Broken Collection Cup

[TheReefGeek]

I have a broken collection cup for my skimmer, there is a hole about 1/2" by 1/2".

Any ideas how to patch it? I was wondering if I duct taped the outside, if there is anything I could pour into it that would fill the hole then harden? Then when I took the duct tape off, it would be water proof.

The missing chunk of plastic is right on the curved bottom of the cup, so I can't just silicon or weld-on an acylic patch unfortunately.

[mr_alberta]

You should be able to easily form a small strip of 1/8" acrylic and weld-on that to the cup. Or duct tape works :mrgreen:

[TheReefGeek]

If I had a heat gun and made a 1"x1" piece of acrylic, heat it up so it bent around the curve, then used weld-on, that might just work.

Will have to find out how much a heat gun costs then, unless there is some other method to heat up acrylic? Can you boil it or something like that? All I have handy is 1/4" inch acrylic too.

[mr_alberta]

You can pick up 1/8" thick acrylic at home depot. A small 8.5x11 sheet is about $5 IIRC.

You can heat acrylic with a lighter if you really want.

[TheReefGeek]

I will give that a try, thanks.

[Murminator]

Put it in an electric frying pan on top of a peice of papertowel but make sure you watch it that the papertowel doesn't catch fire :redface: It will turn acrylic to almost rubber then use the colection cup as a jig and bend it around it and let it cool. :mrgreen:

[TheReefGeek]

Once the acrylic is "rubberized", and I bend it to shape, I still need to use weld-on to get it to stay I assume?

[Delphinus]

Yep..

Alternatively .. if it was me (and depending on the size/shape of the damage) I'd just use some weldon 16. You can make an acrylic "putty" using weldon and some acrylic shavings. Some of that aluminium tape (for roof flashing etc.) as a backing.

[TheReefGeek]

That is a good idea too, but the hole might be a bit to large for that.

[Saltysteve]

What skimmer and model ?

[TheReefGeek]

ASM G6, the collection cup is as big as my head. :)

[kari]

If you somehow end up down here in Calgary drop by and we'll fix it up or make a new part.

[StirCrazy]

Put it in an electric frying pan on top of a peice of papertowel but make sure you watch it that the papertowel doesn't catch fire It will turn acrylic to almost rubber then use the colection cup as a jig and bend it around it and let it cool.

:eek: Has you wife beat you for that one yet :mrgreen: One thing to watch about heating Acrylic is not to heat it to fast or to to high of a temp, both of these will cause it to form bubbles. I wrecked lots of skylights that way when I worked for Mac's plastics in Edmonton years ago:redface:

I think the absolut best way to heat it would be in an oven set at about 280 degrees on a nice flat cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or wax paper.. if some one trys this let me know how much it stinks up the house.. I'm scared of my wife:biggrin:

Steve

[TheReefGeek]

Kari, are you a store or something? I will be in Calgary Next Friday-Sunday.

I am hoping to have it fixed by then, but might not. I picked up some weld-on 3, weld-on 16, and a small sheet of 1/8" acrylic to try a patch-job.