Silnylon glueing

Glueing, laminating and seam sealing of silnylon with acetic cure silicone rubber for DIY ultralight backpacking projects are discussed.

This is an early post about only silnylon glueing and there is a later post about many other more general RTV silicone rubber glueing ideas and projects including cotton fabric.

Liquid acetic cure silicone rubber can be effectively used to glue and seal silnylon for DIY projects. However, in my experience, the strength of the bond is variable according to the particular silnylon used. So far I have not been able to find out why there is such a difference and performing test with samples of the fabric is the only sure way to find out the glueing qualities of a particular fabric. The shear strength of all glued seals is adequate for seam sealing and applying simple patches to small holes, the ‘peel strength’ is the variable that is of concern when the glueing is attaching a load bearing component that is not applying pure shear loads to their glued surfaces.

Examples of glued silnylon fabrics

Not all silnylons glue well

The orange and red silnylon in the above photos glue well with RTV acetic cure silicone rubber and the joints have high ‘peel’ strength and excellent shear strength.

However, I have obtained other silnylon such as that used in my latest square ultralight tent that is made of the grey silnylon. Glueing with this fabric has much less ‘peel strength’ and can not be trusted in high load bearing situations without the use of supplementary stitching.

Tricks for silnylon seam sealing

After the sewing of tent seams, usually with lay flat or french seams, I seal all seams with a mixture of 1 part acetic cure silicone rubber mixed thoroughly with 4 parts of clean turpentine (1:4 wt/wt or vol/vol is good enough). The turpentine should be clean mineral turpentine or mineral spirits. A small bottle of mineral spirits or a larger bottle of mineral spirits will do, but a larger bottle will be useful for larger projects such as tent sealing and other DIY tinkering projects.

The mix should be made in small quantities and brushed thoroughly into the seams. For this, I use an old ironing board covered with a black polythene sheet. Some of the sealant should come through onto the plastic when good penetration is achieved. I make a small batch of sealant for each seam as the mix starts to gel and go ‘goopy’ after a few minutes (This polymerization reaction is apparently is as a result of exposure to moisture from the air that catalyzes the reaction. It is probably the reason why the ‘acetic cure silicon rubber’ is so good for bathroom sealing.) The sealant is difficult to mix quickly by hand, but it can be done quickly in a small tube with a DIY ‘whip wizzer‘ stick run in a Dremel tool. The Dremel tool is an absolutely indispensable tool for many of the projects on my website.

Tim

More adventure gear glueing

If you are a DIY adventure gear nerd like myself, you may be interested in my other glueing posts. However, before them, I thought a little ode about the fluid meaning of ‘nerdism’ would be fitting.

I tinkered in my shed like a passionate knurd,
Or should I use gnurd, a more gnarly word,
Or nurd, another old and similar pejorative,
Meaning of all, now have morphed into positive narrative,
So with obsession and a touch of pride I embrace the current term nerd.

Glued repair to adventure gear

RTV silicone rubber, Oogoo, Sugru, Kintsuglue and Tommy tap comparison

Glueing instead of pinning for sewing backpacking tents

DIY stove jack glue-on and sew-on for hot tents

Contact glue tent repair

Schnozzel bag repair