Heating the base base material works well as long as you don't get the surrounding area too warm. When that happens the whole area starts to sag and distort.

THanks John... I've got a couple more coming where we look at a couple different techniques and test their effectiveness.

I fully agree!

Same here, nice work and thank you!

Free and fixable are my favorite types of things! Good luck with the repairs!

Thanks!

Thanks Manny!

Thanks Andriy!

Thanks Rich! More for emergency situations... but it works :).

I would give you 3 thumbs up but !

SIONFNA, that's my preferred way as well! I'll be posting another couple of videos with other ways to repair kayaks, but I wanted to start with the cheapest method first. I like the plastic welding iron from Harbor Freight. We did do some tests with various 2 part epoxys as well to see which one held up best.

If you find the plastic feeling frail as you begin repairing it buy some stainless steel window screen. Go to the inside if you can reach the area. If not do it outside on the damage. Use a soldering iron if possible. The wider the tip the better. Smoothe the damage with sandpaper. Clean it up and lay the screen over the damage. Use the heated tool to press the screen down into the plastic far enough so you can cover it with filler. After filling in use finer grit to smoothe the area so it doesn't have jagged or uneven edges for rocks and debris to catch and damage again. Make sure you cannot see any metal from the screen when you're done. Harbor freight has some cheap plastic welding kits that come with some filler sticks. I suggest you go online or hobby shops I use ww Grainger and buy the multi packs of filler rods. Nylon,PVC,PP,PE,ABS etc. They all are different colors. You need to use the same material for filler as the repair material.

@@davidreynolds4684

Good luck Jimmy, hope it works for you!

I was thinking the same... Anyone tried a soldering iron?

I use soldering iron with a flat tip and heat gun, also have different tips. Also pieces of a plastic 55 gallon drum which is HDPE

There's a steel mesh that can be used... I've got zngher video coming out soon with that in it.

I've tried several different ways and once the base material gets too warm it sags so much that you can't press the filler into it. It's best to heat directly through the filler into to base material while keeping all the surrounding material cool so it doesn't deform.

An extra piece of plastic for reinforcement is a good idea, as some of the material gets pushed inside the kayak. So a little more is needed on the exterior. Smoothing out gouges and cracks doesn't require extra material just the heated tip of an iron or screwdriver will do the job. I've even used the tip of a clothing iron to smooth out cracks

@@caryverhalen Thank you for replying to my inquiry. So you've sold me on the importance of adding supplemental plastic, but if the nature of welding is for the new material to be "sucked into" the opening and mine no longer has an opening (ie crack), am I simply melting this new material over the repaired crack, like icing a cake?

@@simonmirsky3970 Maybe? Personally I don't think it matters adding more material is just reinforcements. As long as it's not a big blob of it creating drag

Dr. Pete, can I get your advice on this question please?

@@simonmirsky3970 it's Simple Simon perhaps you're overthinking this.

Yes it should. Those are also thermo-formed boats. Sundolphin actually used to make the boats for Bass Pro.

Just what I was thinking

That sounds a lot more involved

Trump speech in tusan

Coleman’s in green are HDPE

@@richardcorey9773 Thanks

I know this is an old comment but, they sell scupper plugs to plug up the holes for extremely cheap

This was just an example of one way to do it using simple tools that almost anyone has at home. I shot more footage for a different video showing other techniques that I'll be posting soon.

You deffinitely can. It's what I use most of the time. I just wanted to show how to do it with the least amount of specialized tools.

I tried it just to test it as an "incase of emergence" scenario...it was really slow, but did work. I think I'd start a fire with the lighter and heat the screwdriver in the coals if I had to. Dont think theres enough fuel in the lighter to finish the job.😁

Thanks

I actually want to build a canoe from recycled crates and I wanted to see if I could patch it up

It's actually a tried and true method for kayak repair... only difference is that typically people use a welding iron instead of screw driver. I was just showing how to do it with common household tools. We've done tests on several different types of repair and then torture tested them to see how well each method held up, so o know for a fact that this method of HDPE repair works. As long as you heat the filler material into the base material the repair will hold well. We'll have the video of repairs being stress tested up soon.

@@PaddleandPole For a start the kayak is made of LLDPE or Linear Low Density Polyethylene not HDPE. you can't rotomould HDPE so unless your kayak was injection moulded which it wasn't it's LLDPE. Plastic welding or fusion between these two materials requires the intermingling of polymer chains of a similar length. The beauty of plastic welding when done correctly is that the hot air when it hits the material makes the polymer chains stand up and intermingle with a compatible welding rod. the two surfaces need to be scraped to remove oxidisation first. welding should be done with a Leister triac hot air gun. We have been repairing kayaks and many other things for 20 years and welding is far, far better than the mess you have created here!! Here is me showing off... kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fb2kms593tfPimQ.html

@@davidbebarfald1747 I appreciate your reply but you are incorrect. I worked for Hemisphere Design Works, the manufacturer of Sundolphin, Evoke, Viper and Future Beach kayaks. The resin used in these is HDPE. We also sold solid sheets of HDPE to Menards, which you can see that they sell on their website and are clearly labeled HDPE. Pelican kayaks are slightly different in that they use high molecular weight polyethylene for their kayaks instead of HDPE.

Repairs will only work if welded. your repair is sub standard. I am a fully qualified full time plastic welder with all the training. i have completed 4 certificate courses in plastic welding, materials identification, chemical bonding and thermosett plastics. i have over 3,000 customers and repair kayaks, water tanks, motorcycle fairing, bumper bars, playground equipment and many many other plastics. i am a fully qualified panel beater and plumber. i do confined space entry work as well. I am the leading plastic repair expert in Australia. We just completed repairing two 10 million dollar wire galvinising tanks. we recycle over 900 tons of plastic each year simply be repairing it. All the sub standard repairs on you tube are harder to do than just welding it!! So buy the gun and i'll teach you how to weld Kayaks properly. you are damaging the plastic by heating up a screwdriver when you put that on the plastic it's too hot and sweats the plasticiser out creating a weak point, you aren't intermingling the polymer chains so your repair won't work. There is also problems with oxidisation and the material you are introducing, also color isn't right!! I can help you do it properly if you like? it's easier and far, far better.

@@davidbebarfald1747 I wish you could show me. I just found a plastic paddle board I want to convert into a fishing vessel that has a 4 inch gash in the bottom.