Gluing food grade buckets...

What material are the food grade buckets made from, and does a glue that 'melts and welds' that material exist (like PVC glue does to PVC)?

Or do the 'plastic welders' like those sold at harbor freight work on this material?

Thanks,

Food grade buckets are usually HDPE (type 2). You can just look on the bottom for the plastic type and that will give you more information.

Plastic welders should do the trick for HDPE.

I think people claim that this stuff is food grade.

http://www.dap.com/product_details.aspx?product_id=25

BendBrewer said:

I think people claim that this stuff is food grade.

http://www.dap.com/product_details.aspx?product_id=25

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Yeah, but that stuff doesn't make a permanent weld... It's just caulk.. No strength in the bond to speak of... and no permanence...

Wierdboy, do you think it's possible to weld HDPE to PVC? Or is that asking too much? I guess some sort of hybrid blend of the two materials would be needed for the weld stick... Or would it?

I have no idea if you can weld PVC and HDPE together, that's not something that has ever come up for me.

What exactly are you trying to do?

weirdboy said:

I have no idea if you can weld PVC and HDPE together, that's not something that has ever come up for me.

What exactly are you trying to do?

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Well, for now, I am thinking of cutting off the bottom of a bucket and welding a funnel to it to be used as a hopper...

Then I got to thinking "conical'...

Being able to weld PVC fittings to the funnel would make it too easy...

A quick search on the subject, indicates that dissimilar plastics can not be welded...

So then the next avenue would be to see if there are standard fittings made from HDPE...

Well it wouldn't be pretty, but for a grain hopper I'm willing to bet a healthy use of duct tape would do the trick.

A conical not so much, but even with it all HDPE, the issue with welding plastics together is you'd be adding seams where nasties can hide. And it's not really like stainless where you can just buff that stuff out.

when I was into auto body I played with the plastic welders. and you can buff it out to a point. this could be a fun project to do.

arnt the threaded bulkheads welded on the mini brews? and if its thick plastic it could take boiling temps to help clean.

OTOH, at the price point for this thing, it's probably not worth the trouble to reinvent the wheel...

15 Gallon Inductor Tank *Fully Draining*
$125 ($185 shipped)

The best ready made grain hopper IMHO is a 5 gallon water bottle upside down with the bottom cut off.

Bobby_M said:

The best ready made grain hopper IMHO is a 5 gallon water bottle upside down with the bottom cut off.

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Yeah, I was thinking about that too... but I already had a bucket and funnel... Will probably end up just making a chute out of plywood...

But now I'm considering all the possibilities of that big plastic fermenter... That's the trouble with this hobby stuff.. Enough is 'never' enough...

r8rphan said:

That's the trouble with this hobby stuff.. Enough is 'never' enough...

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You said it... and this forum is a huge buzz kill. Meaning every time I get on here and start reading I come up with another project, not that I even have any of them finished as of yet but damn.... when I get to the point of putting beer in my keezer from my 10 gal system. priceless. :rockin: