even though 3D printers can fabricate complex shapes that would be almost impossible to mill, they are not well fit to styles needing bridging or with big empty spaces. To conquer this, [Scorch] has used an simple plastic welding method that works with both ABS as well as PLA. All you requirement is a rotary tool.

“Friction welding” is the process of scrubing two surfaces together up until the friction alone has produced sufficient warm to join them. Industrially, the technique is used to joining large, metal workpieces that would otherwise need a time-consuming weld. In 2012, [Fran] reminded us of a toy from decades back that enabled kids to plastic weld styrene utilizing friction. This customized technique is similar to stick welding in that a consumable filler rod is added to the molten joint. Inspired by our protection of [Fran], [Scorch] experimented as well as found that a stick of filament mounted into a Dremel works just also for joining 3d prints.

That is all there is to it. Snip off a bit of filament, feed it into your rotary tool, as well as run a bead to join parts as well as shapes or do repairs. Friction welded plastic is shockingly strong, vastly exceptional to glued plastic for some joints. one more tool for the toolbox. See the videos below for [Scorch]’s demo.