Posted By: Big Bad Bee
Grill Repair. GREAT SCOTT (Smith)! IT REALLY WORKS!!! - 06/22/12 05:45 AM
About a year ago, there was a post about how to mend an ABS plastic grill. My neighbor Scott Smith provided a solution and remembering best I could, I replicated the process yesterday on my 1970 Superbee grill, which had complete cracks all along the bottom row of vertical ribs. So what follows is a step by step description of what I did.
This is an example of what I started out with. 3/4 of the ribs on the lower side of the grill cracked in half.
First I washed them with water and dish washing liquid, then sanded the paint off broken areas to insure a good bond. Definitely the slowest, most tedious part of the project.
Next, grabbing a stick of 2.5" diameter ABS plumbing pipe I bought at the Home Depot and my leatherman tool, I spent about 45 minutes scraping off shavings. I did some like little wood chips and others very fine shreads by running the blade edge perpendicular to the surface of the pipe.
The fine shreads worked really great, the worked chips ok, but they took longer to melt. I poured a couple tablespoons of acetone into a glass jar and began mixing in the ABS shavings with a piece of all-thread. The shavings melt super fast.
I made it a about the runny consistancy of salad dressing.
Note two things here. I took some clothes pins and took the spring out, turned the wood sides backwards and inside out, put the spring back on. Now I had little wooden needle nose clamps. I shaved some down to fit in slots that were tight, sometimes cutting one tip shorter than the other. Then starting on one end and working my way across, I applied the goo to 3 or 4 breaks and then applied a clamp. I applied the goo with a Starbucks coffee lid stopper. they are made of soft rubberized plastic and the acetone doesn't melt them. They have a nice flat paddle end on them to hold and a broad tip, unlike a toothpick.
Toward the end, it got a little tricky but working quickly, I got all the joints glued and placed the last two clamps. I used 6 in all.
The ABS goo skins pretty fast and I had to add a little acetone and stir it up about 2/3 of the way through the process on each grill. Once I got the whole thing glued and clamped, I went over each spot building up the surrounding area of each break.
I finished both grills and let them set over night.
The results...
Lest you think I am a crazy man (you may be right. I may be crazy...), I did test it out on a grill piece before I attempted the whole deal. The acetone takes a few days to cure really hard and it's very strong.
Next I will file away the blobs with a fine, flat rattail file, sand and spray with SEM black.
Thanks for your suggestion on this, Scott! It works great.
This is an example of what I started out with. 3/4 of the ribs on the lower side of the grill cracked in half.
First I washed them with water and dish washing liquid, then sanded the paint off broken areas to insure a good bond. Definitely the slowest, most tedious part of the project.
Next, grabbing a stick of 2.5" diameter ABS plumbing pipe I bought at the Home Depot and my leatherman tool, I spent about 45 minutes scraping off shavings. I did some like little wood chips and others very fine shreads by running the blade edge perpendicular to the surface of the pipe.
The fine shreads worked really great, the worked chips ok, but they took longer to melt. I poured a couple tablespoons of acetone into a glass jar and began mixing in the ABS shavings with a piece of all-thread. The shavings melt super fast.
I made it a about the runny consistancy of salad dressing.
Note two things here. I took some clothes pins and took the spring out, turned the wood sides backwards and inside out, put the spring back on. Now I had little wooden needle nose clamps. I shaved some down to fit in slots that were tight, sometimes cutting one tip shorter than the other. Then starting on one end and working my way across, I applied the goo to 3 or 4 breaks and then applied a clamp. I applied the goo with a Starbucks coffee lid stopper. they are made of soft rubberized plastic and the acetone doesn't melt them. They have a nice flat paddle end on them to hold and a broad tip, unlike a toothpick.
Toward the end, it got a little tricky but working quickly, I got all the joints glued and placed the last two clamps. I used 6 in all.
The ABS goo skins pretty fast and I had to add a little acetone and stir it up about 2/3 of the way through the process on each grill. Once I got the whole thing glued and clamped, I went over each spot building up the surrounding area of each break.
I finished both grills and let them set over night.
The results...
Lest you think I am a crazy man (you may be right. I may be crazy...), I did test it out on a grill piece before I attempted the whole deal. The acetone takes a few days to cure really hard and it's very strong.
Next I will file away the blobs with a fine, flat rattail file, sand and spray with SEM black.
Thanks for your suggestion on this, Scott! It works great.
Hmmmmmmm. Interesting idea. I think so. As far as I can tell, the ABS hardens just as good as the original product once the acetone is gone, which takes a while. I left a good amount in the jar from the first go round just to see what it would do, and because I knew that it would be easier to get out in one big chunk. It hardened to a shiny, hard consistancy just like a plumbing fitting (elbow, coupling etc.). If I knew anything about plaster molds I would probably give it a shot. The limiting factor probably being how big the part is. It would take a lot of shaving and mixing to get an 8 ounce cup going and I don't think you would want to risk filling the mold in more than just one batch.
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