Heatguns

I know Hobie hull repair is done with a heatgun and color matching plastic, seen it done once, but what are the specifics of a heat gun for this purpose?
I have a Harbor Freight coupon for a cheap 1500 watt dual temp heatgun (572/1112 deg) and wanted to know if its worth buying to put down for the day I might need to do some repairs?

somebody GAVE me a heat gun and about all I have ever used it for was the heat shrink tape you use on electrical connections. I bought an outback with a leak... real cheap.... think the guy thought it was on it's last leg. He'd tried to patch the crack with all kinds of glue and putty. The hole was right where the fwd end of the mirage drive sat... I got tired of bailing and trying to cruise around with 10 gallons of water in the hull all the time... pulled out my trusty heat gun and the guy at the local yak shop gave me a couple of the plastic rods.... I started heating and kept feeding the rods in until they were used up.... smoothed it out a little with a popsicle stick and ain't had a leak since... GO FOR IT!

A heat gun isn't what you want - it won't direct the heat onto a small enough area. What you're after is a sort of soldering iron. The ones made specifically for plastic welding have a bore that allows thin strips of plastic to be fed into the repair area under heat.

Tom is correct. You don't want to use a heat gun...

ah, good points everyone, thanks.

how small does the end of the HG need to be? Worked fine for me in a very small area... BTW, the tip of my gun is about the size of the tip of my little finger... and I got real small fingers... mebbe that's why mine worked...

There are heat guns used for plastic welding (kayak repair). They are called hot air welders They heat to much lower temperatures than the Harbor Freight model you referenced or what you can get from home depot.

Here is a video from the folks at Liquidlogic a.k.a. Native Watercraft using a hot air welder for repairing a crack. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bos4lfOA3k

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Mike

yep, that's what I used... notice - that gun has a stepdown to reduce the area it's heating.

wow, thank goodness I didn't waste money on the harbor freight model!

Thanks for sharing the web site for welding... Great help in understanding the process and techniques for a good bond...