Anybody weld plastic?

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Just curious, if anybody welds plastic.  Is there a market for plastic repairs?  Which is better airless or air plastic welders?  I have been looking at them for years, just really haven't had a need to get a plastic welder.  Ooh, flashback...I once welded some lexan to make a disc wheel for my track bicycle.  I used a soldering iron.  I tied it to the spokes with fishing line.  Race the bicycle in the state championships at Georgia.  I doubt it helped.
Reply:I've welded T-Lock which is a plastic.
Reply:Tapwelder, I weld a fair amount of Plastic in my business.  I have a few of the air plastic welders, and have good luck.  As far as the market, I think it depends on the area you are in and what you will be working on.  Plastics can be a pain.  You have to make sure you have the exact type of rod as the plastic you are welding, and a lot of times that can be tough to figure out cause they don't mark it alot of times.  Where I am at here in SW Georgia I primarily do repair in the timber and agricultural industries.  From what I have seen if there is a large presence of farming then you can make a good bit of money in plastics.  Almost all ag spray tanks and nurse tanks are now plastic for the most part, and it is pretty common for them to get busted or split.  However I'll tell ya what I have learned the hardway.  Plastic is not like steels in one way.  Some types of plastic gets old and dries out then alot of time it gets brittle and you can't weld it.  Well you can but it will not last.  The flexing will break it loose.  The only tricky part is learning to control your heat.  Plastic doesn't melt and flow like steel.  You heat it to a point that it bonds with the filler rod.  You can get it too hot and cause a bad weld.  It just take practice to get the hang of it.  ~JacksonI'm a Lover, Fighter, Wild horse Rider, and a pretty good welding man......
Reply:Thanks guys.Hammack, I thought you had eluded to doing plastic repairs in a previous post.I think it would be an interesting service to offer, however I don't have any demand for it right now.  I think with a lot of fencing and railing going to plastic there might me a repair market.
Reply:Tap, honestly it comes in pretty handy once you get to doing it.  No more than it cost to get into it.  You don't have anything to lose.  Where I am at, I kind of have to go by the "full service" repair business.  I never know from day to day what i will be working on, and most customers around here expect you to be there go to guy.  If you aren't then the guy down the road who offers more services get the business.I'm a Lover, Fighter, Wild horse Rider, and a pretty good welding man......
Reply:If the plastic is a 'meltable' one (a thermoplastic as opposed to a thermoset plastic), then -maybe- you can melt and repair (weld) it.But like Hammack said, if the original plastic broke and failed because the material degraded (from chemical exposure, or UV exposure, or whatever, or all-of-the-above), then it really isn't repairable.  IMHO.  It would be about like trying to weld up a chunk of brittle and spongy-rusted-where-it-wasn't-brittle cast steel that was pitted and porous from an industrial acid splash and then had 20 years of grimey gear oil soaked into it.  You know, that hunk of once-used-to-be metal but is now that layered flake rust through and through, with oil and crud inbetween all the layers now?
Reply:I've been meaning to ask about a plastic welder for a while now, I have a 150 gallon tank that needs some work (needs to be turned on it's side so the fill plug needs to be moved and the hole filled), and nobody around here does plastic welding that I can find. So is the one they have in HF any good? Or is it junk? http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=41592