How To Fix Or Replace Bent Legs On Your Crab
If your crab’s legs do happen to become bent from poor storage etc, they can usually be easily fixed by following these few simple steps set out below.
Simply partly fill you kitchen sink with hot water direct from your hot tap. The water temperature on a standard hot tap is usually pre-set to around 60 degrees Celsius. This temperature is the perfect temperature to be able to heat and reshape the legs on our crabs. Heating the leg material to this temperature allows the plastic to become workable again without actually melting and deforming. Simply submerge your crab in the water for 30-60 seconds, then simply pull your crab out hold the legs straight with your fingers and allow it to cool. Once cooled the legs of your crab will retain their new shape.
If your crab has been left in direct sunlight and over exposed to heat they can also melt. If your crab’s legs melt from excessive heat then they cannot be fixed by using the above method. The legs on your crab may also melt from being exposed to other incompatible soft plastic materials or residues! Always store your crabs seperatley from other soft plastics as they can and will react with certain other plastics and residues and will melt. Again if this happens they cannot be fixed and will require changing. In any of the above cases your legs will need to be replaced by purchasing the correct size and colour replacement legs from the 'Replacement Parts' section on his website. The legs on our Treble Hook Model Crab's are glued into position during the manufacturing process so sometimes they can be difficult to remove. To remove the legs from a Treble Hook Model Crab the legs need to be pulled out of the crab in a rearwards direction... simply hold onto the body of the crab with one hand, hold the legs of the crab in the other hand and then apply rearwards pressure to the legs until you hear the glue seal break. Once the glue seal breaks the legs will slide straight out of the body of the crab. If the legs happen to break off instead of sliding out of the rear you will need to carefully use someting like a heavy duty darning needle or similar to dig the remainder of the leg material from the body of the crab. Once the legs have been fully removed you simply slide the new legs into the crab from the rear of the body. We highly recommend using a small drop of glue on the legs when changing them over. This simply stops the legs from being able to slide back out during use. We personally use and recommend Loctite 435 for this process however most superglues will do the job just fine.
Changing legs on our Single Hook Model Crab is however much simpler as they are not glued into place. For instructions on how to get the legs out of a Single Hook Model Crab please see the link in the 'FAQ' page 'How to change or replace components on a Single Hook Model Crab'.
