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Thanks for the Proseal trick

TASEsq

Well Known Member
Patron
Just a quick thank you to Scott McDaniels and Van’s for the great fuel tank video.

It was released when I had only one rib to go on each tank but I thought I would try the fuel tube trick for applying Proseal on the shop heads. The only thing I did different was used a flared tube and since I had the sealant in a big syringe I just squeezed a little bit in the end of the tube each time.

Scott demonstrating the fuel tube trick

It worked great!

Thanks for the support Van’s. I’ll be following the baffle install section of the video after Christmas and looking forward to one on fuel tank leak testing!
 

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Outstanding video. Something about Scott’s voice, but I could listen to him all day long. Thanks for linking that video.
 
Just a quick thank you to Scott McDaniels and Van’s for the great fuel tank video.

You’re welcome.
By the way, are you mixing your sealant 10:1 by weight with a scale? It looks extremely dark, like it has way too much catalyst. Maybe it is just the tone of those photos.
 
kudos

Here is another one for Scott. Thanks for the video.
Last set of tanks I built was 28 years ago. Fine job but used almost the whole can of goop. Real messy but no leaks.
Just finished an RV-6 set two days ago. Yes I actually watched all of the video. Quite informing.
Some of your suggestions were very helpful. Oh ya I only used half a can this time. AND!!! I know that they will not leak.
Thanks Art
 
You’re welcome.
By the way, are you mixing your sealant 10:1 by weight with a scale? It looks extremely dark, like it has way too much catalyst. Maybe it is just the tone of those photos.

Hey Scott - yes 10 parts white and 1 part black. My first pint can was AC-350 which was a very dark grey color, but I could not source a can of that locally here so had to ring the bank manager and ask for a mortgage extension to get a couple of cans of PR-1440. This seems a bit lighter than the AC-350. It’s not black but a darkish grey.

In the photo below the root rib fuel pickup flange is AC-350 and the fillet and the fuel drain flange is the PR-1440 (slightly lighter color).

If you have 2 mins to bore yourself this post shows my process.
 

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I checked out your blog.. some photos look too dark, but one or two look like the right color. I call it "a little darker than ash gray". But it looks like you measured it correctly, with the following nitpicker's note:

I don't know how much popsicle sticks weigh, but they shouldn't be on the scale.. it does throw the measurements off a little (even if they're on the scale for both measurements. I doubt its measurable unless you're mixing small batches or have lead popsicle sticks:

Extreme example:

10g Part A + 5g of popsicle sticks = 15g scale reading.

Based on that, you'd try to add Part B until you got a 16.5g reading (15g/10 = 1.5g. 15g+1.5g=16.5g).

Obviously that is 0.5g too much (50% too much!).

If you had tare'd out the popsicle sticks and the plate at the beginning, then no problem at all.
 
1440 is different than the common 890 most use. I’ve used 1422, 1425, 1776, 1435 over the years, they all look different.
 
I checked out your blog.. some photos look too dark, but one or two look like the right color. I call it "a little darker than ash gray". But it looks like you measured it correctly, with the following nitpicker's note:

I don't know how much popsicle sticks weigh, but they shouldn't be on the scale.. it does throw the measurements off a little (even if they're on the scale for both measurements. I doubt its measurable unless you're mixing small batches or have lead popsicle sticks:

Extreme example:

10g Part A + 5g of popsicle sticks = 15g scale reading.

Based on that, you'd try to add Part B until you got a 16.5g reading (15g/10 = 1.5g. 15g+1.5g=16.5g).

Obviously that is 0.5g too much (50% too much!).

If you had tare'd out the popsicle sticks and the plate at the beginning, then no problem at all.

Thanks Rob - yes, I tare out a big and a small popsicle stick at the start.
 
1440 is different than the common 890 most use. I’ve used 1422, 1425, 1776, 1435 over the years, they all look different.

The trouble with being on the other side of the planet is procuring stuff like fuel tank sealant. Almost all the shops here use semkits and just charge them on to the client - even if 5 grams was needed.

The cheapest pint can here (can’t buy a quart can anywhere) was the 3M AC350 but the PR1440 was the only one I could get before Christmas - at $50 a pint more expensive. Oh well! It had the same milspec so my assumption was it was ok.

I hope I’ve not made a massive mistake! Because I just finished the baffles today!

As a side note - thanks again to Scott - I used the paper strip trick to remove the sealant out of the countersinks and what a great trick that is! I was using a deburring tool with a rag on the end to swirl in the hole, and it did work but basically spread the sealant onto the skin. Which had to be cleaned off before I used the squeezer - the paper strip trick was much much easier and faster than the way I was doing it. I got onto it after the first 1081 rivets but it was useful for the last 366! ����*♂️
 
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