BC Repair

[swimjim]

Last night I was given an early Dacor wrap around BC. Yeah, not quite vintage but pretty close. The guy who owned said it was his first one and he dove the you know what out of it. He said it no longer held air and was told it was unrepairable. So I had it on the bench this morning and got the inflator functioning. Somewhere along the line somebody replaced the original with a Scuba pro unit. Anyway, I hooked it up and inflated the BC and it seemed to hold air just fine. Hmmm...... I wiggled around the inflator hose and got a puff of air coming from where the hose goes into the BC. Okay, been there with USD horse collars. The bladder is probably dried cracked and shot. So I open it up and such is not the case. The bladder is nice and plyable. The glue had failed on the tube that the inflator hose goes onto. The bladder appears to be fine. If I was to attempt to save this thing, what would be the best glue to use? What sort of solvent could I use on the surfaces to be glued that won't harm the bladder? Thanks!

Jim

[Herman]

I have used Aquaseal (lot of it ) on old USD horse collars and actually have one that holds air.....although it looks like an Aquaseal add.

[antique diver]

I have used Aquaseal (lot of it ) on old USD horse collars and actually have one that holds air.....although it looks like an Aquaseal add.

Yep, Aquaseal is your best choice for a permanent fix on most BC bladders... But if you are talking about sealing the corrugated hose to the inflator or the elbow on the bladder, don't use Aquaseal if you ever plan to remove the hose! If you have a leak there use something like wetsuit cement or other fairly mild rubber cement.

[swimjim]

I have used Aquaseal (lot of it ) on old USD horse collars and actually have one that holds air.....although it looks like an Aquaseal add.

Yep, Aquaseal is your best choice for a permanent fix on most BC bladders... But if you are talking about sealing the corrugated hose to the inflator or the elbow on the bladder, don't use Aquaseal if you ever plan to remove the hose! If you have a leak there use something like wetsuit cement or other fairly mild rubber cement.

Aquaseal it is. Nope the hose gets a zip tie. Thanks for the resposes!

Jim

[Drado]

I'm assuming you're talking about the area where the elbow meets the BC? If the bladder around that area is intact, and your objective is repair, maybe a new elbow is in the offing - the type that comes in two parts to sandwich the bladder material in between.

Otherwise, Aquaseal it is!

[eskimo3883]

I would like to be able to repair vintage bladders. Anyone have a source for the heat sealable urethane bladder materuial sheet goods they make modern bladders out of?

[Drado]

IIRC that material is RF welded, and as such woud be difficult to fuse reliably using other methods.

[eskimo3883]

I was thinking the RF functioned to heat the RF active metal dies in contact with the areas to be welded. In this way heat is transmited only to the areas to be welded. I believe hand welding a seam would give the same but slower bondng strength. Very straighforward to find out if the sheet goods were available.