Adhesives and sealers

[Mike Maas]

Over the years I've messed around with different repair techniques, non of them great. Last year, I called KME and ordered some contact cement and seam sealer. Working with these two products I was able to do slightly better repairs than slopping aqua seal all over, but stil far from professional repairs.
I noticed the newer drysuits have some fantastic seam sealers and glues holding them together. Northern Diver drysuits have a seam sealer that is really tough looking and I bet it would be far better that aqua seal for a number of repair problems.

What glues or sealers have any of you worked with that might help me keep my old favorite drysuit going?

 

[Bob3]

Northern Diver & a few other suit manufacturers use Bostik 2402 (made in the USA)
Surface prep makes all the difference in the world.
E6000 is a silicone based product similar to the formula used in Aqua Seal/(Aqua Sure in Europe), which is also similar to the GOOP formulas.
Glue recipes in Canada differ, they use less flammible (though carcinogenic) components.
Care must be used on laminated suits so as to not delaminate the layers, the above products are relatively safe to use.

 

[Mike Maas]

Thanks Bob.
The Bostic 2402 looks like some heavy duty contact cement. Can a guy buy that retail anywhere?
The glue that really interested me was the stuff on the seams of the ND drysuit.

 

[oxyhacker]

Eclectic E6000 is not a silicone - its polystryene based. For that matter, neither are Aquaseal/Aquasure and Goop - they are all urethanes. Silicones are are not a good choice for divesuit use because they are not particularly strong, and make it difficult to achieve a good bond using any other products later on.

Many factory seams are done with Aquaseal or very similar products - last thing I knew, DUI was using it. The reason the factory seams look so good is that they use sophisticated tools to apply it. That and they thin it correctly (about 50/50 with Cotol).

Generally speaking, the safest thing to do is always to use the adhesives and sealants recommended by a suit's manufacturer, though as one gains experience, one will find that their are certain products that seem to work well in a wide range of applications, like Carboline, Bostick 2402, OS System's PB300, and, for vulcanized rubber suits, Viking 2-part cement.

Bob3 once bubbled...
Northern Diver & a few other suit manufacturers use Bostik 2402 (made in the USA)
Surface prep makes all the difference in the world.
E6000 is a silicone based product similar to the formula used in Aqua Seal/(Aqua Sure in Europe), which is also similar to the GOOP formulas.

 

[Bob3]

I'd tried (with no luck) to dig up the MSDS & more info on e6000 a few weeks back, got my info off a page that apparently had bogus info: http://www.thistothat.com/glue/hgoop.shtml
Gotta watch out for stuff ya read on the internet.

On the bright side, I did manage to get "inspired" to keep on looking for a good source of material safety data sheets, came up (finally) with a DOD database at Cornell U.: http://msds.pdc.cornell.edu/msdssrch.asp

The Bostik is available at Datrex: http://www.datrex.com/products/prodlist_standard.asp?ca=28

You can also contact Bostik for a place local to you, though it took almost a week for my local distributor to answer my email: http://www.distriblocat.bostikfindley-us.com/