I am building a “holder” for an 40ft antenna mast that will be used for HF amateur radio comms in the field. I have a flagpole hitch mount that it will be installed in.
Problem is to make this stable and strong, I’ve ended up with 3 types of plastic piping to be joined together:
White PVC
Grey PVC
White PEX
Chatting with one of the plumbing team at Home Depot, he indicated there is no glue that’ll natively work with all 3 plastics, his suggestion was to use Epoxy and I picked up a tube, but wondering if there is a better way to proceed?
I think both color PVC should bond together with regular PVC glue without issues. Its pex to pvc that is issues. You could terminate pex into a pipe thread and the PVC into a pipe thread and screw them together?
You could also try some of the “plastic bonder” glues at the hardware store if you’re looking for something a bit cheaper.
In either case, you should roughen both surfaces with sandpaper to ensure better adhesion. Is there any way you can join these together mechanically instead of with adhesive?
In this case no, the PEX has the strength, rigidity and small inside diameter to stabilize the 40ft mast which is only about 1/2 wide. Not seen anything equivalent in PVC.
As a fellow ham radio colleague also pointed out having mechanical connection and a glue connection is important.
The plan is as follows
3 or 4ft grey 2" pvc tube
a couple of white pvc 1" union joints, disassembled, one end fits tightly, mechanically in the 2" pipe, the other end just sits on top of the PVC, though with 2 joints, I can use the same mechanicall mounting at both ends.
the PEX tube fits in the hole at both ends. I had found some other plastic drain tubes with one end with a glued on thread which fits into the union join hole but it’s neither straight or very rigid. Also couldn’t find anything to match this glued on thread piece.
though would like a “stopper” (glued on thread piece above) that will fit through the top hole and be too large to fit though bottom hole, but that needs to be on the bottom of the PEX tube.
I’ll need to be able to disassemble this for transportation also.
hmm, looking at the list of glues at Home Depot, it looked like different glues were required for white and gray PVC. I will take a look at the other adhesive’s mentioned in this thread though.
It’s the same pvc. But color might be for plumbing vs electrical. Plumbing one needs primer and electrical doesn’t. They say it won’t work because in the construction world it is not compatible. One is schedule 40 vs 80 etc…
Before using any kind of glue on polyethylenes, it can be helpful to lightly sand and/or lightly (LIGHTLY) flame the surface area. Flaming = casually passing a lighter type flame over the area, not melting or burning, just a graze to change the surface.to more readily bond with your adhesive.
