Reusing an RTV Gasket
Posted: May 20th, 2019, 12:10 am
I am making a craft from primarily 3d printed parts. The 3d printed hull contains all of the electronics.
This hull is basically a tub and a lid. They meet at a somewhat flat perimeter surface that will be held together with small wood screws every 15mm. The issue is that this meeting/sealing surface is not perfectly smooth. It has 2 main types of imperfections:
-Slight warping. One area has up to a 0.5mm gap while the rest mates better.
-Micro-ridges. There are very fine ridges that traverse the seal line. I am afraid these could become tunnels for water.
My use case:
I will be using my craft in the ocean but only down to around 2 meters or less. So pressure should not be an issue.
I like the idea of RTV silicon or a similar home formed gasket. I like this because I think it could form to the weird shape of my seal surface.
The downside is that I want to open up the hull frequently. I would prefer not to form a new gasket every time.
Is is possible to reuse a dried RTV silicon gasket? Maybe I could spray thin oil to one of the surfaces so it would only adhere to the other surface?
Or are there soft enough rubber gaskets to handle this? Are there other options for gaskets I should know about?
Thanks in advance for any info!
This hull is basically a tub and a lid. They meet at a somewhat flat perimeter surface that will be held together with small wood screws every 15mm. The issue is that this meeting/sealing surface is not perfectly smooth. It has 2 main types of imperfections:
-Slight warping. One area has up to a 0.5mm gap while the rest mates better.
-Micro-ridges. There are very fine ridges that traverse the seal line. I am afraid these could become tunnels for water.
My use case:
I will be using my craft in the ocean but only down to around 2 meters or less. So pressure should not be an issue.
I like the idea of RTV silicon or a similar home formed gasket. I like this because I think it could form to the weird shape of my seal surface.
The downside is that I want to open up the hull frequently. I would prefer not to form a new gasket every time.
Is is possible to reuse a dried RTV silicon gasket? Maybe I could spray thin oil to one of the surfaces so it would only adhere to the other surface?
Or are there soft enough rubber gaskets to handle this? Are there other options for gaskets I should know about?
Thanks in advance for any info!