It is the top shelf and needs to support some weight.
It has a 3 inch crack in the front. I am concerned that if I try to separate it to insert some mending stuff, it will crack further.
Not really concerned about the aesthetics’s of the repair. Just want it to be effective.
Thank you for your assistance.
It’s common when repairing cracked plastic to drill a small hole at the end of the crack. 1/8" or so is plenty. It relieves stress at that point and helps keep the crack from spreading. Other than that no too much help. Have any pictures?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
Not sure what “insert mending stuff” means. I’d tend to use a liquid glue in the crack which takes essentially no space.
But … different plastics need different glues. If you can tell us the make and model of fridge we can get a parts list and point you in the right direction.
As GaryM said, pix of where and how it’s cracked will help. You’ll be wanting to take it out of the fridge and let it warm up to room temp before fixing it anyhow. So you may as well figure out how to do that now when you pull it out to take nice pix with a plain contrasting background, good lighting, and a ruler for scale.
Plastic welding is what you need. Since you don’t need it to look great, just be functional, it’s somethig you could do with a old butter knife. Search Youtube for videos on plastic welding.
Here is a video of a guy doing it with a soldering iron. But any heat source could work, thus the suggestion of a heated up butter knife.
Do you care if it’s ugly, but functional?
Consider using fiberglass.
Great post/username combination.
One option might be to get a 5" square of lexan or something and epoxy it beneath the crack. This will help support the weight. I’m concerned that if you just glue up the crack, the mend will fail suddenly when it’s fully weighted. By gluing a large piece of plastic beneath the crack, it is less likely to collapse.
Heh, yeah my experience with fiberglass is from repairing hulls of kayaks, hobiecats, canoes, etc. When you have a bunch of fiberglass repair products laying around, you tend to try it on other stuff.
For plastic refrigerator shelf that cracked I’d sand the area, clean it up, and fiberglass it!
Alternatively I’d search on Amazon for the brand, make, model and buy a new shelf.
I am lazy, and a sorry slacker. So I’d put a large can underneath it and never use the juice or whatever is in the can.