Sugu air curing rubber

[And]

This Sugu air curing rubber http://sugru.com/about
looks like it could potentially have useful applications in caving - perhaps it could be used to repair oversuits, or sealing siphon tubes or something.

 

[KevinR]

I've used SUGRU a fair bit, it's OK but not that hard wearing and it's shelf life is poor. Basically its a silicon sealant with an inert filler. I won't use it on an oversuit or anything that would be subject to wear.
Kevin

 

[Les W]

Aquasure for oversuits... 

 

[KevinR]

"Aquasure for oversuits.."

Agreed, but I hear "Shoo Goo" is also good (and half the price) so will try that next time 

 

[jarvist]

For caving application I've used Sugru to line the edge of my old Dragon fibreglass helmet. The rubber band thing had disappeared long again, and the rim was cracking from pushing my head down tight rifts (and... ahem, being slightly run over by a friend backing up his car). A little bit of Sugru in the gaps, smoothed over with licked fingers & no more fibreglass splinters.

As a repair (nearly 3 years ago?) it's outlasted the helmet, which needs to be retired as the rivets have rusted through...

For those interested in exciting new DIY materials check out Polymorph (Polycaprolactone) - a thermoplastic which you can soften to mould by hand with hot water. It hardens to an opaque white plastic with very similar strength to Nylon, and you just reheat it in water again to reuse. Perfect for making semi-temporary mounts for cameras, lights, fitted handles for tools etc.

 

[Pitlamp]

Of all the Aquasure-style repair compounds I've tried - and there are several apart from Shoe goo, Aquasure has always given by far the best results (better adhesion, less brittle once cured, greater wear resistance, etc).

A friend recently recommended "Sikaflex EBT" for repairing abbraded diving drysuits. It comes from builder's merchants and costs about 6 quid for a mastic gun-sized tube. Haven't tried the tube I bought last week as the weather's not been conducive to abbrading my gear recently!

For northern cavers - they have this by the pallet load in Naylor Myers builders' merchants in the Dales (on the right side of the road when going from High Bentham to Low Bentham).