back
6 comments
This article is sort of a note-to-self that it's actually possible to perform material joining with plastic once the plastic has already been set (using nitrogen apparently).

I don't know about you, but until I saw this article, I didn't think that was possible.

There's sort of a greater theme here, from a tinkerer perspective, which is "all of the ways that two materials could but cut, and all the ways that two materials could be joined together."

Think a hacksaw and crazy glue (two of the simplest methods).

But, from a materials science perspective, I'd like to know (or eventually one day compile) a spreadsheet or something like one which contains like every material, every other material that it could be connected with, and how to split them and how to join them (or at least the best ways).

Sounds pretty crazy right?

Well, I think that if someone wanted to build a spaceship one day (well, cheaper than Elon Musk anyway), then you'd want to know all of that...

> every other material that it could be connected with, and how to split them and how to join them (or at least the best ways)

In that case you are going to love this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrasonic_welding

You are quite correct, I do love that! That's a great link! Please submit it to HN as a stand alone article (hmm, I wish comments could be favorited on HN, you'd definitely get a 'favorite' on this one). Why do I love it? Well, it's brilliant, but in addition to being brilliant also there might be something there that's subtle that could help us understand atoms, atomic forces, and/or matter better. What that is, as of yet, I do not know, but my intuition tells me "there's something there". Anyway, thanks again for the great link!
This is a little random and out of place, are you the Peter Sherman I went to high school with in Ithaca?
No, that's not me. But I wish you good luck in finding your ex-classmate...
Nitrogen welder, only $3,744.00

Polyethylene and HDPE are tough to weld. I often use my $40 hot glue stick gun with a $20 pack of infinity polyethylene bonding glue sticks from Super TAC 500.

I preheat the surfaces to be bonded with a DrillMaster heat gun ($14.95 at Harbor Freight)