Yesterday I did something I have never done. I was moving hay bales at my Grand Daughter's place. I was using a JD 6410 that I bought to replace the JD 6400 that I gave my daughter. Any way. I was backing up in the grass in the pasture to square up with the semi trailer. I was stacking a row of round bales along the fence for her to have for her cows this winter.
All at once I smelt diesel fuel. I got off the tractor to hear fluid running out under the tractor. There was a T post in the middle of the pasture. Nothing else around it at all. It was a short four foot post too. I had bent it back when I went over it and then when I went back forward it poked a hole through the skid plate and the bottom of the fuel tank. The only lucky thing was I only had about 3/8 of a tank of fuel. Also not fifty feet from where I was at, there was an empty mineral tub. It just fit under the tractor. I bet I did not lose 4-5 gallons of fuel.
So I dropped the semi trailer and went and got my ton truck and trailer. I winched the tractor on the trailer. I took it home to the shop. I dropped the skid plate and washed everything off. It was lucky that the post was not a tall one. It just stuck a T shaped hole and did not tear out a bigger hole. I looked up a new tank, $857, WOW. Well I racked my brain thinking o how to fix it. I looked and found a 3M product that in for repairing fuel tanks. The local CARQUEST had in in stock. I rushed there to get it before they closed. While driving home I happened to remember a customer talking about how he had done the same thing and "welded" the tank. I called him and he said he still had the kit that he had used. I swung by and picked it up.
All the "welder" is, is a soldering iron type of tool with a solid brass, triangle shaped head. The instructions say it only heats to 525 degrees. You use it to melt the "rods/strips" of plastic.
I jacked up the front end of the tractor so the fuel tank was tipped back. The hole was towards the front of the tank. So I was able to reach down through the filler neck and blow any diesel back to the rear of the tank. I then washed to hole off with brake cleaner. I then took my heat gun and warmed the tank up around the hole. I was just originally aiming to make sure the tank was dry and clean. While doing that I got to thinking about how the heat gun gets hotter than 525 degrees. So I heated the area around the hole until it was soft to the touch. Then using a thin strip of flat stainless steel formed into a hook I was able to pull the edges out of the tank. The flat stainless was part of a windshield wiper blade. I keep some of those thin strips round. They also work good to trip some electrical terminals too.
I was ready to try to "weld" the hole shut. The instructions and the customer said to just lay the thin strips of plastic, that come with the kit, over the hole/crack. The take the iron and press it over the strip until it melts. That is exactly what it did. After doing this several times in the same place the tank got warmer enough that you can easily smooth the plastic around. I just keep melting layers of the "rods" over the crack until it was about as thick as the tank side walls. Kind of like brazing. I started out at the narrowest sections and worked around the edges until the hole was completely closed. I also fill in some deep scratches that post put in other parts of the tank bottom.
I let it cool and did a low pressure air test of the tank. It does not leak. I put about half a tank of diesel in the tank and everything is leak free. It took me longer to type this than it did to do the actual "welding" part of the repair.
I have used a soldering iron and the lid off a butter bowl to repair small plastic stuff in the past. This little iron/kit is a whole different level of doing that. I could not believe it was so easy. Even doing this repair overhead was easy. It was more like spreading butter on warm bread than actually welding.
I looked online and found a kit just like the one my customer has. $18.99 at Home Depot. I have one ordered already.
Plastic welding Kit:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Steel-Core-80-Watt-Iron-Plastic-Welding-Kit-with-40-Welding-Rods-41403/308107827
Hokme Depot plastic welding kit.
All at once I smelt diesel fuel. I got off the tractor to hear fluid running out under the tractor. There was a T post in the middle of the pasture. Nothing else around it at all. It was a short four foot post too. I had bent it back when I went over it and then when I went back forward it poked a hole through the skid plate and the bottom of the fuel tank. The only lucky thing was I only had about 3/8 of a tank of fuel. Also not fifty feet from where I was at, there was an empty mineral tub. It just fit under the tractor. I bet I did not lose 4-5 gallons of fuel.
So I dropped the semi trailer and went and got my ton truck and trailer. I winched the tractor on the trailer. I took it home to the shop. I dropped the skid plate and washed everything off. It was lucky that the post was not a tall one. It just stuck a T shaped hole and did not tear out a bigger hole. I looked up a new tank, $857, WOW. Well I racked my brain thinking o how to fix it. I looked and found a 3M product that in for repairing fuel tanks. The local CARQUEST had in in stock. I rushed there to get it before they closed. While driving home I happened to remember a customer talking about how he had done the same thing and "welded" the tank. I called him and he said he still had the kit that he had used. I swung by and picked it up.
All the "welder" is, is a soldering iron type of tool with a solid brass, triangle shaped head. The instructions say it only heats to 525 degrees. You use it to melt the "rods/strips" of plastic.
I jacked up the front end of the tractor so the fuel tank was tipped back. The hole was towards the front of the tank. So I was able to reach down through the filler neck and blow any diesel back to the rear of the tank. I then washed to hole off with brake cleaner. I then took my heat gun and warmed the tank up around the hole. I was just originally aiming to make sure the tank was dry and clean. While doing that I got to thinking about how the heat gun gets hotter than 525 degrees. So I heated the area around the hole until it was soft to the touch. Then using a thin strip of flat stainless steel formed into a hook I was able to pull the edges out of the tank. The flat stainless was part of a windshield wiper blade. I keep some of those thin strips round. They also work good to trip some electrical terminals too.
I was ready to try to "weld" the hole shut. The instructions and the customer said to just lay the thin strips of plastic, that come with the kit, over the hole/crack. The take the iron and press it over the strip until it melts. That is exactly what it did. After doing this several times in the same place the tank got warmer enough that you can easily smooth the plastic around. I just keep melting layers of the "rods" over the crack until it was about as thick as the tank side walls. Kind of like brazing. I started out at the narrowest sections and worked around the edges until the hole was completely closed. I also fill in some deep scratches that post put in other parts of the tank bottom.
I let it cool and did a low pressure air test of the tank. It does not leak. I put about half a tank of diesel in the tank and everything is leak free. It took me longer to type this than it did to do the actual "welding" part of the repair.
I have used a soldering iron and the lid off a butter bowl to repair small plastic stuff in the past. This little iron/kit is a whole different level of doing that. I could not believe it was so easy. Even doing this repair overhead was easy. It was more like spreading butter on warm bread than actually welding.
I looked online and found a kit just like the one my customer has. $18.99 at Home Depot. I have one ordered already.
Plastic welding Kit:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Steel-Core-80-Watt-Iron-Plastic-Welding-Kit-with-40-Welding-Rods-41403/308107827
Hokme Depot plastic welding kit.
