1. Messages
  2. [Amel Yacht Owners] fresh water hose join to pipe

Re: [Amel Yacht Owners] fresh water hose join to pipe

James Alton
 

Bill,
   
  Thanks for your input on the butyl tape.  I always wondered if it were safe to use on/under plexiglass so good to know.    Can you clean up the dirt that attaches with a solvent?  I am going to start using the butyl tape as a bedding material and see how I like it.  

  I thought that I would mention a caulking that has worked well for me in bedding large plexiglass windows with a lot of movement.  It is the Dow Corning 3145, which is a non corrosive (actually primarily used for electrical work), very elastic and strong  silicone caulking.  If you sand the edge of the plexiglass and apply the plastic primer recommended by Dow(I can get the part # on the primer if anyone needs it) to the bonding surfaces, the adhesion is amazing.  I used this initially on a customers boat that had a lot of flex in the cabin trunk and huge windows that tore the regular marine silicone caulkings apart in 2-3 years with regularity.  The  3145  generally lasted 7-8 years which saved a lot of labour.   It only comes in clear and gray unfortunately and the gray is what you want for long UV exposure.  One downside is that the stuff can take a lot of heat so using a heat gun to warm a fitting for removal is not very effective.  A sharpened putty knife seems to be the best way to go.

Best,

James Alton
SV Sueno,  Maramu #220
Sardinia,  Italy

  

On Mar 6, 2017, at 1:41 PM, greatketch@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:

Where would I not use butyl tape...  that's a good question...


Not for anything permanently under water. Thru-hull fittings and such should have an adhesive sealant. 
Not for sealing things that are routinely exposed to solvents, including diesel and gasoline.

Otherwise, I think pretty much anything goes.  It is compatible with plastics, so it's good for bedding windows and hatches.  When you use it to bed down a plexiglass window if you use enough, and squeeze it out, it is easy to get an attractive seam.

One downside is that since it is non-curing it stays sticky.  That's good on the inside of the joint, but if it is exposed in a wide seam it will attract dirt.

Bill Kinney
SM#160 Harmonie
La Parguera, Puerto Rico

---In amelyachtowners@..., wrote :

Bill,

   I have heard good things about the butyl caulking tape.   I have removed quite a bit of hardware that was bedded with it over the years and don’t recall see many problems but I have not used it much myself to date.  Are there any limitations in where you would use this material?  I hadn’t thought about the shelf life aspect, that alone is a good reason to carry at least some aboard.  I have some of the tape  and will put some in the box of parts I am taking to the boat on the next trip over.

   Yes, I can imagine that trying to migrate a solvent into caulking to soften it would be a slow process.  If the fitting is metal that you want to remove, try heating it up to about 200F.  I find that I can usually  remove the fitting using very little stress so no damage the gelcoat/fiberglass.  It is of course preferable to only heat the metal part,  not the gelcoat/fiberglass since heat will soften that as well.

Best,

James Alton
SV Sueno,  Maramu #220
Sardinia,  Italy
Join main@AmelYachtOwners.groups.io to automatically receive all group messages.