$30 Plastic Welding Toy

From the Discovery Store: [shopping.discovery.com]

... nice tool-head for a repstrap

Viktor

On the other hand, the RepRap extruder could be converted into a handheld welder fairly easily. Battery pack, thermostat circuit, trigger switch...

Might be handy for making on-the-spot repairs.

... i was thinking about optimizing a glue-gun for using ABS-filament ...

Viktor

Plastic welding could be an alternative (or rather, candidate) to the standardized joint proposed earlier. Possibly even CNC'ed.

With a proper setup, the machine could build small objects, automatically store them (setting them aside, stacking, whatever), build more small objects, etc, then retrieve them and weld them together into larger pieces which couldn't otherwise be built by the machine.

Neat. Sort of like welding together LEGO blocks.

Welding is cool and useful, but there is still a need for a rigid but reversible joint. If nothing else, snapping two parts together is usually faster and easier than setting up up a hot glue gun-like device to do the same thing.

Kyle Corbitt Wrote:
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> Welding is cool and useful, but there is still a
> need for a rigid but reversible joint. If nothing
> else, snapping two parts together is usually
> faster and easier than setting up up a hot glue
> gun-like device to do the same thing.

It would be easier and faster once you get it running if you have it done automatically. As for separating joints, you can cut it. But yes, a snap joint has its place.

I wonder what this "welder" can do at all.

Using four standard batteries it has... what.. 6v and 3000mAh or 3V and 6000mAh?
That doesn't read too promising.
Change the batpack every two hours is not what's suitable for an extruder.
So first of all it has to be converted with a powersupply (if everything would be that easy )

Then, how does it weld?
does it use filament? or is it more like one of those cablewelders?
if filament, what filament?
How long does it take to heat up? what temperature does it reach?
Don't forget it's still a toy.

Welding pieces together...
hm, I thing that can be done with a small modification of a soldering iron too,
that'd be much cheaper then.

I'd love to see it in action, at least once, to judge,
but from the first sight: I don't believe a "toy" can do what we need.

'sid

I don't think most of us were considering using this actual unit, it became more of a discussion over plastic welding in general. Maybe that's just me though.

sid Wrote:
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> I wonder what this "welder" can do at all.
>
> Using four standard batteries it has... what.. 6v
> and 3000mAh or 3V and 6000mAh?
> That doesn't read too promising.
> Change the batpack every two hours is not what's
> suitable for an extruder.
> So first of all it has to be converted with a
> powersupply (if everything would be that easy )

Reminds me of Spinwelder, a toy/model kit line from the mid 1970s. The toy welding gun had a DC motor in it, but I don't know how the plastic was melted. When the toy car was assembled, the Spinwelder gun could be used to spin its wheels and send it rolling.

sid Wrote:
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> Welding pieces together...
> hm, I thing that can be done with a small
> modification of a soldering iron too,
> that'd be much cheaper then.

We use a soldering iron + cyanoacrylate to weld SLS together. A bit of resin in the join afterwards and a good sanding later, you have a solid, flush join.

i used to have a very similar (even smaller) toy when i was a kid. the plastic welding works for the toys it's designed to build, and technically speaking you could design other stuff, but the plastic mine used was far to brittle for any important use and that looks like the same brittle, black plastic... also, it can easily break its own welds (hold the trigger a few seconds too long and you melt right through the toys made of even cheaper plastic).

If it's rpms could be increased, and spikes made from different plastics, it might be make a good RepStrap implementation...

I had one of those spinwelders myself, it had a kit to build 2 cars then you powered the wheel with the gun and watched them fly!!! they were cool!!