Introduction: Basics: Join Plastic - #1 ´stitching´

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About: always had a deep connection with junk. drawn to it, magically, from childhood on. spent the nights as a boy roaming the streets and looking for trash to take back home. spent # 2 most of my allowance on the l…

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there are certain skills they should teach the kids from kindergarten on.

this is one of them: how to join parts of plastic (and thus: reuse) - fast & easy.

lets call this technique ´stitching¨, since it involes making a seam of holes

(and you could, afterwards, actually fish some thread/wire etc through the holes - for reenforcement)

(btw, there are other ways to do it, no-brainer; some ´ll be explained in future posts). for now:

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ALL YOU NEED IS...

_ no, love you dont need

_ heat, yes.. some source of heat... like a solder-iron, or some fire and wire/nail/needle etc

_ plastic (today, to keep things simple, pieces cut from a plastic-bottle)

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Step 1: Lets Say....

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... for simplicity, you want to join two pieces of plastic like below, just to get the technique down... later you go ballistic and do whatever.

plastic from bottles is usually rather thin. so here comes the ´stitching´ in (thicker plastic can be welded etc - see future post. also: water-bottles are typically made from nr 1 plastic, p.e.t., and it shrinks at the exposure to heat , which, as always in life, can be both: a curse and a blessing)

so the easiest way to join this kind of plastic is just to ´bang´ it together, with heat as sort of nails/rivets.

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Step 2: The Pieces

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here i actually use nr2 plastic, hdpe - simply for the reason that it usually comes in colours, and that helps to create contrast

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Step 3: Now the Glue: Heat

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i use a soldering-iron

but, seriously, any hot object in the desire form does the job

(f.e., if you have an open fire use a nail or some wire or a fork or or or...)

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Step 4: Make ´stitches´

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follow a line along where you want the joint (while keeping the pieces in close contact, the closer the stronger the spot)

here i make rather big and quick holes - just to demonstrate it.

but you can make also a lot of tiny holes, closer spaced. or double-´seams´, etc etc

just play around

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n o t e : 2nd photos shows the inside

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Step 5: Done

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sure i forgot half, but, as always any kind and unkind of feedback is welcome, so are, obviously, questions.

buy less, work less & play more.

thanks to all.

bow,

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ps, see also : https://www.instructables.com/id/Basics-Join-Plastic-2-Tubing/

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