Liquid Rubber vs West Systems

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Joey had luck getting his glass to sealing using LR. He coated the inside of the tank and then siliconed his glass is place. He got a seal but I am still not sure just how good the seal really was and he has sold the tank. As far as I know, that about the only build you will find on there where LR was used where the build is complete. I used LR on the inside of my tank, siliconed the glass in place, and then used LR over the silicone and onto the glass thinking I would have a great seal. Well, when I filled the tank I had a small leak and discovered that the LR pretty much fell off the glass and silicone. No bond at all. After that experience, I did some testing to see what stuck to what as far as LR goes. I found out that LR does not stick at all to silicone, after setting for over a month, my original glass still has damp LR on the silicone. I ran a bead of silicone over the cured LR, there was some minor adhesion but it was still easy to pull off. LR on glass was a joke, once the glass hits the water, the LR starts to fall off without a trace that it was ever there. I did get some very promissing results with LR, plexiglass and fiberglass resin. LR stuck very well to plexiglass, acrylics, and fiberglass resin. What I have had to do to get my tank viewing window to seal is to coat the inside of the viewing window frame with fiberglass resin. I will then silicone the glass to the resin and run LR over the resin up to the silicone. With luck, this will seal the window. LR is a great product but sealing the viewing window is not something that should be taken lightly. I will attempt to fill my tank in the next few weeks and will post the results. If you read through my thread on my build you will see my testing with LR with glorious photos! If you know of another build where LR was used please lead me that way. Oh, Pete's 4300 is using LR and he is using a hard rubber siliconed to his acrylic to bridge the silicone. This should work well if you have access to the hard rubber strips.
If I had to do it over again, I would go with Pond Armor! With my external bracing it would have been fine and getting the window sealed would have been much easier.
 
thanks for the info. I think i might go with the west systems just to be on the safer side, i dont think id have the patience to wait weeks for liquid rubber to cure....

So basically the fiberglass sheets are just to help for punctures etc...? and is basically not needed with west systems, has anyone made a ply tanks with just west systems and no fiber glass?

So can a 900 gallon tank 10X3x4 tank be made with the $150.00 west systems epoxy kit?
 
kwantz;4031993; said:
So can a 900 gallon tank 10X3x4 tank be made with the $150.00 west systems epoxy kit?
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How much resin and how much hardener comes in this kit?

Also, how big will you window cutout be?

Making some basic assumptions, I'll say your tank will have about 105 sq. ft. once the window opening is cut out. Does that sounds right?

And I'll assume your kit is a gallon of resin and a quart of hardener, or 1.25 gallons in total.

In theory that amount would coat a perfectly smooth surface to a thickness of about 19 mils.

19 mils of a high quality epoxy will waterproof a perfectly smooth surface but most plywoods are not perfectly smooth.

If it were me and my assumptions above are correct I'd order two kits. I'd talk to WS about partially thickening their epoxy to use as an adhesive during assembly in place of glue.

I'd also fully thicken it to make fillets in all the interior corners like Garhog did.

And yes, if it were me I'd put down a layer of cloth at least on the floor of the tank and probably fiberglass all the joints as well.

How much you have left over would depend on how rough the plywood is and how much fiberglass to use.

I think Garhog used quite a bit of epoxy on his build but he also used quite a bit of fiberglass. And he did use epoxy for the fillets on the interior corners.

Regarding Liquid Rubber, you would need about six gallons to do a tank that size. I think you could probably get away with five gallons, however. You'd be under 60 mils with five gallons but if you do the math it seems like some others here have gotten away with less than 60 mils.
 
I think the maybe Joey had success with the Liquid Rubber/Silicone/Glass sealing because they do bond well enough to hold in place long enough to fill with water. Once water is in the tank, the water pressure will hold the glass in place, and compress the silicone, making a water tight seal. But the bond is weak enough that you could pull the glass and silicone off the liquid rubber without too much trouble...
 
I built my tank with liquid rubber but had an acrylic window so I'm not that much help with the glass but does anyone know if silicone will bond to the paint that is made to be used with liuid rubber?
 
Is there a which particular brand/type paint that best to use with LR

Also I would recommend getting the sun shining on a LR coated tank as it drys completely differently with you get the sun shining on it, hard coating, no tackiness.

I tipped mine up on end on top of dolly wheels made to move a snowmobile around and rolled it in front of garage window and door for a few hours and next day completely dry and hard coated
 
Conner;4032863; said:
I think the maybe Joey had success with the Liquid Rubber/Silicone/Glass sealing because they do bond well enough to hold in place long enough to fill with water. Once water is in the tank, the water pressure will hold the glass in place, and compress the silicone, making a water tight seal. But the bond is weak enough that you could pull the glass and silicone off the liquid rubber without too much trouble...
Click to expand...

I think you might be right on this one. However, Joey did move his tank at least a couple times with no issues.
 
BadOleRoss;4033430; said:
I think you might be right on this one. However, Joey did move his tank at least a couple times with no issues.
Click to expand...

I think the bond is strong enough to hold the glass in place, even when empty, but not strong enough to hold it if you try to pull it off.

I don't know, I've never worked with the stuff, but that seems to be the impression I'm getting from what everyone else has posted about it...
 
Put it in the " SUN "

Roll it to a window or sit in door of garage

Stand tank on its end so it sticks up 8 ft or whatever in the air, with
some dolly wheels under it so its easier to move around.

The LR will heat right up, you will smell it, when you take it out of the sun
and cool down it will be a hard surface coating.

Phoned LR and was told the radiation in sun cures the surface, I was really surprised as to the difference a few hours in sun made.
 
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