Model Boat Mayhem
The Shipyard ( Dry Dock ): Builds & Questions => Submarines => Topic started by: U-33 on December 12, 2014, 12:57:28 pm
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The subject of making a seal for a bolt down radio box lid has come up on the DITMS Facebook page...apart from the usual materials such as silicone sealant, rubber sheet, rubber O ring cord, etc, I'm sure I remember someone using cork sheet (the same stuff as used to make things like rocker cover gaskets on the family car) back in the day.
Has anyone used sheet cork for a seal, I wonder? If so, was it successful?
Rich
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I think you know my views on flat hatches and seals, Richard. (I avoid them. I like cylindrical O ring seals.)
Using cork as a gasket would seem a poor choice to me anyway - inherently rather porous unless really compressed.
David
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You're better off using one of the other methods.
Cork is a very old fashioned material which they used back in the day when the modern materials we have today just weren't available or were very expensive.
On the cars I've had where it's used, you almost always got a bit of leakage.
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Suerly Neoprene would be a good seal for a radio box
Dave
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I agree, there are far better materials to use as a seal, but I was just wondering (and asking) if anyone had used cork as a sealing material and what, if any, success they had with it.
(original question was: ''Has anyone used sheet cork for a seal, I wonder? If so, was it successful?'')
Rich
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I know it still isn't answering the original question but in car use those gaskets normally had sealant applied to each face and were generally single use. Most leakage was due to being too cheap to put a new one on :-)
So if your question relates to openings that are for regular use I'd say cork was virtually a non-starter.
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I recall it being used on a sub of some description, although I can't remember the details.
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Mike Dory, one of the frontiers of our hobby (here in the U.S.A.), used cork in his older subs. It was slathered in petroleum jelly then the box lid was bolted down. It worked. That was 14+ years ago, he had moved away from that to tubes and o-rings. So the simple answer is people DID use cork, but most people have moved away and protected their equipment with better products available today.
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Thanks Tom, I knew I'd read that somewhere...possibly in the All Submarine Special issue of Scale Ship Modeller I lent to Andy. I have an idea a chap called Ian Oldham over here in the UK used cork a couple of times as well. At least I know my memory is still functioning reasonably well...
Merry Christmas to you and yours, Tom...
Rich
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I've seen seals made of cork that had been soaked in oil for a few day first, this made them reusable and didn't leak to my knowledge. This was back in the seventies in a sub sailed in the lake at Verulanium, St Albans.
It would seem that the success of the seal was in part due to the large number of fixings used to hold the covers down, they seemed to be about 1 inch centres.
Paul.
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Looking at the above posts.
The cork isn't really the sealant. It just holds the sealant, be it oil or petroleum jelly.
A lot of neoprene isn't waterproof, wet suits absorb water.
If you are thinking of using neoprene make sure you get the waterproof type.
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Happy New Year all..
TT...."Neoprene" or "polychloroprene" sheet it self is totally water proof for/in the conditions discussed here and needs no additional external treatments to maintain the water proofing ability......
Various alternate synthetic [neoprene type] named materials have proved not to be totally impervious to water
It's like the old advertisement......'oils ain't oils Sol' :o
http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&sqi=2&ved=0CCsQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FNeoprene&ei=XrSkVL-EH4bd8AWShILACA&usg=AFQjCNEwsReeR28NTZEfpS9R78AsnDegkw
Derek
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OK
The reason I pointed it out that not all neoprene is water proof, is because not all neoprene is waterproof. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoprene
Some of the neoprene that modellers may be tempted to improvise with is of the open cell or semi-open cell variety. This is permeable to gas and water. I thought that it might be helpful to mention this.
The other helpful point that Derek pointed out is that there are Various alternate synthetic [neoprene type] named materials have proved not to be totally impervious to water" There might also catch some of us salvagers out, as they look the same.