Charlie Morgan wrote in
:

On 22 Nov 2006 05:45:34 -0800, wrote:


Richard J Kinch wrote:
Steve Barker LT writes:

jb weld

JB "Weld" is just overpriced EPOXY.

Epoxy does not bond to polyethylene fuel tanks.

JBWeld, I agree, will not work here.

It does a few things that plain epoxy won't though.

D

"Plain" epoxy is pretty thin stuff. Those who work with epoxy on a
regular basis rarely use it without additives or special hardeners of
some sort. The additives used vary with the task at hand. JB weld is
different only in that it has some fillers added into the mix to give
it viscosity, and the fast hardener is diluted with additional fillers
to make it work with a 50/50 mixing ratio. It cures much too fast to
be considered a really good epoxy. Any epoxy that cures in less than
12-24 hours is sacrificing ultimate strength and bonding ability for
expediency. 12 hours is really on the short side. JB weld has it's
place, but it's a place next to duct tape. It's handy as a quick fix
sometimes, but it's not "better" epoxy any more than a TV dinner is a
"better" dinner.

Polyethelyne has very low surface energy and in reality, almost
nothing really bonds with it well without extraordinary measures. When
they build custom fuel tanks and such from polyethelyne they mount
fittings by inserting them while spinning and the friction causes a
weld to take place. My sugestion is to try JB weld and gluing the fuel
tube onto the nipple with it. If that leaks, then buy a new tank. They
are generally under $30 for small engines.

CWM


Epoxy also takes far longer than the specified cure time to FULLY cure;it
usually takes a couple of weeks to be *completely* cured.

I've found JB Weld to be SOFT compared to other epoxies.
It does have a higher temperature tolerance.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net