Cheap Gasket material

[Philldpapill]

Just curious - has anyone tried using silicone caulking, like the kind you use for sealing stuff in the bathroom? I got some at home depot, and made a mold for it. This mold is made out of plexiglass, and has surgical tubing stuck into it. The caulk has taken about a week to finally cure since it was sandwiched totally flat. Anyway, I took it out of the mold today, and it looks great! The tubing is going into the top of the mold itself, and another tube into the bottom. With this setup, I plan on totally eliminating any leakage currents. That's IF the stuff can hold up to the KOH and heat...

Anyone had experience with this technique? I haven't put the cell together yet, but it seems very strong, yet compressible... Very "springy" so I think it should make a nice tight seal.

[Humanoid_1]

Silicone tubeing:

A - Excellent
B - Good
C - Fair
D - Do Not Use

only gets a C with KOH
and a A with NaOH

I imagine a silicone gasket sealant would be a step down from that
and silicone caulking another step down...

+ is likely to shrink a little.

I will try and find something more definitive - FireFox just crashed badly and lost pages I was still reviewing, with some weeks of research some of which had not been saved as I thought yet.

[hhonewbie]

Just curious - has anyone tried using silicone caulking, like the kind you use for sealing stuff in the bathroom? I got some at home depot, and made a mold for it. This mold is made out of plexiglass, and has surgical tubing stuck into it. The caulk has taken about a week to finally cure since it was sandwiched totally flat. Anyway, I took it out of the mold today, and it looks great! The tubing is going into the top of the mold itself, and another tube into the bottom. With this setup, I plan on totally eliminating any leakage currents. That's IF the stuff can hold up to the KOH and heat...

Anyone had experience with this technique? I haven't put the cell together yet, but it seems very strong, yet compressible... Very "springy" so I think it should make a nice tight seal.

Have you tried an automotive caulking silicone. Try curing in a oven, hot water cupboard or in the sun it takes a while to cure depending on thickness although it might look dry on the outside the center might still be uncure

[Philldpapill]

I don't think my description was very clear. This gasket material will be compressed between plates. It's not just gooped in there and dried. As for the chemical stability, so far it looks good.... A cured sample has been sitting in a jar of KOH for over a week now, on a heat pad(>150°F). I suspect these are similiar conditions that it would face in an HHO cell. It cures fairly hard, so I think I could put a good bit of compression on it when I tighten down the cell.

And yes, hhonewbie, I've thought about "cooking" it in the oven for a while. The stuff SAYS it should set up in 3 hours in the open air, but of course that's BS. I'm going to let this stuff fully cure for 2 weeks before I pop it out of the mold.

[Owen_]

I don't think my description was very clear. This gasket material will be compressed between plates. It's not just gooped in there and dried. As for the chemical stability, so far it looks good.... A cured sample has been sitting in a jar of KOH for over a week now, on a heat pad(>150°F). I suspect these are similiar conditions that it would face in an HHO cell. It cures fairly hard, so I think I could put a good bit of compression on it when I tighten down the cell.

And yes, hhonewbie, I've thought about "cooking" it in the oven for a while. The stuff SAYS it should set up in 3 hours in the open air, but of course that's BS. I'm going to let this stuff fully cure for 2 weeks before I pop it out of the mold.

It seems you have a heating pad, that's a good way to cure is quicker.
Good luck, i look forward to hearing more!