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Frank[_17_]

On 3/14/2013 3:58 PM, wrote:
On Thu, 14 Mar 2013 09:35:20 -0400, willshak
wrote:

M.Joshi wrote the following on 3/13/2013 7:35 PM (ET):
I am trying to repair a crack in a kitchen colander. I tried using
Extra Strong Super Glue (cyanoacrylate) which I bought from the pound
shop. It did not hold the crack together.

The plastic seems to be a heat-resistant type and the Super Glue doesn't
adhere so well?

Do I need to use some other glue for this type of plasic?

Thanks.

1. If plastic - epoxy
2. If metal - JB-Weld
3. If old - buy a new one.

About 15 years ago, I had one of those plastic things that are screwed
into a car engine, and have several nipples on them, which vacuum hoses
attach to them. One of the nipples broke off, and I could not find a
replacement part since the car was quite old. I did find an identical
car at a junkyard, but that one had one or more nipples beoke off that
same part. An auto parts store had some special epoxy which was made to
be used on plastic. He said that stuff really works, and the only thing
I have to avoid, is filling the hole inside that nipple, or the vacuum
wont work. I bought some, and went to the local hardware store and
bought some thin brass tubing which they sold in one foot lengths. I
cut an inch of that tubing, shoved it in the two pieces and applied that
epoxy. I had that car for many years, and that patch held well. Later,
I used the same stuff to fix a piece of the car's plastic grill that
broke off when I slid on ice and bumped into an icy snowpile. Once
again, that patch held well.

Now, I wish I could remember the name of that stuff. I'd recommend it
to anyone. Best plastic repair adhesive I have ever found. But I have
no idea what it was called. All I can remember, is that it dried with a
yellow color.

The only way to patch some types of plastic is to do like you did in the
first case is to basically glue on a reinforcement.

In a decorative structure like your car grill, I suspect most glues
would work.

In the case of the colander, I just looked at one in our kitchen and it
is cracked but wife is still using it. Appears to be polyethylene which
no glue will work. I started to mess it up by heating with a cigarette
lighter but it would not melt properly to seal. This is an item to just
be tossed when functionality is lost. You also have to remember that
most plastics degrade with time from heat and light and lose strength
and are not worth patching.