Thanks, I bought one yesterday after seeing your video and am very happy with the results too. I also use the hot iron and still will for TPU-coated thick materials and broader spaces. But as you mentioned it is perfect to pinpoint specific spots, thin lines and it doesn't leave any ugly marks as the iron sometimes does. A big other bonus: you can weld/fix all other kinds of "plastics" such as tie-downs, strap attachments, tigh-straps etc. including velding plastic (tubes) to tpu-surface areas. Velding plastics is only possible due to the hot airflow (plastics at least 330-400 celsius) so you never touch the materials, something my hot iron can't do.
Really glad to see this video.. My atlin is on order and I already have a solder station with hot air. I was going to use an Iron but now definitely going this way.
Dude. I built my first DIY Packraft V3 about a month ago (I bought it nearly 3 years ago, lost interest and finally came back to build it) but was really not happy with the quality. I used both Clover Mini and the 'leather iron' recommended by Matt and I found the temperature of the irons inconsistent at best. Sometimes when left plugged in for too long, the iron will get hot enough to melt through the nylon and sometimes when welding a long seam, by the time I got to the end, the iron had barely enough heat to melt the TPU. After my attempt to repair multiple leaks and many reworks attempts, I said f**k it and took the whole raft apart (some seams came apart easily and I can see where the TPU has not melted through) and bought new fabrics to make my second raft (I bought the fabic and used pieces from the old raft to pattern and cut). After watching your video, I bought the same hot air rework station (this unit has a known wiring fault so make sure you go over it with a multimeter before plugging it in) and I just made my first test weld. This weld is so strong that I physically could not get good enough grip to take the two pieces of fabric apart. This was not the case with my old welds and I am amazed at the night and day difference in the quality of the welds. Thank you for uploading this. You seriously made my day! TLDR : If anybody have any doubts, this is the way to go. It is far superior than messing with those awful irons.
I also experimented with temperature. 250C was too low to 'activate' the TPU. It made a bond but was weak enough to be taken apart. When I increased the temperature to 270, it make the weld way stronger.
Thanks for posting this video. I bought a similar hot air and soldering station to use on my packraft. Were you able to hot air weld your entire packraft or did you have some type of iron also?
Hi, I'm about to build one this summer. When you got the right airtemp, how easy is it then prevent it from overcooking the fabric and area around? Have you tried if it is helpful to use a strong backlight to check if the weld is ok?
with the blower you can choose the temperature and the size of the tip. With the tip you can define the area very specific. You can try some different set ups that work for you. What works for me is to move slowly in small circles or sideways to prevent it from overcooking. Don't hold it still in one place to wait for it to melt. You will get one very melted spot and a bad melted area around it. Try it on some waist material, then you get to know the material and how it reacts on your handling.
Ha! you showed only easy straight line seams. But If I would make a difficult bending seam I would need 3 Hands. One holding the Seam strip to the seam, the 2nd for the hot air and the 3rd for the pressing roll. Hm.... By ironing I sometimes touch the TPU side and this makes leaks and does look poor. I start building my 3rd packraft, maybee I should try the hot air.
Yes i used tape and some weights to keep things in place. But it's a quicker and more cleaner welds. I've made two of them (a yellow and a green one) without using the iron. I tried it on some spare pieces but it didn't work out for me. Good luck!
@@moschidreamer there is a link in the discription for the gun that i used and it's also the one that you can see in the video. For holding the fabric, i fixed about 10cm with tape or weights and then welded it. Because if i tried to long distances the fabric moved while welding. So for me short distances worked pretty well.
It goes a lot faster, i would recommend trying it first on some spare parts. For me personally it was also easier to have control of the tpu melting at the right place.
no problems with it. but with dark green you realy need a test trip, because its hard to see if the weld was succesful. When testing the dark green one some seems just came open because the weld wasn't good enough. But there is no problem to weld them properly afterwards.
I only had 3 small leaks. I would recommend using black and yellow. You can see it very goed when the weld is good, because the yellow (on the weld) is more dark. I've made also a dark green one and it is much harder.
@@sabien3823 Thanks for the info! Sounds like you had success then. 3 small leaks was an easy fix =). Yeah ive thought the same thing so my first DIY packraft will be yellow until i feel i know the welding. Did you take long doing it? Did you have fun making it =) ?
@@TheMrgalaxytab yeah i was really surprised. But it took me longer then i tought, so the fun of making it was gone sometimes... But keep the result in mind and just keep goin 😉. It really is fun to make one, because i found my own flow in the welding and could see that the seams are very clean welds was nice to see of coarse. Good luck with yours! 🙂
Sabien yeah I can see that happening to me too. Getting frustrated at the time, but I’m thinking I’ll be making one with a friend who also will make one. so hopefully it’ll be less boring. If I make a video of it I’ll let you know ^^
Thanks, I bought one yesterday after seeing your video and am very happy with the results too.
I also use the hot iron and still will for TPU-coated thick materials and broader spaces. But as you mentioned it is perfect to pinpoint specific spots, thin lines and it doesn't leave any ugly marks as the iron sometimes does.
A big other bonus: you can weld/fix all other kinds of "plastics" such as tie-downs, strap attachments, tigh-straps etc. including velding plastic (tubes) to tpu-surface areas.
