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  1. #1
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    Sil/PU coated silnylon test - Seam sealing

    Hi, English is not my native language, so, bear with me for a minute..

    I made a tarp out of one side silicone and the other side PU coated silnylon.

    I always thought the "shiny and smooth" side is silicone, and the matte side is PU. But my tent's seam sealing failed too early and I decided to test the fabric before ruining the tarp.

    First, I "glued" two shiny sides together with some silicone seam sealer: didn't hold well.
    Then, I "glued" two matte sides together with some silicone seam sealer: didn't hold well but it held better than shiny sides.

    I ordered some PU seam tape to see which side it will stick. It stuck on both sides.
    Matte side: PU tape somewhat easily removed, fabric coating was unharmed.
    Shiny side: PU tape was harder to remove, fabric coating completely got destroyed while removing the tape.

    EDIT: I've made another test.
    I've coated both sides of the fabric with some silicone seam sealer and let it dry. Then I scraped both sides with my nails.
    Shiny side: Easier to scrape and remove the coating.
    Matte side: Really hard to scrape and couldn't remove most of it.

    This little test tells me that the "shiny and smooth side" is PU coated, and the "matte side" is silicone coated.

    Did you know about this?
    Last edited by thecacoon; 12-26-2020 at 01:45.

  2. #2
    cougarmeat's Avatar
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    thecacoon - also know that there are two types of seam sealers. One is formulated for SilPoly, the other is formulated for SilNylon. So you can’t just grab a package that says “Seam Sealer”; you have to check that it will work with your fabric.
    In order to see what few have seen, you must go where few have gone. And DO what few have done.

  3. #3
    Senior Member Rusty Shackelford's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cougarmeat View Post
    thecacoon - also know that there are two types of seam sealers. One is formulated for SilPoly, the other is formulated for SilNylon. So you can’t just grab a package that says “Seam Sealer”; you have to check that it will work with your fabric.
    Are you sure this applies to true Silpoly and not the version that has a PU coating on one side? It was my understanding that as long as it's a silicone coating and not PU, that a silicone sealer is fine. I believe Warbonnet supplies the same sealer for both their silnylon and silpoly tarps but I can't be certain yet because they forgot my sealer wit my new tarp, so that's on it's way at the moment.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by cougarmeat View Post
    thecacoon - also know that there are two types of seam sealers. One is formulated for SilPoly, the other is formulated for SilNylon. So you can’t just grab a package that says “Seam Sealer”; you have to check that it will work with your fabric.
    As I said; I used silicone seam sealer.

    Quote from rsbtr: "This fabric has distinct shiny (PU4000) and matte (sil/PU) sides. It is recommended to put the matte side facing out and shiny side facing inwards"

    *This is not my fabric but it says PU side is shiny. My fabric has PU on one side and Silicone on the other. Manufacturer doesn't say which side is which.

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