How to weld holes??

[Sir Adam]

How to weld holes??
by Andrew
Anyone have have suggestions on how to weld holes in Kayaks? I'm not sure of the plastic type but it's a Riot Boat. I changed my out fitting and just left the now "unused" bolts in place but would rather get rid of the bolts and weld up the holes.
Thanks
Andrew
Posted on Jun 3, 2002, 11:20 AM

Andrew,
by Ric Taylor
it's a piece of cake if it's a newer boat, it's probably made of cross-linked polyethylene which means that it's the kind that actually melts. When I perverted/converted my Medieval to a C-1 I just called Dagger and they sent me a couple of sticks of the material. I leaned the boat approximately on its side, so that the piece of the hull that I was working on was level, then I duct taped across the hole on the inside (leaving the tape very slightly loose, with a little bit of flex around the edges of the hole, so that the melted material would spread slightly around the inside edge of the hole and not just go straight down into where only the hole alone was cut. This way it will meld in better with the rest of the hull. So when you pull the duct tape off on the inside, there will be a slight little "bump" that will have filled the hole and overflowed very slightly around the edges as well). Then I just heated up the stick with a cigarette lighter (wearing a glove so that I could hold the cigarette lighter on for longer, as well as being able to "schmoosh" the outside hole all smooth when it was filled). It melts like butter and it only takes about 1/8 tsp. for each hole, but it hardens to the point of being inflexible pretty quickly, so have everything prepared so you can just plop it right down into the hole as it melts. I basically just put the stick right at the opening of the hole so that it slightly heated the boat itself, which I think makes the new material from the stick meld together with the hull better. Melt a sample piece by itself first, to get an idea of how much heat and how much time is necessary.
Try to get a color that's close to the same unless you want to have a couple of cool metal flake rainbow dots on your boat.
hope this helps, and let me know if you have any other questions.
Good luck,
Ric Taylor
Posted on Jun 4, 2002, 12:01 AM

Petex
by Andy
I used the petex that I tune my skiis with. I shaved a plug, stuck it in and melted with a torch. The petex has a lower melting point than the boat plastic, but you want to avoid torching the boat.
Posted on Jun 5, 2002, 6:56 AM