Stan,

Thanks for the reply.

On Wed, 5 May 2010 11:45:35 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
On May 5, 9:38*am, Frnak McKenney
wrote:
On Mon, 03 May 2010 18:48:22 -0700, Larry Jaques wrote:
On Mon, 03 May 2010 12:56:26 -0500, Frnak McKenney
wrote the following:

* *[...]

Do you have any suggestions for repairing an old-ish city-provided
"supercan"? *This is one of those large green plastic cans with
wheels, a hinged black lid, and bolted-on tubing that is designed to
be lifted by the city trash collection trucks. *I'm not certain what
kind of plastic it is, but it's thick-ish (1/8"?), flexible, and I'm
assuming it's some sort of polyethylene.

Could be polyethylene, but chances are it's polypropylene or even ABS,
totally different stuff.

Um. I went and checked the can over a bit more carefully. It's a
"Zarn Roll-a-Cart", made by a company in Reidsville, North Carolina;
unfortunately the company was bought up and then disappeared, and
but I haven't had any success in finding out exactly what material
this can... er, "cart" is made of.

... There'll be a three-lobed recyling emblem
cast into it somewhere that will have the number of the plastic type.

Nope. That would have been really nice, though.

I think you're right about it not being polyethylene, which I recall
as a glossy, single-layer material. This stuff is more of a matte
surface that feels... "dusty" and "greyish".

As far as repairing cracks, welding is about the surest way to do
that, HF has a kit that requires some air and the rods to go with, of
various plastic types.

Agh. I know where Harbor Freight is, but I'm starting to avoid it:
every time I go down there for X I wind up with the whole last half
of the alphabet. If I could sell the wind power generated by money
whooshing out of my wallet when I visit HF, I could retire. HF and
book stores: dangerous places. grin!

... I've repaired an aftermarket windshield washer
tank of polypropylene using a really big soldering gun and some
shopping bags of the same color. It held afterwards for quite a
number of years until I sold the car. More like frosting a cake than
welding, though.

Interesting imagery, though. grin

... Adhesives, unless they're specially formulated,
probably won't stick. You might be able to add a skid plate with
aluminum and pop rivets, chances are that the stuff will crack at the
holes, though.

Ah. Something I hadn't considered. Thanks.

... If you've had to buy the thing yourself, fix it,
otherwise call the city and get it replaced, that's what you're paying
taxes for, right? They'll recycle the old one.

Naah, I pay them taxes to provide me with educational materials for
my 30-year Independent Study Program in Materials Science. grin!


Frank
--
...[u]nless a man is in part a humorist, he is only in part a man.
-- G.K. Chesterton: Mr. McCabe and a Divine Frivolity (1905)
--
Frank McKenney, McKenney Associates
Richmond, Virginia / (804) 320-4887
Munged E-mail: frank uscore mckenney ayut mined spring dawt cahm (y'all)