Ideal bedding compound?

BCC Forum
1

Hi all,
I have always HATED 5200. Will not allow a tube near my boat. if you want to take something off/apart that has 5200 applied you have to blast (but good for a hull to deck joint). Although I hear from Mike at Anderson Boatworks that heating the object bedded with 5200 will soften it allowing easier removal.

I have run across and interesting alternative bedding compound, and can find no disadvantages to it. It’s called buytl tape. Read one comment where a boat owner was removing his genoa slide tracks that had been down for 30 years. No leaks and the buytl was still playable and sticky.

Found this great thread on it at http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gear-maintenance/47886-butyl-tape.html

I just bought a cartridge of it for $2.50 ( a cartridge of 5200 lists at 18.59 on Defender), but have ordered online the tape version. Seems like a very convenient way to use it.

2

Ahoy Gary , I too like the Butyl Tape, purchased my last roll at McMaster Carr.

Great stuff, but I still use a little 5200, here and there. Didn’t know that Butyl came in a cartridge ?

What I don’t like about 5200 is that when it dries, little air bubbles form in it, and when you use it as a bedding compound, and tighten down the bolts like on our verticle bulwarks stanchions, squeezing it out to a paper thin , those little air bubbles burst, creating little semi-circular cuts in the 5200.

I discovered this when I put some 5200 between two pieces of plexiglass and clamped them down, after drying time, opened up the joint to see the paper thin gasket had all these little semi circular cuts in it from the burst air bubbles.

This is probably one of the reasons that coverboard rot on my boat started under the base of the verticle bulwarks stanchions.

Douglas

3

Butyl is good stuff for a lot of things. I like putting a little right under the heads of any screws or bolts I’m installing above the waterline. My vote though is for Sika 290-LOT. A little lest tenacious than 5200. I try to let what ever I’m using set up under light tightening for about 1/2 - 2/3 the tack free time then crank down on the bolts after that.

Bryon

4

Has anyone tried mixing and matching? e.g. silicone to bed the piece of gear; once it sets, pull the fasteners back out and put them back in with 5200…

I like 5200 for fasteners.

I like silicone for gasketed seals.

polysulfide comes apart easy enough, but seems to allow capilary leask to early.

regards,
Jeremy

5

Ahoy Jeremy , you have been so very helpful to all of us on this forum, any chance that we can return that helpfulness , we will !

But , Gosh , your questions, are about mixing or matching different substances, to do different purposes . Each substance , has it’s own parameters !

Because you have sheppared this forum, from the start, you know this.

My discovery, eventhough it hurts, is that better manufacturing practices could have prevented , premature maintaince , on our boats , this is a subject, that could take months to sort out !

There is No Doubt, amongst us owners, we have the greatest sailing boats, and that they are built extreemly well ! , but they could have been built better, IMO !

Roger tried his best to sort these building things out, but he was thwarted in his effort , drats !

,and my bottom line, is that we can sail away from a disasterous lee shore, on our BCC’s , that would founder any less of a sailing vessel, so, many thanks to Llyle , for that !

What we have as BCC owners, is the best that today’s ocean going sailing boats can offer, and I know we are blessed, because we chose these boats !

Douglas

6

Ahoy,
The constant in all this, is that there are many ways to skin the cat. There are a few principles to learn, and after that, lots of variations possible.

We use 5200 where one of the parts is metal and can be heated. Boatlife polysulfide (not usually available in the Pacific SW) works OK where separation is a possibility in the not too distant future. Butyl sealant works great where separation is very likely in a few years. OK, silicon is great here and there–VERY flexible, but don’t use it near where you want to paint in the future. I’ve probably left out something important. 4200 is a possibility–we’ve used it, and Sikaflex makes equivalents of the 3M products that we’ve used in the Pacific SW, where 3M stuff wasn’t available (although it often was in Australia).
Dan

7

Hi all you misery lovers,

I should have remembered how the cosmos works. I just removed my bowsprit to modify for my new furler system, and guess what. My cranes iron was put on with 5200. WHY?
It sure as hell ain’t going any place with all the rigging attached to it. So why would anybody want to “glue” it on? Oh ya…probably thought they would never have to remove it. Just remember, never say never. I must remove the cranes iron to put the bowsprit traveler on. Been practicing my swearing all morning in preparation for the event.

Ok, I’ll agree that there maybe be some good applications for it on a boat. Well at least the hull to deck joint. But once I saw a boat that the external keel had to come off. It was bedded with 5200. They had removed the keel bolts and tons of lead were still attached to the boat. Try heating that for removal…LOL.

If something is mechanically attached I see no reason to use 5200, except where any extra strength my be desired, i.e. hull/deck. I just want an easily removable bedding compound that won’t dry out, remains flexible, and doesn’t shrink/leak.

Plus $2 vs $18 a cartridge is a no brainer also.

Please read the second to last post here 3m 5200 | Page 2 | SailNet Community by Maine Sail. It is excellent!

8

Gary,
A not uncommon cranse iron problem that I’ve seen (on non-BCC’s) is the metal cylinder digs in to the wood of the sprit that it buts up against. Some have welded a flange to the aft side of the iron to spread the load that bears on the wood. I suspect that SLM used 5200 to bed the iron so as to help prevent the iron from slipping aft and digging in to the wood. Some have welded a cap on the forward end of the iron, and stuck the star on the cap. The creep on Shaula has been minimal, but I check it from time to time.

Dan

9

Well i’m going to eat at least a few letters of my words. Dan you are correct. I can see the advantages of putting the cranes iron on with 5200. Gluing it in place so to speak.

So

ya ready

hang on

I’m going to use 5200 on Shanti!

boooooo!!!

ya ya I know…