Stick your silicone rubber?

Discussion about making bushwalking-related equipment.

Stick your silicone rubber?

Postby telemarktim » Thu 27 May, 2021 1:43 pm

Hi there, Fellow MYOGers, If I used silicone rubber to patch a damaged dry bag and only had partial success, I may have exclaimed; “Stick your silicone rubber!’

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Luckily, the photo above shows a strong silicone rubber glued patch on my precious first silnylon dry bag. I cut the hole in a rather cavalier way. I had a baseless expectation that because the orange silnylon bonded well, the red silnylon should also. As luck would have it, both bonded perfectly and the bag is as good as new. It still goes on every trip and becomes my pillow. It is just a bit ugly but that was a noble sacrifice for progress with DIY gear making.

I subsequently found that not all silnylons are equal in their bonding properties. I think I have eliminated my glueing technique as a cause of the poorer bonding.

Even so, there will be practical uses for sub-optimal glueing when supplemented with stitching or peel forces are not present and mainly sheer forces are involved. Such glueing or impregnation can impart amazing water-repelling properties to fabrics and stitches on DIY gear made from the sub-optimal glueing fabric. Nevertheless, it would be nice to be able to predict these bonding qualities before we purchase our materials. I appeal for your help in this regard at the bottom of this topic.

My innovative loadbearing hem at the apex of my pyramid tent that is made of sub-optimal glueing silnylon. It has been treated with diluted silicone rubber and the fabric and importantly the stitching strongly repel water.
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Three silicone rubber posts. I now have three silicone rubber posts on my website. My silnylon glueing investigations spread to other adventure fabrics, materials and metals. Below, I put teaser photos above each link to provide you with an idea of the crazy ideas that you may discover within each post:

Silnylon glueing.

A 700ml 41g silnylon glued lay flat backpacking kettle.
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https://timtinker.com/silnylon-glueing/

Silicone rubber glue/sew stove jacks for light backpacking tents.

A glued and sewn silcotton stove jack securely attached to a silnylon tent made of fabric that has sub-optimal bonding.
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The stove jack in use.
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A silicone rubber keeper glued to aluminium foil forming a high-temperature heat shield for an ultralight tent stove.
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https://timtinker.com/diy-ultralight-stove-jack-for-hot-tents/

General silicone rubber glueing of anything to everything?

Lastly, I have a rather long, rambling and growing post on silicone rubber. It explores many DIY gear making materials and their compatibility with this glue. My silcotton (shirt cotton), is just one example of the low-tech to high-tech miracle transformation that can be made with common cheap and safe acetic cure RTV silicone rubber from Bunnings (And the shirt off your back.).

A glossy sample of DIY silshirtcotton with endless MYOG uses. Cheap, soft, flexible, glueable, and heat resistant to 200C+.
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Silicone rubber bonding strength testing rig.
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Silicone rubber bonding makes these ultralight tent stove insulating legs mounts possible. The silicone rubber bonds the silicone ribbon (pink) to the stainless steel clasp and to the light aluminium foil clips on the ends of the ribbons. The grip studs of silicone rubber bonds strongly to the clasp. It makes a simple, insulated and quick means of mounting a hot tent stove on found bush poles.
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The stove mount attached to the bush pole.
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https://timtinker.com/silicone-rubber-for-ultralight-backpacking-gear2/


A call for help. I would appreciate some help from other MYOGer’s with suggestions of what else might be silicone rubber bonded glued and to possibly supply me with some (Letter postable) scraps or samples of materials for testing. I would add the test results to the growing post.

I would in particular like to try
Various silnylons with an identified source
Various silpolys with an identified source
Cuben fibre, Dynema (Dyneema) fabric

Please reply or send me a PM if you would like to help by joining the search.
Tim
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Re: Stick your silicone rubber?

Postby BarryK » Wed 02 Jun, 2021 10:43 pm

What minimum size of silnylon would you need for testing?

Note, for a silicone mat, that you can use like your sil-cotton, perhaps kitchen silicone mats would also do the job. I have one 600x800mm. Plenty of them available on eBay and Aliexpress, for example:

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/292630820383
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Re: Stick your silicone rubber?

Postby telemarktim » Thu 03 Jun, 2021 9:29 am

Hi BarryK, Really any size can be tested. I was thinking of a size that could be fitted into a standard postal envelope if the material was not gold or very precious.

Yes, the silicone cooking mat is great for glueing. However, if the fabric that it to be glued to is mediocre for glue bonding, then the mat can be glued to the silcotton and then the silcotton can be glued and sewn to the fabric. The silcotton make the sewing easy and adds more flexibility. Example in the photo below. Tim

Image
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Re: Stick your silicone rubber?

Postby Smellypaddler » Fri 11 Jun, 2021 12:12 pm

I have some 1.1 silnylon and 1.1 silpoly here from ripstop that I can send you if that helps.

Also I have some membrane silpoly on its way for a tarp project but might not have much to spare. You can have the selvedge offcuts if that helps.

Let me know if you need any of the above and PM me your address and I'll post to you.
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Re: Stick your silicone rubber?

Postby telemarktim » Fri 11 Jun, 2021 1:37 pm

Hi Smellypadler, That's a memorable but not so nice-sounding name. Yes, thanks for your offer of glue testing samples. A bigger postage envelope sized sample would be good, but I can try with any size and it should be informative. The selvedge on some of my fabrics is not equal treated with silver reflective coating etc when compared to the body of the fabric. But we can take that into account when considering the results. I am also a bit of a TA and use selvedge edges within seams as much as possible. They are very strong and trustworthy so I don't usually have them as scraps!
If you are doing cursed-cat-curves, then maybe some scraps.

Please, where possible, include a product description and as much identification as possible and describe the origin, so that the success or failure can inform other MYOGers about choices of fabrics in the future.
In this regard, I probably should contact some fabric suppliers for samples to do the testing. Presumably, it would be in their interest to have this information available from an independent source. Any suggestions?
I will send you my address by PM. Thanks, Tim
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