Vern

Vern

Well Known Member
As a veteran of many quart cans of ProSeal, multiple rubber gloves, and tongue depressors with the resulting mess, I was pleasantly surprised in my first use of my hand-operated dispensing gun and a Proseal cartridge. Wow! I could have used it with no gloves on and in my best suit! A very neat application method.
 
The only way to go!. I just use the cartridge (don't have the gun) but between that, and a nifty little mixing attachment for my cordless drill that I made, it's WAY better than the quart method...
 
Timing on this is excellent as I am only days away from sealing my first tank. What is the technique with the gun, do you mix the proseal and load it in a cartridge, then squirt it out? Or do they sell preloaded cartridges?
 
I used this tool and cleanup is a breeze, remove the cartridge and toss in the hazardous waste disposal can. I recommend the old fashioned method for assembly e.g. tongue depressors to apply the muck to the ribs and this tool to do your sealing inside the tank or anywhere you can take advantage of using a full tube. You can buy empty tubes and fill them if you want to use that method (not fun or very easy). Using the tubes is a lot more costly. The Semco gun has great control for laying out a bead. Remember that once your all mixed up you have to use or loose the remainder of the batch. Get the mixing tool if your going this way...saves a ton of arm work.
 
Is there a difference between the semco gun and just buying the tubes and a penumatic calk gun?? I can't find a semco gun cheap!! Anyone in Dallas have one I can borrow when the time comes? :D
 
Pro Seal

Yep, those tubes of Pro Seal are expensive and there is a lot of waste. I'm sure the Semco guns do a wonderful job but why spend the bucks? Drop by your local hearing aid shop and for a couple bucks buy a few of the syringes they use to make ear molds. When ready, mix up what you need from your quart can of Pro Seal, load the syringe with a fat popcicle stick and apply. You will find the syringe is even easier to use than the gun because it is shorter and easier to get inside the fuel tank. When done, clean it or toss it. No big deal. Enjoy.
Bob
 
I bought the cans and mixed the size of batch for the job, and stuffed it into the tube. There is a plastic plunger that follows the sealant into the tube, put the tube into the can, secure the can lid and start laying beads.

Order several tubes and nozzles. When you are done with a mix, blow out the extra into the trash, if any, then push out the plunger. UNscrew the nozzle. Set the plunger, tube, nozzle aside. In a couple of days you can remove the proseal from all the plastic part by flexing them to break it loose. They can then be reused.

Or you can buy the ready to mix cartidges, but as said before, can creat a lot of waste.

When putting a dab on the shop head, move the nozzle in a swirling motion, encircling the head on all sides.
 
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Just finished up the pro-seal work today with the completion of the last tank. One thing I found different than posted, is cleaning your hands. Yes I know, we are supposed to use gloves but that's not me. I found that the Fast Orange hand cleaner washed the sealant right off, no problem. Sounds like I'm running a commercial for the product,ha!
Ron
 
Van's Gun Works Great

The gun from Van's http://www.vansaircraft.com/cgi-bin...95216-220-54&browse=tools&product=sealant-gun works fine with SEM cartridges. A nice feature it has is that when you let off on the trigger, it releases pressure on the plunger - not like a standard caulking gun where you have to fiddle with the extended rod on the plunger to keep sealant from continuing to ooze out after trigger release. It's cheap too! I bought empty cartridges and nozzles from McMaster-Carr and loaded them with sealant mixed from the quart can. It's really not that messy.
 
danielhv said:
Is there a difference between the semco gun and just buying the tubes and a penumatic calk gun??
Click to expand...

Yes - a Semkit has a rounded nose where the tip screws in. A caulk cartridge has a squared-off nose. Also slightly different diameters IIRC. They are not really compatible with each other. A pneumatic caulking gun will split the Semkit tube and make a huge mess, which will be difficult to clean up. Ask me how I know... :mad:

Different nozzles are available for the Semkits, including several widths of ribbon nozzles that will lay out a nice, flat ribbon of sealant.

The Yard has brand-new sealant guns pretty cheap. It's a good investment for a slow-builder, especially if you think you might be a repeat offender. Or you can sell it to another RV builder when you're done. Or, donate it to your EAA chapter as a "shop tool" for others to sign-out and use. It's less than $100 - isn't that like ONE aviation dollar?! :D


BJohnson - That's some FINE proseal work, gun or not! I work with some A&P's that can't even do it that well!
 
airbal

airguy said:
Timing on this is excellent as I am only days away from sealing my first tank. What is the technique with the gun, do you mix the proseal and load it in a cartridge, then squirt it out? Or do they sell preloaded cartridges?
Click to expand...


I have built 3 rv's and 2 of the 3 had leaky tanks due to my carelessness.
I suggest that the very best you can do is not any too good. clean all mating surfaces with sandpaper, clean dimples out by touching up with a machine countersink, clean rivets by dropping into a pint jar 1/2 full of mek.
apply proseal liberally. Go to the extreme to get all this right and good luck.

warren
 
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