[Greenbuilding] [BULK] OT: repairing cracks in plastic tubs

[Lawrence Lile]

Plastics are the toughest things to bond to.  In a better hardware
store, or if you have a Loktite connection at an industrial supply
house, Loktite sells a product called an Activator, that will set up
plastic so it will bond better with cyanocrylic glues.  If you can't
find the activator stuff, then cyanoacrylate might work OK for a while.
Epoxies are your next best bet, but they probably won't bond that well
to most plastics. 

Any other glue, such as hot glue, caulk, etc. will fail sooner or later.


Duct tape, the real stuff not the cheap stuff, is actually a good
stopgap.  We pulled out a roll of duct tape on a float trip, and fixed a
cracked plastic canoe, it would work until we scraped the tape off on
gravel bars, and had to reapply it.  If it weren't for that, we'd have
been up you-know-what-creek.  

Now, what kind of tub are you referring to?  Not a bathtub, I hope.
Duct tape would really look bad there. 

Lawrence Lile, PE, LEED AP
Project Solutions Engineering

-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Reuben
Deumling
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007 12:44 PM
To: Greenbuilder list
Subject: [BULK] [Greenbuilding] OT: repairing cracks in plastic tubs
Importance: Low

This is only sort of related to Green Building. But in so far as repair
tricks advance the general purposes to which GB is devoted perhaps this
question is admissable.
How to seal small cracks (1-2" long) in a plastic tub? Any caulk in
particular advised? Duct tape? This is heavy gauge but still somewhat
flexible plastic meant to hold liquids. Unfortunately I couldn't find
any
symbols identifying the type of plastic.

Thanks.

Reuben Deumling
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