self amalgamating tape

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meldrum

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I am an electrician and upto the present day, if you had to perform an under ground joint to a cable you had to fit a resin filled joint, however I would like to recommend to my fellow yachties a new product that has come on to the market. Self amalgamating silicon tape, although designed for water proofing/sealing underground cable joints. It has a vast number of useful marine applications. It can be used for sealing hot waterhoses, diesel lines etc, the advantage being , the joint doesnt have to be clean it will still seal if the contents of the line are under pressure and ejecting its contents diesel /water from inlet valves etc without having to shut the system down. I have used it for sealing cables, domestic hot water pipes whilst thepump is still running. It is available from most electrical wholesalers and costs about £40 for 20 mtrs. although sceptical at first I now think it is an indispensible item of any boats emergency kit. I also think pbo should do an article on it
 
Probably not the same stuff, but I've been using a product called "self amalgamating tape" since RS Components put it in their catalogue in about 1978, and always have a couple of rolls in stock. The local chandlery here in Almerimar keep it. I see you refer to "silicon" tape. Is that a different product? I wouldn't have thought of using it for many of the applications you mention - e.g. diesel leaks under pressure. Is the product you are referring to different to the RS components type? Could you post a link to suppliers?
 
yes very different this is silicon based and a completely new product, Im not trying to flog the stuff honest its just i was very impressed with its performance in tough conditions
 
it is a different product because of its silicon construction It s only appeared in electrical trade wholesalers in the last 2 or three months I know the tape you mean I will find out the manufacturers and post them on the forum, as I said I dont know of any other tape that will seal a hot water pipe or fuel pipe under pressure.I just thought it might be some thing new of interest to my fellow yachties.
 
Sounds like the stuff that was demonstrated enthusiastically to me a couple of weeks ago, by a marine engineer. It sticks like wotsit to itself and can do the same job as self-amalg tape, but has an intriguing property - I was asked to hold 2 fingers side by side, then about 3 turns of tape were put round. I could stretch it slightly, then roll it off - it made a perfect O-ring which I was told is good enough to make a seal or gasket with. Longer lengths can be made into fanbelts!

About £7 for about 3m IIRC
 
[ QUOTE ]
sounds like the stuff

[/ QUOTE ] But it's SILICONE with an E not silicon
 
I got something similar at the sydney boat show last year. Comes with a clear film between layers which you discard as you roll it on. It's not very adhesive but does stick to itself. It stretches to about 5 times the roll length as you wrap it. Have used it to protect genoa from swages by wrapping swages. Bought it because it claimed to be able to repair any hose on the boat. Does seem to degrade slowly under UV.
 
Are you sure that this is actually a new product and not a re-launch or new brand of the self amalamating tape we've used for years?
 
[ QUOTE ]
Are you sure that this is actually a new product and not a re-launch or new brand of the self amalamating tape we've used for years?

[/ QUOTE ]

I would like to know that too.

I have used self amalgamating tape for years, one problem I recently discovered is that in high temperatures/high UV it disintegrates very quickly. Not a problem I ever encountered in North Wales!! but here in Kenya it is all but useless.

So I would love to know if this is new and better.
 
Maybe it's best to put a few turns of ordinary PVC tape over it in high UV conditions? That lasts for years. I put some SAT around a join (in the shade but outside) in January 2005 and cut it open for a repair a couple of days ago and the inside was a clean as the day I made the join. We've been in southern Spain since summer 2005. The SAT seemed fine in all respects, surface and inside. Are there different grades? I am confused as I would have expected the vendors to use some new product name to avoid confusion. Ordinary SAT is expensive stuff itself.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Maybe it's best to put a few turns of ordinary PVC tape over it in high UV conditions? That lasts for years. .....

[/ QUOTE ] When I worked for BT the instructions for sealing a joint were to use PVC first then self amalg. then wrap with PVC again.
 
The best tape to put over rubber self amalgamating tape is black scotch 45 ("weatherproof tape"). Cheap pvc tape doesn't last, but you can slightly stretch the good stuff as you apply it, like you do with self amalgamating tape and it stays on.
Even better, if you can manage it, is glue-filled heatshrink tubing. You used to be able to buy mastic filled heatshrink which would do the whole job in one, but I haven't seen it in years.

If you're putting rubber self-amalgamating tape over a cable, first paint the whole thing either with Scotchkote (electrical gunk) or Cow Gum (rubber solution glue), and let it dry. It acts as a primer and helps keep the water out. I've used that method on underwater cables for years, although it only really works well on neoprene ones.
 
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