Questions on the solvent thinned silicone application.

After the solvent evaporates and the silicone cures (let's say a week or whatever) does any silicone transfer to your hands while handling the fly?

How about longevity? Does it flake off - show any visual signs of what, de-lamination?

Does the type of thinner make a difference? Anything better than white gas? If so, why?

db wrote on Nov 21^st, 2011 at 6:21am:


db,

Once the silicone is cured it does not transfer to the hands or stick to itself when the tarp is folded. No signs of delamination or flaking off.

I don't know if there are any long term adverse effects of the solvent, I have not experienced any. I think any solvent that the silicone will dissolve in would work, I just used Coleman fuel because I had it on hand and it evaporates quickly. If I do it again I may try denatured alcohol just to see if it makes any difference.

DentonDoc wrote on Nov 21^st, 2011 at 4:01pm:


dd,

My wife said she used a straight stitch, medium length, medium tension. The first one was sewn with cotton coated polyester, but the others were 100% polyester. I have noticed absolutely no difference, but I will go with the 100% poly or nylon in the future. Just seems better for outdoor use, even though it gets the silicone treatment.

These things have been under sustained wind loads and held up with no signs of stress, stretch, rips or tears. I think many tie outs make a difference, spreading the load. I take a lot of 550 cord on my trips to Quetico.

Pat

DentonDoc wrote on Nov 21^st, 2011 at 7:14pm:



dd,

I added a loop dead center on the seam on two of the tarps before my trip this year. I would recommend you put one on yours. You can't have too many tie outs and not putting one on initiallly was an oversight.

The winds kept those lines pretty tight and one of my nephews thought that would be a good place to dry his shoes.

That big green tarp in the background belongs to my nephew and is made by Kondos. The tie outs are actually black. The white that you see is a Klemheist knot made of white cordage used to tension the tarp along that red rope used as a ridgeline. We had a lot of different rope and cord along on that trip. I pretty much stick with 550 cord now.

Here is another pic of that tarp:

rlageman3 wrote on Nov 22^nd, 2011 at 5:24pm:

I'm not a fan of poles ... but that's ingenious! Worth a patent application I wonder?

db wrote on Nov 22^nd, 2011 at 9:57pm:

Agreed, that's very clever.