine to demo
Awesome video tutorial! Exactly what I needed to know!
Excellent video, brilliant repair.
Nice I need to repair my bumper and was looking at this! Awesome!
Very informative and helpful tips, thank you very much 👍
Awesome video, great job!
Awesome video!
Good information. Thanks!
Glad to have stumbled across this.
Motorbike repair needed but plastic is plastic. Good video.
Excellent tool I'm really impressed with that, great review👌👍
Thanks bumpkin! It works so well that I look forward to using it in the future. I'm sure I can advertise this as a service and the tool will pay for itself.
well worth tool right there to fix plastic hoods or any other parts of a mower that has plastic on it that is cracked thanks for sharing this one jake 🔧
This tool works awesome, thanks for watching!
Good video, well explained, well demonstrated. Looks like a tool I could use from time to time. I laughed when you pointed out that you can't pick up those clippings with a magnet.
What a mess lol I figured that part out after they flew everywhere. Thanks for watching!
Awesome. Very well explained.
Great video. I wish I had this gadget to repair the plastic fender's on my three wheeler back in the day. Good work.
For $37 you can't beat it, thanks for watching!
Very well explained.
Nice, I've thought about a DIY version of this with a heated paperclip. this makes it quick and easy.
Great video, very thorough, thank you.
Wish I had known about this a looong time ago! You don't discuss minimum thickness of the plastic, so I guess I'll figger it out on my own. Thanks!
This is such a great video! Thank you!
Your Very, Very Informative HANDS ON , On "How to Fix Cracks in Plastic Using a Hot Stapler"..Is By Far The Most BEST DIY Video...Anywhere On The Internet Today. Fantastic Review, & How To!!-..Great Work/Job!!..Many, Many Thanks For Uploading!!
It's unbelievable how well this little tool works, and for about $35 it's already more than paid for itself and I've been able to fix many things that would have otherwise been thrown in the garbage. Thanks for the kind words, and thanks for watching!
Looks great! thank you
There have been a few times i could use it, been thinking about getting one. Thanks for the video. And demo
Thanks for watching!
Nice tool. I think I would reinforce both corners with carbon fiber cloth after the repair.