How to Repair a Crack in a Bucket

This article is taken from Five Gallon Ideas, which features over 100 uses for 5 gallon buckets with more being added all the time.

Method one: The Leakseal method

He uses two products to repair his bucket:

 Rust-Oleum LeakSeal

This spray creates a rubbery coating when you spray it on something. It’s very useful, people use it not just for repairing buckets, but to fix holes in their rain gutter and all sorts of other purposes.

You don’t want to get this stuff on your hands however. It’s not very bad for your skin, but it’s not easy to get off. Make sure to wear gloves when you use it and don’t breathe in the spray, keep some distance from your face.

The other product William mentions is:

Weed Barrier

Any brand of weed barrier should work fine. This thin plastic serves as a skeleton for the rubbery coating that you’re going to be spraying on your bucket. Of course, not all of you have weed barrier laying around and you’re not going to spend money to buy it just for this. If that’s the case, look towards similar alternatives, like the window mesh that you use to keep insects out of your house for example.

Fixing the crack in your bucket

Now when it comes to actually fixing the crack, it’s pretty straightforward as William shows in the video. You spray on the bottom of your bucket near the crack. Then you put your material on, moving it to see if it fits well. Rub it with your glove to get the air bubbles out. After that, add a second coating. Wait for it to dry, then repeat the process for the inside of the bucket. After this, you should have a great bucket capable of storing liquids again.

I want to remind you: Make sure to wear gloves when you use it and don’t breathe in the spray, keep some distance from your face!

Method two: Plastic welding

Plastic welding is a bit more difficult than the above method. What it comes down to is that you heat up plastic and apply new plastic strips to it. Plastic requires much lower temperatures to melt than most metals do. Here’s a video of someone plastic welding:

All that you really need for this is some equipment you can raise to a high temperature. A knife held in a flame would theoretically be enough.

Should you do this? I think this is probably not a good idea. If you do it wrong and the temperature raises too high, you can find yourself producing plastic fumes. Those fumes are not something you want to inhale, they can contain all sorts of toxic compounds. People have actually been hospitalized by plastic fumes from their microwave. Your health is not worth risking to save a dime.

My suggestion would be to use the first method instead! Repairing a crack like that is safe. If you do want to use this method, keep the temperature as low as needed to soften the plastic, ventilate the room and keep your face away from the plastic.

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