epoxy for plastic lawnmower gas tank

[crazy charlie]

I have an old craftsman lawnmower with a plastic fuel tank.I fired it up this spring and there is fuel dripping from the bottom of the tank.I want to epoxy it up to get a few more mows out of it before I either replace the mower or the tank.Anyone ever seal this type of plastic with an epoxy before?? Charlie

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: epoxy for plastic lawnmower gas tank

Try the plastic weld stuff from walmart. Once you have the tank off and empty you might even try to use a soldering iron on the crack. It will prevent the crack from spreading.<br /><br />Bob

 

[DJ]

Re: epoxy for plastic lawnmower gas tank

I like JB Welds epoxy product. Not the metal repair stuff, the other one.

 

[ZmOz]

Re: epoxy for plastic lawnmower gas tank

They sell something called "seal all" at most hardware stores for about $2. It will seal anything.

 

[crazy charlie]

Re: epoxy for plastic lawnmower gas tank

Thanks for the recos guys.Never heard of the plastic weld stuff but I will check.I tried some stuff this morning that 3m makes for repairing rubber boats and waders.I dont expect it to work but you never know witha 2 part epoxy.The seal all stuff looks too good to be true.They show you spraying it on a leaking garden hose and it stopping the leak.Thats hard to believe.I never knew jb weld has a plastic formula.Charlie

 

[ndemge]

Re: epoxy for plastic lawnmower gas tank

Tank might be HDPE, and if it's thick enough, the soldering iron might work really well for you to just melt it all back together.....<br />SAFETY NOTE:<br /><br />Remove tank from Mower<br /><br />FILL WITH WATER<br /><br />THEN you can proced to prod with hot irons....

 

[noelm]

Re: epoxy for plastic lawnmower gas tank

repairing plastic fuel tanks is very difficult because the plastic they are made of is the same stuff that the little spoons and sticks for mixing the glue are made of! which means that nothing will stick to them properly, but, sometimes plastic welding will work, we used to use an old tank cut into strips to use as "filler"

 

[ndemge]

Re: epoxy for plastic lawnmower gas tank

If it is HDPE... it will only bond with HDPE, with melting and "welding" no Adhesive will BOND, it may stick really really good, but it won't bond.

 

[jimr]

Re: epoxy for plastic lawnmower gas tank

the oil tank on my chain saw cracked in the threads where the cap goes on and I cleaned it up good with carb cleaner and roughed up the inside with sand paper then forced jb weld through the crack. filed the thread out when it was set up and it has held for about 4 years now.

 

[notinbig]

Re: epoxy for plastic lawnmower gas tank

JB weld. Did you forget your going to fill the thing with GAS. any plastic sealer is going to be eaten away by the fuel. I have used JB weld in the past on gas tanks, and it worke great, for about a year.

 

[crazy charlie]

Re: epoxy for plastic lawnmower gas tank

Thanks for the replies guys!!! The 3m flex epoxy seems to have worked.The tank held fuel overnight so I think I will leave well enough alone.At least for now anyway Charlie