Can Stihl Plastic be welded ??

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blackdogon57

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I had the misfortune of cracking the handle assembly on my ms290. Does anyone know if Stihl plastic can be welded with heat or maybe fixed using epoxy ? The part is $89 at dealer. Any advice would be appeciated.
 
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It's ABS plastic, right? If so, then yeah, it can be plastic welded... Search your area (craigslist, etc) for a guy who advertises fixing motorcycle body panels and plastic welding...

Heck, a plastic welding kit is only $35 or so, with plastic rods being $6...

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=41592

ETA: or a kit that doesn't use compressed air, and is a little more smelly and may not look as nice when it's done is $15, and comes with the media...

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=67102

Mike
 
It's not just ABS. It has nylon fiber in it. I doubt welding's going to hold if it's broken in half in such a stressed area. You may just want to rivet/screw a piece of sheet metal over that area to get you buy until you can get a replacement. I'm sure they're available on eBay.
 
It's not just ABS. It has nylon fiber in it. I doubt welding's going to hold if it's broken in half in such a stressed area. You may just want to rivet/screw a piece of sheet metal over that area to get you buy until you can get a replacement. I'm sure they're available on eBay.

Almost any plastic with any strength has some amount of glass fiber fill in it... All you have to do is fix it with filler that contains the same amount or more glass fiber fill, and it'll be strong again... Motorcycle bodywork, for example, is fixed all the time from crashes, and has a pretty high glass fiber fill... Plastic car bumpers, as well, I believe...

Mike
 
Thanks guys - I found a local guy called The Plastic Surgeon. He says he can fix it in half an hour for 30 bucks. Says he has fixed many broken Stihl handles. I will post follow up when job is done.
 
Thanks guys - I found a local guy called The Plastic Surgeon. He says he can fix it in half an hour for 30 bucks. Says he has fixed many broken Stihl handles. I will post follow up when job is done.

No problem! Post pics when it's done, if you can!

Thanks,
Mike

Depending on where the break is, you might be able to reinforce it yourself. There is a link in my sig to a thread on just that. But 30 dollars to have it done is pretty reasonable, if it will be strong when it is done. Good luck!
 
I have an old Stihl 028 with a split in the carb housing at the top, where the two sides come together. I will likely be trying something with a soldering iron, that I have flattened the tip, and will use with a rheostat for reduced temp.
 
This I'll be curious to see. Most of the Stihl plastic components are straight nylon or glass filled nylon. Nylon is tough to weld as it is high melting, and with glass in it, you will never get a full strength joint where you join it as the glass fiber won't bridge the joint, assuming you successfully can weld it at all. It is also very solvent resistant, and as a result hard to glue (successfully).

If the break is in a low-stress area, you might get away with it. But usually breaks are in high stress areas (that's why it broke there...) unless it was the old tree-drop or truck crunch that got it.

-Dave
 
This I'll be curious to see. Most of the Stihl plastic components are straight nylon or glass filled nylon. Nylon is tough to weld as it is high melting, and with glass in it, you will never get a full strength joint where you join it as the glass fiber won't bridge the joint, assuming you successfully can weld it at all. It is also very solvent resistant, and as a result hard to glue (successfully).

If the break is in a low-stress area, you might get away with it. But usually breaks are in high stress areas (that's why it broke there...) unless it was the old tree-drop or truck crunch that got it.

-Dave

the 028 badge and the top cover have dents that did not all come out when I bent them back. I believe it was event-related.
 

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