Scuba Fix

[emoreira]

Depends on whether the inflatable is made from hypalon or PVC. PVC patches last a couple of years, I’ve seen hypalon patches properly applied go for 10.

Wing bladders get patched with aquaseal. I doubt you’d glue a whole new assembly in, I expect you’d remove the old assembly, glue in a strongback around the hole, and insert a flange.

That’s how I’d do it anyway.

I read somewhere here in SB in an old thread that cordura is especialy hard to make something stick. Even Aquaseal can be peeled off from bare cordura.
Flanges are RF welded, not glued. When cordura breaks, there is little to do. Only cyanoacrylate sticks, but it's not flexible, so it will break aside.
That's why spare flanges need somewhere to anchor and sealant.

 

[Wookie]

I read somewhere here in SB in an old thread that cordura is especialy hard to make something stick. Even Aquaseal can be peeled off from bare cordura.
Flanges are RF welded, not glued. When cordura breaks, there is little to do. Only cyanoacrylate sticks, but it's not flexible, so it will break aside.
That's why spare flanges need somewhere to anchor and sealant.

My thought was to glue the flange inside the bladder, which is usually much easier to glue to than the cordura.

When you glue a new fill valve into an inflatable, you can do one of 2 things. You can buy an entire valve set in a flange and patch, cut the old valve hole out, and glue on a new patch containing the complete valve. Works, but not my way. I prefer to cut the material radially from the hole, remove the bits of the old valve and flange, install the new hard pieces of the valve, then patch around the hole. When the patch has had 48 hours to set, put the rubber flange on the inside of the hole, draw the hard parts through, and put the valve together.

I have done it both ways and haven’t had a failure yet either way.

 

[emoreira]

One of the dive school BCDs repaired.

The white puller is also printed.
The cap is original.

 

[Couv]

Very nice @emoreira . If I understand correctly this fitting uses no adhesive at all. What material and shape do you use as a seal for the bladder flange? Is it a double gasket (butterfly seal Store | Vintage Double Hose) or two separate gaskets?

TIA,

Couv

 

[emoreira]

Very nice @emoreira . If I understand correctly this fitting uses no adhesive at all. What material and shape do you use as a seal for the bladder flange? Is it a double gasket (butterfly seal Store | Vintage Double Hose) or two separate gaskets?

TIA,

Couv

No Gasket, only sealant . I use a poliuretanic adhesive, though silicone adhesive does the job.

 

[Couv]

No Gasket, only sealant . I use a poliuretanic adhesive, though silicone adhesive does the job.

Thanks for the clarification Eduardo. I used Aquaseal for the repair shown in post #37. It works well, however I would prefer a method that requires no adhesive. If we could find a double seal large enough, your fitting could be installed as shown below.

 

[emoreira]

Thanks for the clarification Eduardo. I used Aquaseal for the repair shown in post #37. It works well, however I would prefer a method that requires no adhesive. If we could find a double seal large enough, your fitting could be installed as shown below.

Those are different applications. My flanges are meant to repair a broken RF welded flange. Normally there is still welded the rest of the original flange to the bladder.
The application you mean is for a bladder that has only the hole and no rest of broken original flange.
A flange for this application can be designed, though this is not where I'm pointing.

 

[Couv]

Got it. The method I used was to remove all of the original flange and adhesive material so there remained a clean hole. I used adhesive only because I did not have a large diameter seal. I'm confident your design would work without adhesive if all the old material was cleared away and a double seal or possibly two seals-one inside/one outside were installed.

 

[happy-diver]

So there's the kid, full of energy zipping around on a skateboard doing jumps
over gutters riding railings,tut tut, jumping up onto walls having a kid of a time

Then an adult comes along and well, can't just tell the kid that it can't be done
then next best thing the adult can find instead, is to teach the kid about gravity

then the kid thinks well he's an adult been around, there must be wisdom there
so to make the adult happy, kid plonks on the couch and becomes a vegetable.

This before the kid has learnt how to dive, learnt about gear, and learnt to fix it



Off to the solo forum now, to impart information about my love of buddy diving.

 

[emoreira]

Got it. The method I used was to remove all of the original flange and adhesive material so there remained a clean hole. I used adhesive only because I did not have a large diameter seal. I'm confident your design would work without adhesive if all the old material was cleared away and a double seal or possibly two seals-one inside/one outside were installed.

Jacket style BCDs have RF welded flanges. It's quite difficult to remove the rest of the flange, even at the cost of breaking the cordura and the internal lining, and in my design it's not advisable, as it represents an anchor point to the new flange. I have seen BCDs where the RF weld was wrongly made, the original flange was crystallized and came out in small pieces, however the surface of the cordura and interior lining was rugous owing to the weld, making it hard to seal only with a gasket.
In the case of bladders inside of BP/Wings, the flange is mounted with a double gasket or with adhesive. As there is no weld, the bladder is intact if you need to change the flange.