Making strong,high temp. gasket material

Hi Carl; See my answer to David above.And yes the mat glas is much more ridged and thicker.

Hey Sam; It just cut better on metal, besides I have scrap pieces of everything coming out of my ears,like pipe dies.

Thanks Steve and your welcome. Also thanks Chris for sending Steve some stills.I’m a computer dummy and would probably have my wife do it for me.If you need audio instructions or ever need a disc of anything send me a mailing address and if possible will send. Dan

Just wanted to show everyone what I have after removing wax paper.Probably should have removed wax paper after a few hours but waited 24 hours.The paper came of a little harder and left some tear offs that I was able to get off with my finger nail. Will have to squeegee on one more layer on underside as the silicone only partially saturated the mat.As of now it is dry to the touch but still needs a day or two of curing. A pic of both sides below after removing wax paper. Dan

Hi Steve; I see Chris posted five pics from my video for you.(Thanks Chris) I thought I would give you a narrative of what I did kinda step by step.
1-Staple down wax paper to wood,size to your liking.
2-take sheet one of two fiberglas mat(not cloth) and staple onto wax paper(just at edges)
3-empty about 30%-50% of high temp. silicone caulk tube onto mat and squeegee in very hard to near edges.
4-Lay second sheet of mat onto first sheet and press down.
5-apply 2nd. coat of silicone and squeegee in well.
6-lay more wax paper onto silicone mat and roll with roller or caulk tube.,let set a few hours and remove wax paper.
7-flip over so side that was down is now up and apply another layer of silicone.
8-flip over several times over a day or two to allow curing.
9-should be ready to cut,punch holes and use.
I hope that using this with the pictures will answer any questions. Dan C.

I used to work with Hi temp RTV’s a lot. They NEED moisture to cure.
I was thinking about your rainy day, in Florida and how that situation might affect cure,vs a dry day.
See:
http://www.dymax.com/blog/?p=990
You will see that too little humidity can cause cruing problems, as well as too much.

We also used to build a lot of fiberglas canoes (if 26 is a lot?), both with polester and expoy resins. Johnson’s paste was worked pretty well as a mold-release compound. One might try that on a metal sheet for both top and bottom. Or even sheets of glass or plexiglass. I’d use two coats of the wax, buff lightly after it dries and make a sample first. There are also plenty of commercial mold release products out there.

“Dinker Dies” are the tools used for cutting holes in gaskets, leather, etc. If made from tool steel, they will last a lot longer. I usually “sharpen” them by turning about a 60 degree taper on the end in the lathe, but you can certainly do it with a bench grinder, etc… If your gasket material is very thick, you may want to taper the INSIDE of the tube, not the outside, so the gasket hole’s edge will be vertical and not cause the gasket to stretch or tear. That’s where the lathe comes in handy, but it can be done with a file.
I have also used solid round tool steel bar by boring the ID an inch deep or so, then tapering the working edge. Sometimes I don’t even need to heat treat, sometimes I do. That ID-boring method does make it harder to get the punch-outs out, though, unless you dril/bore a hole in the side for release.

This still is a killer idea!!! The more I hear about it, the ,more I like it.

Pete Stanaitis

Thanks for the additional pictures and explaination DannyC.
PeteS is correct that these RVT’s mostly cure from air humidity moisture exposure. Ambient air temperature and the resulting humidity seem to greatly affect cure times. Summer dry air is slow. Cold frozen dry the slowest of all. Llikes to be somewhere in-between these extemes. Thick skinned over layers slow (air moisture shut out then) as you alredy know with your squeeze thin layered advice.
Peter mold releases like waxes kills the posibilty of more layering on a rubber surface like this.
Regards
Steve Unruh