Online:
Visits:
Stories:
Profile image
By Five Gallon Ideas
Contributor profile | More stories
Story Views

Now:
Last Hour:
Last 24 Hours:
Total:

How to Repair a Crack in a Bucket

Wednesday, April 5, 2017 20:05
% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.

(Before It's News)

This article is taken from Five Gallon Ideas, which features over 100 uses for 5 gallon buckets with more being added all the time.

damaged plastic bucket repaired and fixed
If you’re anything like me, clumsiness will occasionally result in damaged buckets. When this happens, I can go get a new bucket, but I don’t like wasting time and money driving to the store to get a new one, when I can fix it myself. Fortunately there is a solution. Stay with me, as I take you through the steps needed to repair an old plastic bucket!

Method one: The Leakseal method

In this video, William Quinn shows us how he easily and rapidly manages to repair a crack in his bucket:

He uses two products to repair his bucket:

rustoleum leak seal product

 Rust-Oleum LeakSeal

This spray creates a rubbery coating when you spray it on something. It’s very useful, people use it not just for repairing buckets, but to fix holes in their rain gutter and all sorts of other purposes.

You don’t want to get this stuff on your hands however. It’s not very bad for your skin, but it’s not easy to get off. Make sure to wear gloves when you use it and don’t breathe in the spray, keep some distance from your face.

The other product William mentions is:

Weed Barrier

dewitt 4 foot weed barrier

Any brand of weed barrier should work fine. This thin plastic serves as a skeleton for the rubbery coating that you’re going to be spraying on your bucket. Of course, not all of you have weed barrier laying around and you’re not going to spend money to buy it just for this. If that’s the case, look towards similar alternatives, like the window mesh that you use to keep insects out of your house for example.

Fixing the crack in your bucket

Now when it comes to actually fixing the crack, it’s pretty straightforward as William shows in the video. You spray on the bottom of your bucket near the crack. Then you put your material on, moving it to see if it fits well. Rub it with your glove to get the air bubbles out. After that, add a second coating. Wait for it to dry, then repeat the process for the inside of the bucket. After this, you should have a great bucket capable of storing liquids again.

I want to remind you: Make sure to wear gloves when you use it and don’t breathe in the spray, keep some distance from your face!

Method two: Plastic welding

Plastic welding is a bit more difficult than the above method. What it comes down to is that you heat up plastic and apply new plastic strips to it. Plastic requires much lower temperatures to melt than most metals do. Here’s a video of someone plastic welding:

All that you really need for this is some equipment you can raise to a high temperature. A knife held in a flame would theoretically be enough.

Should you do this? I think this is probably not a good idea. If you do it wrong and the temperature raises too high, you can find yourself producing plastic fumes. Those fumes are not something you want to inhale, they can contain all sorts of toxic compounds. People have actually been hospitalized by plastic fumes from their microwave. Your health is not worth risking to save a dime.

My suggestion would be to use the first method instead! Repairing a crack like that is safe. If you do want to use this method, keep the temperature as low as needed to soften the plastic, ventilate the room and keep your face away from the plastic.

The post How to Repair a Crack in a Bucket appeared first on Five Gallon Ideas.

For many more ways to use 5 gallon buckets for self sufficiency, visit Five Gallon Ideas. When citing this article, please link to



Source: http://fivegallonideas.com/repair-crack-bucket/

Report abuse

Comments

Your Comments
Question   Razz  Sad   Evil  Exclaim  Smile  Redface  Biggrin  Surprised  Eek   Confused   Cool  LOL   Mad   Twisted  Rolleyes   Wink  Idea  Arrow  Neutral  Cry   Mr. Green

Top Stories
Recent Stories

Register

Newsletter

Email this story
Email this story

If you really want to ban this commenter, please write down the reason:

If you really want to disable all recommended stories, click on OK button. After that, you will be redirect to your options page.