>Sorry for this OT request.
>
>Recently (Back end of last year) there was discussion about making
>tanks and bits from PVC. There were also recommendations about how to
>weld PVC - which hot air gun to use etc.
>
>I have purchased a suitable gun and some pvc welding rods but I am
>wasting a lot of material trying to get a reasonable result. So far
>all my results are disgusting and unusable. I would appreciate some
>advice with regard to temperatures, types of welding rod and so on.
>
>My gun is a Steinel 2305 and I bought there rods. Are there better
>types available? Should I give up and stick to glue (what a failure
>that would be!!)?
Hi Simon
If you have the 2305 LCD you have the right one. Did you also got the
propper nozzle?
Then, ready made rods are often not so well suited. I could also not
get propper results with the rod's. They very often differ from hte
material you work with and that's a big problem. What I do is I
usually cut off small srtipes (using a small circular table saw) of
the material I'm welding cause then it's guaranteed to work well.
Every material is having it's own optimal temperature. The material
should not start to create bubbles, smoke or burn, and the temperature
also depends a bit on how fast you work. I would just regulate the
temperature up bit by bit until you see that it works well. Then,
remember what temperature you have on your LCD display and set it to
this temperature the next time.
There IS a learning curve involved also. I remember that I had to
trash the first four tanks until I got useable results. Start with
just bending material. If you have the temperature set so as you can
bend the material it's not too far away from what you need for the
welding process. Play with it until you get a feeling on how it
reacts. Then start to weld something simple (i.e. weld two plates into
a T shape or such) until you have some practize.
Don't give up, it's worth it in the end and it's a very flexible
technology that you can use in many places. It's really worth
investing some practizeing.
Markus