Adventures in Silicone
A sure fire recipe for disaster:
One brand new lightweight tent
Tent seams that are not sealed
Silicone tent sealer
Plastic syringe for applying seam sealer
Mix all of the above on the living room floor of one small apartment full of cat hair.
They make seamless bras, seamless digital maps, seamless Photoshop patterns, seamless corporate transition teams so why can't somebody make a seamless tent. Knowing I had to face the Herculean task of sealing the seams of my new tent sooner or later I scheduled this past weekend for the job. The first evening went well enough. I filled the syringe with silicone and was able to more or less draw a bead of waterproofing along the seams. Then I went back and filled in some missed spots with a paintbrush. It was tiring work and halfway done I'd had enough for the day as I was getting too tired and careless. I cleaned up the syringe with water as best I could. After all how do you get a sticky, plasticky substance out of a syringe? I was able to push water through it so I figured it was clean enough. Somehow I thought all the little threads of silicone still in the syringe would just stay stuck to the sides not be pushed out the nozzle causing a clog. The next day, feeling confident from my prior success I squeezed a whole lot of silicone into the syringe and started to work. Only the plunger couldn't be pressed down without all the strength of my arms against. And then only a small thread of silicone emerged. I cut the tip off the nozzle. Hoping that's where the clog was. It wasn't. But how do you unclog a syringe filled with sticky goo? You can't. So I pulled out the plunger to try to dig the silicone out and apply it with a paintbrush. The stuff got everywhere - all over my hands, in my hair, everywhere except on the seams. But I couldn't waste the silicone so I just kept going continuing with the mess. This is the point in a project where I would usually quit and just sit back and cry. But I couldn't waste the silicone, I had to continue. I cursed out my ex-husband, I can usually blame things on him, because honestly if the jerk hadn't left me I wouldn't be sitting here in my wonderful California apartment, with my very expensive tent about to go on a dreamy trip to the Sierras, with gunk all over me. No, I'd be sitting in Minnesota, dreading the winter and getting ready to go on some wet, buggy trip to northern Wisconsin. I felt so much better, I continued and somewhat messily finished the seam. I then managed to get the syringe completely unclogged, ordered more sealer and am ready to start again. Stay tuned for an update on the finished tent next weekend.
One brand new lightweight tent
Tent seams that are not sealed
Silicone tent sealer
Plastic syringe for applying seam sealer
Mix all of the above on the living room floor of one small apartment full of cat hair.
They make seamless bras, seamless digital maps, seamless Photoshop patterns, seamless corporate transition teams so why can't somebody make a seamless tent. Knowing I had to face the Herculean task of sealing the seams of my new tent sooner or later I scheduled this past weekend for the job. The first evening went well enough. I filled the syringe with silicone and was able to more or less draw a bead of waterproofing along the seams. Then I went back and filled in some missed spots with a paintbrush. It was tiring work and halfway done I'd had enough for the day as I was getting too tired and careless. I cleaned up the syringe with water as best I could. After all how do you get a sticky, plasticky substance out of a syringe? I was able to push water through it so I figured it was clean enough. Somehow I thought all the little threads of silicone still in the syringe would just stay stuck to the sides not be pushed out the nozzle causing a clog. The next day, feeling confident from my prior success I squeezed a whole lot of silicone into the syringe and started to work. Only the plunger couldn't be pressed down without all the strength of my arms against. And then only a small thread of silicone emerged. I cut the tip off the nozzle. Hoping that's where the clog was. It wasn't. But how do you unclog a syringe filled with sticky goo? You can't. So I pulled out the plunger to try to dig the silicone out and apply it with a paintbrush. The stuff got everywhere - all over my hands, in my hair, everywhere except on the seams. But I couldn't waste the silicone so I just kept going continuing with the mess. This is the point in a project where I would usually quit and just sit back and cry. But I couldn't waste the silicone, I had to continue. I cursed out my ex-husband, I can usually blame things on him, because honestly if the jerk hadn't left me I wouldn't be sitting here in my wonderful California apartment, with my very expensive tent about to go on a dreamy trip to the Sierras, with gunk all over me. No, I'd be sitting in Minnesota, dreading the winter and getting ready to go on some wet, buggy trip to northern Wisconsin. I felt so much better, I continued and somewhat messily finished the seam. I then managed to get the syringe completely unclogged, ordered more sealer and am ready to start again. Stay tuned for an update on the finished tent next weekend.
Labels: camping
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