Duct tape

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

ScubaSarus:
Duct tape is good but get good quality duct tape for salt water use.

Wait a second here! I know about "good quality" duct tape vs. the "el cheapo" duct tape. But is there specific "salt water use duct tape"???

Second question (hijacking my own thread), besides aquarium silicone, what is a good underwater adhesive? (I'm trying to build my own compass/slate)

Thanks!
 
Depends what you are trying to bond together. You need to know the materials of the two things you plan on bonding, your capabilities and the environment. Your capabilities are what kind of surface preparation can you do (hand sand probably), are you going to have to apply a primer and do you have the ability to cure at elevated temperatures (without filling your shop full of toxic fumes). Environmental items are conditions like saltwater, sunlight and temperatures (are you leaving it in the trunk in the summer, the garage in the winter and how cold are your dives?) It will also help to know your expected failure mode, are you going to peel it up or lift it off 90 degrees to the bond? Figure those things out and then go to a webpage for someone like loctite.com or 3m.com and use the "contact" link to ask for a reccomendation (they have MSDS links as well, so you can go to them and check environmental items like saltwater). If you don't want to go to a manufacturer, try McMaster Carr, Graco or some other distributer.

They will probably suggest a urethane, epoxy, rubber or silcone based adhesive depending on what you are bonding together. Different ones bond different materials together. One doesn't fix all. You are in New Mexico so I would probably worry more about heat than cold.

Or you can find someone who has already found something that worked for them and use the same thing.
 
BigBoB:
I am now trying to find a use under the water for the only thing more usefull than duct tape above the water....bailing wire.
Bailing wire tends to rust.... ZipTies on the other hand ~ even more useful underwater than bailing wire is above water :D
 
Go to the boat store/ walmart boat section and get some 3M 5200 adhesive. Comes in a blue and white tube. The stuff is vicious!

WD
 
DearMan has some great points. My reccomendation for Duct Tape is 3M duct tape, either standard grey or red for masonry, the red stuff is brutally adhesive, I use it at work for taping masking film to stucco walls.
 
Henkel's (Loctite's) webpage on ducktape, http://www.duckproducts.com

They say you can remove it with WD-40, so you are unlikely to be using it with anything that reacts with it (since WD-40 is not salt water friendly! - don't use it on your gear unless you are cleaning it off entirely before entering a saltwater environment). Just remember, no adhesive sticks to everything! Neoprene, Silcone, rubber, stainless, plastic (ABS?), steel, aluminum, paint and whatever else you may bond onto all have different things for that 'magic' bond. You shouldn't have much trouble with over the shelf remedies for most of your applications.
 
ScubaSarus:
Duct tape is good but get good quality duct tape for salt water use.

I have always had a hard time getting the roll started then wearing gloves. Perhaps in warmer dive locations...
 
After my posts comments on WD-40, I was PMed by a curious member on WD-40 being used on equipment by manufacturer reccomendation. I did a little looking around to see if I could find the information I was using from my memory and found conflicts with it. I'm putting my reply below so that anyone curious whether it should be used in saltwater can decide for themsleves whether or not to.

"Several years ago I was shipping a prototype aircraft wing across the ocean and we had fretting damage to the bearings. At first we thought the pins may have been too hard but that proved to be untrue. After investigating, I found the maintenance crew had used WD-40 to get the shipping equipment that had been resting outside working again. Not expecting anything, I pulled the MSDS and found it recommended against using on steels and other metals as a protective coating if you are on the coast. It claimed that on the beach it will break down in 48 hours. Immersed it was a matter of hours.

Based on that, I thought your question easy to answer. It didn't turn out so. I pulled an MSDS from the web today and found incompatibility listed as "strong oxidizing agents". Their webpage claims it is WD (Water Displacement) and recommends use in aquatic applications, including saltwater ones. Web searches found that chlorine is an oxidizer and that saltwater is frequently used as an aid to the oxidation process. Based on that and my previous experience, I'm skeptical that it is effective in saltwater environments, but the WD-40 people are claiming it. If you are interested in knowing, you may want to take a bucket of saltwater, coat a stainless bolt and nut, put them together and drop them in the bucket for a month. If a white flaky residue occurs, I wouldn't use it on anything expensive. If it doesn't, maybe the people at WD-40 are right. You might also drop in a weak electrical charge. If it doesn't react with a charge and time, it isn't going to.

I'll update my post in case someone else wants the information I found."

Cheers.
 
BigBoB:
I use it to label my deco bottles/eanx bottles (i.e. mix %, mod, my name). Hasn't failed me yet. I am now trying to find a use under the water for the only thing more usefull than duct tape above the water....bailing wire.

About all you need in a small tool box is: 1. hammer
2. screw driver (two ends, str. slot&phillips)
3. one roll duct tape
4. sveral loops of BAILLING WIRE :dazzler1:
5. one six pack of Bud light
 
caymaniac:
About all you need in a small tool box is: 1. hammer
2. screw driver (two ends, str. slot&phillips)
3. one roll duct tape
4. sveral loops of BAILLING WIRE :dazzler1:
5. one six pack of Bud light
(1) Agreed
(2) Agreed. Would you allow a multitool instead?
(3) Ok, agreed. That's why I started the thread...
(4) Would you allow the substitution of either zip-ties or grocery tie-wraps?
(5) Bud Light??? Heresy! That's just tasteless fizz water! :D
 

Back
Top Bottom