Velding plastics is only possible due to the hot airflow (plastics at least 330-400 celsius) so you never touch the materials, something my hot iron can't do.
Really glad to see this video.. My atlin is on order and I already have a solder station with hot air. I was going to use an Iron but now definitely going this way.
Dude. I built my first DIY Packraft V3 about a month ago (I bought it nearly 3 years ago, lost interest and finally came back to build it) but was really not happy with the quality. I used both Clover Mini and the 'leather iron' recommended by Matt and I found the temperature of the irons inconsistent at best. Sometimes when left plugged in for too long, the iron will get hot enough to melt through the nylon and sometimes when welding a long seam, by the time I got to the end, the iron had barely enough heat to melt the TPU. After my attempt to repair multiple leaks and many reworks attempts, I said f**k it and took the whole raft apart (some seams came apart easily and I can see where the TPU has not melted through) and bought new fabrics to make my second raft (I bought the fabic and used pieces from the old raft to pattern and cut). After watching your video, I bought the same hot air rework station (this unit has a known wiring fault so make sure you go over it with a multimeter before plugging it in) and I just made my first test weld. This weld is so strong that I physically could not get good enough grip to take the two pieces of fabric apart. This was not the case with my old welds and I am amazed at the night and day difference in the quality of the welds. Thank you for uploading this. You seriously made my day!
TLDR : If anybody have any doubts, this is the way to go. It is far superior than messing with those awful irons.
I also experimented with temperature. 250C was too low to 'activate' the TPU. It made a bond but was weak enough to be taken apart. When I increased the temperature to 270, it make the weld way stronger.
Thanks! Good luck with the new one! I hope it will work out with the soldering station. (btw, I never used the iron, you don't need it)
Thanks for posting this video. I bought a similar hot air and soldering station to use on my packraft. Were you able to hot air weld your entire packraft or did you have some type of iron also?
I only used the hot air station for the complete packraft.
@@sabien3823 thank you, 👍
Hi, I'm about to build one this summer. When you got the right airtemp, how easy is it then prevent it from overcooking the fabric and area around? Have you tried if it is helpful to use a strong backlight to check if the weld is ok?
with the blower you can choose the temperature and the size of the tip. With the tip you can define the area very specific. You can try some different set ups that work for you. What works for me is to move slowly in small circles or sideways to prevent it from overcooking. Don't hold it still in one place to wait for it to melt. You will get one very melted spot and a bad melted area around it. Try it on some waist material, then you get to know the material and how it reacts on your handling.
Ha! you showed only easy straight line seams. But If I would make a difficult bending seam I would need 3 Hands. One holding the Seam strip to the seam, the 2nd for the hot air and the 3rd for the pressing roll. Hm.... By ironing I sometimes touch the TPU side and this makes leaks and does look poor. I start building my 3rd packraft, maybee I should try the hot air.
Yes i used tape and some weights to keep things in place. But it's a quicker and more cleaner welds. I've made two of them (a yellow and a green one) without using the iron. I tried it on some spare pieces but it didn't work out for me. Good luck!
@@sabien3823 what heat gun you suggest?
@@moschidreamer there is a link in the discription for the gun that i used and it's also the one that you can see in the video.
For holding the fabric, i fixed about 10cm with tape or weights and then welded it. Because if i tried to long distances the fabric moved while welding. So for me short distances worked pretty well.
Did this work Better than the standard iron?
It goes a lot faster, i would recommend trying it first on some spare parts. For me personally it was also easier to have control of the tpu melting at the right place.
Hoi, waar heb je de TPU-folie kunnen krijgen? Ik zie alleen PVC dek/vrachtwagenzeil te koop. Alvast bedankt!
deze komen van www.diypackraft.com/
How is this raft holding up? I plan on using this setup on my raft I ordered last week.
no problems with it. but with dark green you realy need a test trip, because its hard to see if the weld was succesful. When testing the dark green one some seems just came open because the weld wasn't good enough. But there is no problem to weld them properly afterwards.
Which size nozzles are you using? Do you squeeze them to get a better shape?
Just the standard ones that are coming with the blower. It's about 5mm diameter and i didn't change the shape of the nozzle
did it turn out alright in the end ?. Hard to measure how good the seam is until it is fully inflated
I only had 3 small leaks. I would recommend using black and yellow. You can see it very goed when the weld is good, because the yellow (on the weld) is more dark. I've made also a dark green one and it is much harder.
@@sabien3823 Thanks for the info! Sounds like you had success then. 3 small leaks was an easy fix =). Yeah ive thought the same thing so my first DIY packraft will be yellow until i feel i know the welding. Did you take long doing it? Did you have fun making it =) ?
@@TheMrgalaxytab yeah i was really surprised. But it took me longer then i tought, so the fun of making it was gone sometimes... But keep the result in mind and just keep goin 😉. It really is fun to make one, because i found my own flow in the welding and could see that the seams are very clean welds was nice to see of coarse. Good luck with yours! 🙂
Sabien yeah I can see that happening to me too. Getting frustrated at the time, but I’m thinking I’ll be making one with a friend who also will make one. so hopefully it’ll be less boring. If I make a video of it I’ll let you know ^^