I can gladly report back on a couple of things after getting some work done. Keep in mind that the numbers below are for an H10 pentayurt.
First, I *highly* recommend using foil tape on the edges. It made the process of gluing things together a dream. I used 3" tape that I had until I ran out, and then bought replacement 2" at ~$8 per 60 yard roll. I used 2.25 rolls to do everything and now have some to take out with me for repairs. I also used a specialized form of DAP contact cement - DAP Weldwood HHR Landau. It worked AWESOME! Super quick to tack, and produces an immediately strong bond between the RMAX and the vinyl. I was able to find a local auto interior shop to sell it to me for $15/qt. I'm not done with all the seams I need to do but overall it has worked beyond my expectations. The important thing to note about this is that it is designed specifically to bond vinyl to anything and have high heat resistance. So, there wasn't any heat/disfiguring of the vinyl for me using this. I attached the vinyl basically in the same way shown in the video wiki for this. I ended up not using a hand roller - the vinyl seemed to go on pretty flat and although the adhesive isn't super pretty, the bond seems to be even throughout the vinyl. On Wednesday, July 23, 2014 8:12:25 PM UTC-6, Jacob Rodriguez wrote: > > Hey Brusier! I'd be glad to help! > > 1. Yeah, I don't see why not. If it's the kind of foil tape that I'm used > to, it has that sticky paper backing, yeah? My only concern would be that > the foil *could* maybe, might, potentially come loose-ish; whereas masking > tape or similar is a single layer. But that's a small concern, and a really > big IF. Since the point of pre-taping is to avoid having to apply cement > directly to the foam; as long as you have a higher vinyl-to-rmax contact > than you do vinyl-to-tape, then you should be good. I suspect the foil on > the tape is probably as good as the foil on the rmax, and that holds just > fine. We even swapped out the masking tape at one point for all-weather > duct tape and that also did the job. > > 2. I wanted to have at least 2 inches of contact on each side of the gap > so I used 4" wide strips for the tight hinges and 7" wide strips for the > loose hinges. My boards were 1.5" thick, so that's where the extra 3" went. > After pre-taping, I had about 1.75" of direct vinyl-to-rmax contact and > sometimes even closer 2" because of the mitered edge being nearly as wide > as my tape. > > 3. If you can do it, I would do it. Even though the application is more > involved, you are essentially making a strong thick "tape". Wherever you > would have thought of using tape, VCC will be a good, more permanent > solution. The doors on my dome were hinged with vinyl and they worked > really well. The great thing about vinyl is that you can choose different > thicknesses to suit your needs, and many are nearly crystal clear, perfect > for windows. > > 4. Definitely buy a few yards and cut it really long. That's what I would > do if I were you. While it's not entirely frowned upon to use two pieces > end to end, you'll need to note that when you pull off any BFT that you > *do* end up using, it will be tricky to not pull up the second strip of > vinyl a little. Contact cement can be stronger than the adhesive of BFT, > but not always, especially if it was tape that didn't have a lot of > exposure. > > 5. Yeah, a hand roller would be brilliant! I'd still recommend to brush on > the contact cement, wait a couple mins, then unroll a strip of vinyl onto > it, but we did spend a lot of time using our finger nails or glass bottles > to press down the vinyl. A little 2-3" hand roller just might be my next > bit of gear in my dome maintenance kit. Thanks for the reminder! You'll > almost never get all the bubbles out because the glue will be very very > tacky. Slowly unrolling the vinyl onto a tacky glue surface is your best > chance at fighting lots of bubbles. Any that do form will likely go away as > the cement cures. > > As for the contact cement coming loose, YMMV. Mine hasn't yet and it's > just about to be 1 year old, having only ever seen 8 days of sun last year. > The contact cement now has a "tan" and is a bit more "Pacific Islander" > than "cat pee yellow", but feels just as strong as the day I put it on. The > dome only needs small maintenance (due to careless tape cutting/removal) > but has no issues otherwise. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hexayurt" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to hexayurt+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to hexayurt@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hexayurt. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
