An absolutely wonderful thread and video! Thanks Sgt. Rock!
An absolutely wonderful thread and video! Thanks Sgt. Rock!
Hi there ... I have just stitched up a tarp for my hammock with re enforced corners the lot! I need some kind of seam sealant, is VHB the way to go regarding sealing over my stitched seams, or is there another alternative to plug the perforations created using this method?
I probably would have tried seamless only I have just spotted this link .... Gaaah !
I Live in Belfast and we get a lot of heavy rain, so I need it to be a bulletproof sealant otherwise I'm stuffed!
Any ideas I would be grateful!
I may be repeating someone else's concerns ... Apologies in advance!
Shiver
Shiver, this is a good question. The answer depends in large measure on what your tarp is made of. If you used CTF3 ("cuben"), then taping over the stitching with a DIY tape made with VHB adhesive transfer tape and a strip of cuben would be great. It would reinforce both the stitching and the tarp material at the join, and it would make it totally waterproof. There may be single-sided tapes available that are made for bonding cuben, too. Check with one of the oft-cited cottage industries that sell cuben products.
If, however, your tarp is made of some other material, such as silnylon or urethane coated nylon, you may need a different type of adhesive to seal it. I like the idea of a taped seam - in fact, I have a silnylon tarp with some less than wonderful seam work , so I'll do a test with VHB cuben tape. I'll use 3M 9460 adhesive and Primer 94 on a strip of CT.6K.08, but I expect to find that it doesn't adhere as well as silicone seam sealant.
Has anyone else made their own seam sealing tape with either silicone or urethane adhesives?
Shiver, I just looked at the Z-packs site that SGT Rock included. Joe says that the cuben tape he sells will not stick to silnylon, however he does suggest that silicone seam sealer can be used with cuben sewn seams, so I may try a DIY tape with cuben strips and silicone seam sealer as adhesive.
Brilliant! .... Thanks for the help .... It's great to have so many peeps who help out on here, I mean those who experiment and try different methods ... It's definitely getting my brain working .....
I'll check it out with the sealant ..... And the tape and run a few tests also ...
Happy trails
Shiver
Sweet tart sarge.
Life is just a tire swing -Jimmy Buffet
WV did you ever find a good solution that had high peel strength? I've been thinking that only gorilla tape had this for pull outs.
I've always designed around it - none of my tarps have mid-panel pull-outs, so all the stresses are in shear. I didn't test for peel strength at all. 3M's technical info suggests that 9460 with primer has high peel strength compared to other adhesive choices, but I'd guess it's still pretty low compared to its shear strength. If I needed strong mid-panel tie outs I might borrow something I used on edge tie-outs and also on the attachment for shroud lines on my adjustable hammocks (where the forces are much bigger than they are for tarps) - namely using carbon fiber tubes for short toggles to spread the forces out. If you put a toggle on the inside of a tarp and run the line though a hole to attach to it, then bond the toggle to the inside of the tarp, it would be pretty strong. You'd need to experiment to see how much reinforcement material you'd need to use to keep the end of the toggle from poking a hole in the tarp. It should be possible to make something that's very strong and light.
Alternatively, Grip Clips work well on cuben. When you take them off, you can see where they were - it's not flat any more - so they may cause some wear on the material. I haven't seen any problems with the one I leave in place to close the upwind end of my rectangular CT.6K.08 tarp, though. You could reinforce the tie-out location with a cuben patch and then install a Mini Grip Clip. Pretty simple solution. Just a Grip Clip, with no reinforcement at all would still be a lot stronger resisting peel forces than any tape connection. Simpler still.
Last edited by WV; 06-18-2012 at 21:17.
Thanks. On my cuben hammock I have the "footbox" system similar to what UKHammocks does with string instead of material. It worked OK for about a week, but then the primed 9460 failed under repeated stress on the system by peeling off the hem. So now I am trying to figure out a better way to keep it in place, and I was hoping maybe gorilla tape would do it. But I re-read some of your stuff on tie outs and it looks like most of your peel experiments were not very demanding and most stuff peeled off at about 3.5 pounds stress. I'm trying to avoid sewing anything to the hammock body at all, but it looks like I may have to sew a tie out for that, and then possibly laminate a layer over where I sew to put strength back into the spot and counter act the damage sewing into the body produces.
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